Any mountain bike/trail/freeride guys here?
 

I'll be heading to college in the fall and want a good bike to commute around campus with. There is also several lakes in the surrounding area all with good riding trails that i have ridden before.

I used to ride park BMX, so i have riding experience.

I found a cannondale chase and a motobecane 700ds on craigslist, both asking $500. I've done some homework on the two, and they both seem like solid lower-end bikes that are great for entry to intermediate level riding. The cannondale is a hardtail, while the motobecane has a full suspension. Being from a BMX background, i like the feel of hardtails alot over full suspension bikes.

Anyone here ride or have some input?

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/9...0117165522.jpg

Ride that bike to class twice a week. I got it for almost $400 a few months ago. It's a really nice bike. It has a lockout switch on the front suspension so you can turn it off for road riding. You can also get this model with disc brakes.

I ride 30+ miles per week around campus on my bike. One thing is for sure, you'll appreciate a hardtail bike after you start putting that many miles on it. I had a full suspension bike for one semester and got rid of it. The suspension sucks up a lot of your effort to make the ride smoother by putting less power to the ground. So you work harder for nothing, IMO.

I ride a GT Transeo. As long as the tires are full, it rides easy as hell...takes very little effort to get anywhere.

If you can manage it, get a used aluminum road bike off craigslist for a commuter.

You can get a mountain bike later if you really end up enjoying the ride. You can pick up 26" bikes pretty cheap these days because everyone is ditching them for 29er's. Personally, I would just get a 29er with the intention of upgrading along the way. If you really get into it, nothing feels better than a properly set up light bike with nice parts. You just stop wanting to ride it onto campus when the bike is over $1000....

If you only want to know about the 2 listed, I would pass on them both. Cheap full suspension bikes are not worth your time. I had a Motobecane 400HT that I replaced the frame on (3 times) because of a crack in the same spot. And I've never really cared for Cannondale, but that bike does seem like the BMX-type.

If it will kill you to lose $500, I wouldn't bring a bike like that to college campus though....

Freshman year I rode a Motobecane 400HT
Sophmore year I rode a Specialized Hardrock Single Speed
Junior and Senior year I rode a Specialized Allez (Road bike)

I have this one. I like it a lot. Its not the cheapest but its a great bike. I'm a pretty big dude so have the larger frame and 29" tires just looks better. Most people can't tell its a 29er.
But yeah for a commuter bike it sucks to have to make sure its locked everywhere and worry about it.

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/...cname=Mountain

Well, i picked up the cannondale Chase. Came with some "street" tires and knobby trail tires. Also came with a second seat and post.

Only downside is that the guy ordered it as a fixed gear. It can be converted back to multi-speed with a gear-set and derailer and such for pretty cheap.

Went riding on a local trail with a buddy to test it out and ended up seeing the guy I bought it from there riding his Specialized. I sure got a workout riding with them since it's a fixed gear. Bike felt very solid on jumps and drop-offs.

Paid $450 for it plus the extras.

Rode about 8 miles of trails and hills. DAMN my thighs hurt!

I can honestly say I'm happy with the bike. Several people at the trail-head said they'd never seen anything like it, and were impressed.

I'm mainly into jumps and drops, which is what this bike is built for. The headtube is MASSIVE and should hold up very well. It has upgraded hubs, fork, and reworked disk brakes.

ME LIKEY :D

pics or gtfo!

pichas

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../WP_000164.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../WP_000168.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c2.../WP_000170.jpg

looks pretty sick dude. how much does it weigh

Nice choice man. If you used to ride BMX, then I would say the small frame hard tail you have there will suit you. I used to ride a BMX and I wanted something a little more forgiving and easier to ride some distance with. I bought a Giant STP2 a few years back, in the small frame version (14") and it is my favorite bike so far.

scale reads different every time i step on it. roughly 32 pounds i think. My BMX bike is around 27 pounds and it almost feels heavier than this Cannondale.

The main reason i jumped on this deal is the frame geometry. Short, compact, BMX like frame geometry, low bottom bracket. Just feels very much like what I'm used to from park riding. I really wanna put the street tires on it and take it to the skatepark and ride some bowls!

I rode my buddy's new rockhopper, and a full suspension XC bike. Couldn't stand the feel of them. They feel bulky and like I don't have enough control over it.

I had a eastern for a while that was a really fun bike to just mess around on! Fun for stair gaps on campus and do some short distance ridding. I never go into the whole trail ridding with this bike but it was fun for what we called urban assault (mostly drops to flats and using man made walls and stairs to have fun with.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...Picture001.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...Picture004.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...Picture002.jpg

I also got a haro Shift series and upgraded everthing on the bike as it broke :D Swapped everything but the rear shock(it took a beating). I used this bike for mostly trail and bigger drops 5+ ft. Its fun for a full suspension and has a nice ride on the trails. I have changed everything and kept it right around 38lbs so it can still be ridden for some xc.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...o/fc2f2917.jpg
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c9...o/a4df26dc.jpg

I've been wantin a mtn. bike for a long time. I used to ride just for fun yr. ago on a 10 spd. (it was my older bros.) lite as heck for it's day or perhaps now, designed for competition. Rode like a dream & I could fly on that bike. I use to do 10 mile trips to the lake & back quite often. Heck, even on my small 20" bike I went 8 miles each way to my friends (16 ttl) or rode to school 4 mi. (8 ttl) each way. I was sore as shit when I took it for a 22 trip up a lot of hills. :buttkick:

So I like long distance, not huge jumps or catchin 6' of air like some of y'all. I do wanna play a little like a mtn. bike is intended.;)

Fast fwd present day. I've looked at hardtails & full susp. too. Hopefully next yr. I can get one I want. Jake, u gave me something to think about. :hmmm:

Cause I was learning toward a susp. bike. I might need a rethink after your post, cause good bikes aren't cheap, & I'd hate to find out afterward. But I want it to take whatever I throw at it, whether it's 10 minutes or 10 miles. Cause I know once I get it, I'll be ridin the shit outta it. :D

Your going to love that bike comming from a BMX back ground. I have a smilar style bike (urban assult) Specialized P3. I love it! I do more street riding (stairs, jumps, just messing around) than off road trail riding with it. I have gone on the trails with it and it rides great! The only down side is the handle bars a pretty wide on it. Much wider than my old GT Timberline it repaced. Mine has a 9 speed gearset in the back with a fixed gear front sprocket. It has all the gears I need! Here is a picture (not mine...im at work and don't have pics at this time)

http://www.automation-drive.com/EX/0...p3p3p3p3p3.JPG

I would LOVE a P bike, but DAMN they're EXPENSIVE!!!!

Had my eye on a P bike for a loooong time. But this Cannondale was the right price :)

i ride my bike with no hanle bars lol

yeah.....money was good at the time I bought it. Not so much now. :cry: That cannondale is going to work perfect for you. Definatly try to put a decent gear set and derailer on the back with nice rapid fire style shifter. No grip shifters for off road or urban street riding! :judge: It will then become basically a BMX with gears and suspention. These style bikes can really take a beating!

I have a set of off road tires that are pretty heavy and noisy when street riding so to help out with distance riding I bought a different set for road/hard packed dirt use. Specialzed Hemisphere tires are some nice pucnture resistant 1.95x26" tires that have great traction on pavement. I can cut pretty hard when moving at a good clip. Much lighter than the 2.25's that came on it. Plus the soft compounded off road tires wear quickly on the street.






:headbang::headbang::headbang::jest:

I have a 98 Klein Attitude Pro that I used to ride a ton of trails with, but haven't hopped on it much lately, been working too much. I had a Trek Y33 set up for downhill, Trek 9800 hardtail, and an Elf bmx bike, but sold them all over the years. The Klein is a stiff bike with a long top tube, but really quick on the single tracks. And at 21 pounds, you feel every bump you hit.

I'll post up a pic of the Klein and maybe still have some of the other bikes somewhere.

I was thinking that the whole way through reading this thread :jest:

Some more good info.

Here I was goin for a light bike, cause I figured it'd mean less mass, easier to move out. Never thought of it bein a disadvantage being so light that bumps are nasty. :hmmm:

Ya, I was hoping u could post a few pics of the Klein. The I read the last line of quote. :emb: :lol:

Or even the Treks, Tex. :D

I need to throw on the street tires he gave me and see how they ride. They're a lot wider than the knobby dirt tires are too.

I have a specialized p1a1 converted to 9speed. I love it. I don't ride it anymore though... never have time...

The girlfriends bike
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/a...0317225553.jpg

My bike
http://i844.photobucket.com/albums/a...0317225446.jpg

I would have to say. If you love doing 35 ft gaps and giant drops. A freeride/downhill bik is good. Not so much for cumuting. And using for transportation.
Plus you don't wona take a bike like charcoal03silvys to school. Bc when you get ready to ride it home. It won't be there

A light bike is going to feel much quicker on the trails, but a heavy, full suspension bike will be much easier to ride. If I wanted to cruise around on the trails and hit some downhill sections, I would take my Y33 (26lbs) with Spinergy wheels, downhill fork and hydraulic brakes; if I wanted to fly around the trails and be comfortable but quick, I would ride the Trek 9800 (24lbs) which is a carbon fiber hardtail with decent componentry (XT), so the frame was pretty forgiving. For racing and technical switch backs, the Klein (21lbs) is perfect, but with thin-walled gradient aluminum frame, XTR, SID fork and Crossmax wheels, it is far from bomb-proof and extremely stiff, but by far the quickest bike I have ever ridden. It's all what you want out of a bike: fun, comfortable all-around trail/freeride bike (full susp), fast but comfortable trail bike (relatively light, non-stiff frame hardtail), or all out race bike that flies around the trail and feels as nimble as an F1 car, (superlight, stiff frame hardtail). For me, it would be the difference between a Porsche Cayenne S, Carerra S, and a GT3; all fun vehicles, but all have different purposes.

Haven't found any pics of the Treks, but here is a pic of the Klein...

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/d...5/3004d472.jpg

This is pretty much exactly my Trek, except it had a Judy DH fork and a yellow frame. But the brakes, wheels, tires, rear shock and frame are spot on.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/treky33dmc/3067037441/