mountain bike opinions.

[oreo_n2]

shit. i totalled my mountain bike last night. i keep forgetting you cant lean a mountain bike like you can a motorcycle, but thats besides the point.

to all the pedaller's around here... what do you think of Specialized Rockhopper F1 and Giant XTC (NRS3 or se2)... either of them in a hardtail configuration?

[benVFR]

Did you crack the frame or break the fork?

If not you can probably just rebuild it...

I'd be interested to hear more details... I've never crashed on pavement but I've crashed many, many times offroading and never really damaged anything major on my MTB. In the current road conditions if you want to corner hard, you really need to hang off the bike and try and keep the bike as upright as possible. (Also depends on the profile of your tires)

I have test rode the Giant XTCs many times (my brother worked at a shop that sells them) and really love that frame. The NRS has rear suspension... the SE2 or whatever is the one without.. I have a Giant right now, those would be on my short list. (Probably the one with rear suspension so I'd have something different)

I can't tell which Rockhopper you're talking about... but I assume you mean one of the hardtails?

All of these models you mention are primarily light bikes intended for XC racing as opposed to a "recreational" frame. You're a pretty big guy, if you intend to be using it for jumping and more extreme stuff you may want to look at a "Freeride" bike. (Say if you want to be able to jump down ledges much beyond 1-2ft ) If you want it to go fast on trails, be able to climb uphill quickly, and get in shape the XC bikes are the way to go. You may find the XC bikes harder to wheelie if that's something you're interested in, usually you set these bikes up with extreme forward weight like a sportbike so they won't wheelie when you're climbing steep hills.

If you go with full suspension remember the maintenance is much higher and people crack the frames much more often.. may not be a problem for you cause you're already clued-in about maintenance.

Ben

[oreo_n2]

i dont think the budget can afford a full suspension. my roomate got a NRS2 and that thing is sweet, but pricey.

i slid out in some half frozen/half thawed grass going down hill pretty quick, right handlebar hit first, but the the wheel couldn't turn and the bolt that goes through the top neck down to the fork snapped.... pain in the ass (and shoulder).
plus there are many many other prob's with this bike... wheels, shifter, cranks, tires.. blah blah so i am thinking just upgrade rather than dump all that money into this old POS. i just ride around town and through parks each morning before going to work right now, so i was looking at the hard tail XC frames. i am not a big ledge jumper or anything like that and i dont like road bikes. plus i could take this on trails around the area when i get my ass back in shape. for the money, the special ed bike gets reviewed with the best components and stuff. i dont know how to grade that crap, but i am skeptical about the fork, the manitou shock only had pre-load adjustment, and the springs compressed under my weight pretty easily.. can the springs be made stiffer or anything?

[oreo_n2]

Originally posted by JCzx12
Specialized are cool, especially for you, because you can remove the 'iz' and then it says "special ed"

ooooh ooh ooh. watch out for JC.
Master of phsycology!!!!


Ding Fries Are Done!!!!

[twrayinma]

"now i laugh as i count bugs, i give strangers GREAT BIG HUGS!"

[benVFR]

If you broke the steerer tube on the fork that sounds like a good excuse for a new bike.

If you can test ride them both, do that, make sure the shop will set the fit up for you as carefully as possible, that makes a huge difference in the handling... bigger than almost anything else and that should be by far your #1 criteria.

The most important components IMO are the tires & brakes. After that the order would be Wheels, cranks, shifters/brake levers, and finally deraiullers. The deraiullers don't matter that much if you have good levers and learn how to tune them yourself. Expensive deraiullers that are not adjusted correctly are no better than cheap ones.

The Giant in this case looks like it has the better brakes. Avids are good and the SD3s are the entry level ones in their top of the line setup, the upper level Shimano brakes are good too, but the lower level Shimano ones are not as good, and it looks like the specialized is not giving you the good ones. If you want Shimano brakes get XT or XTR, they look very different than the cheaper ones as they have a parallelogram linkage as opposed to a straight bar.

Both bikes look like they have fairly shitty tires for the east coast... I'd replace the front tire with a 26x2.1" or bigger on either one I think, very quickly.

You can get stiffer springs for most of the forks, it's cheap and very easy to swap them out. I did it, on mine you just unscrewed the preload cap pulled the fork apart, and stuck in the new springs. I got my springs from White Bros.

My next one I'm buying the frame and components seperately... you can save a lot that way and get what you want.

Ben

[Quigs]

Originally posted by JCzx12

My thoughts exactly.

[oreo_n2]

i went with the specialized rockhopper... sweet bike. got a great deal from north shore cycles.
I took it to the Medford Fells yesterday just to make sure its cool, there is some sweet riding over there, mud and all.

[benVFR]

Dude be careful in the Fells...

It is mud season right now, one of the worst in years, and New England Mountain Bike Association has put out a call for us to stay off the trails for a month or so due to potential for trail damage...

Only reason I mention this is the fells is by far the most politically hot spot for Mt. Biking right now in New England. Any day now it's going to get banned totally if people aren't careful.

There have also been reports of trip wires, nails in boards, etc.. being stuck in the fells by angry hikers.. over the years.

Have fun on the new bike and if you want to go sometime out in Great Brook (Carlisle) or up in NH let me know. There are some awesome Nemba trails out there that stay in great shape even during mud season.

Ben

[oreo_n2]

good to know. i was not aware.

hey do you know of any trails up by exit 45 on 93 North. right near my office a guy at work mentioned there is some good riding around some utility lines or something like that. i dont know anything about it though.

[benVFR]

Nope... I mostly stick to places I can ride too from work or home... I dislike having to stick the bike in the car unless the trails are mind-blowingly good.

NEMBA built most of the Trails in Great Brook Farm State Park, and they built a ton around Lake Massabesic in Manchester, NH, those are the two wildest places I've gone in, they do fantastic trails.

I haven't been in the Fells, it just sounds wacked... check out this page for the most extreme example of tree-hugging quackery...

http://www.wheeled-locusts.org/

They haven't really been able to prove that mountain bikers did the damage... I've never seen a hiker who didn't widen the trail by walking around mud, etc.. and bikes really don't dig up terrain unless you're clueless and lock your back brake downhill, etc.. Not to mention horses and the 2-foot deep holes they leave when it's muddy. The soil is rocky in New England, all trails are eventually going to wear down to rock. I guess these people never tried to dig a post-hole or plant a garden.

Ben

[Rye]

I would go with a frame you can fix in a muffler shop. I downhilled Mt. Snow a couple of years ago and wiped hard. Bent the rear stay bigtime. Brought it back to the shop had the mech. bend the stay back with some special tool, new rear deraileur and off and running. Chrome moly.....heavy but bomb proof, Reynolds tubing is your best bet. Ti is the best but pricey. Frame is most important. Fix and replace components as they break, it's just a bike and never worth the dough.

Anyone ever try Lynn Woods???? My stomping ground. I've tried most places and I still think it's got some of the sickest terrain. Of course MTB'ing has taken a backseat to the bike (and so hasn't my diet...LOL) but I still plan on getting out there to burn some of this baby fat.

[PinHead]

I have a Gary Fisher Z1 that collects more dust since the Ducati came around
That was sweet in the woods, yes I did ride alot at one time but never downhilled up north. There is a place in Milford (right off 495)called "Vietnam" that starts under the powerlines and branches off into a bunch of diff. style trails, there is a shitload of technical rock stuff that I loved.

[benVFR]

NEMBA (New England Mountain Bike Association) is trying to buy Vietnam..

I need to go ride there this year since I gave a donation last winter... it would just be so sweet for the group to actually own an amazing group of trails.

Buy Vietnam

Ben