Windsor Brand Mountain Bike?

Im looking to buy an entry level bike for a reasonable price and hopefully decent qaulity for light trail riding,dirt trail type stuff nothing hardcore,I need to start getting some kind of Cardio routine in my life. Ive been to a good web site called Bikesdirect.com and they have a Mountain Bike on sale called Windsor Ghost Model 6900 and 6500 Full suspension type for $500 on sale with free shipping to US and also Windsor Model Cliff 4500 front suspension on sale $350 free shipping. Any one familiar with the brand and dealing with Bikesdirect? Is it a good cost effective alternative to buy online or should I bite the bullet pay a little more on a Trek or other brand from a local shop,any suggestions from Bikers are welcome.

 

AT that price range I'd definitely avoid full susp., the components would have to be extremely low end and heavy to come in at 500$. Many times in mags and online you'll read that beginners should start with hardtail to build skills and to make sure your gonna enjoy and stick with it. If you do u can always sell later on and upgrade. If you seriously want fs probably need to look in 1500$ price range to get decent parts

 

If your just getting started I highly recommend you go visit a bicycle shop and get fitted. What I mean by that is that not all bikes are created equally. They do have different sizes for different people. They will be the best and they can probably direct you on the right bike. Now, they may not have the cheapest bike, but at least by that point you can walk away with a better knowledge as to what is the right bike for you.

 

not familiar with that brand. I would stick with a hard tail for light trail riding, it will be stronger built, less moving parts to deal with and its just simpler. The advantage of a local shop is getting yourself fit to the bike and not going on sizing. Being new to the sport i would sit in a few at the shop and see what fits. then u can always take that info elsewhere for your purchase.

 

Definitely visit a bike shop. you could buy a bike online, and get it and hate it.
I picked up a Trek 4300 with disk brakes in the spring for $600.
It's a hard tail.
I bought it because I to was looking to get back into the sport. and didn't want to drop over $1,000 on something i wouldn't ride.
It's an ok starter bike. I took it for a ride with some advanced riders (for which i lasted a whole 30 minutes before my legs were rubber) on some trails not far from home.
the frame is solid, the derailleurs skipped a bit on inclines. but i knew what i was getting into. I can upgrade components as i go. but it is cheaper to buy a bike with a better group, and components, than to upgrade later.

 

Back in the early 80s, I had a decent Windsor Road bicycle with campy components but it was associated with the Lotus bike mfg & a road bike. It was the first real bike I dumped $$$ on & I think it cost $800 back in the day. Lotus stopped marketing that brand at some point.

I have read on the road bike forums that BikesDirect owns the name now (also Motobecane) & markets/warrantees bikes sold online. There is a love/hate feeling about this. Most seem to buy & change stuff out.

Personally, I agree with the comments to go get fitted at a shop. You want to be comfortable on the bike otherwise in my experience it won't get used, it makes you get hurt, the component will break & then you stuck dealing with the warranty shipping aspect. Your call though.

I have an Trek 4900 hard tail now. Looking to sell that and actually get a more hybrid cruiser for more hard pack back country roads as opposed to trail riding. Whatever you buy, have fun!

 

Bikesdirect actually sells bikes with good components but crappy frames. My dad has a motobecane hybrid road/mountain bike and its not bad. It has nice components. Most people buy them and ditch the frame for a better frame.

You don't need a full suspension starting out. I would just get a hard tail. I personally like a hard tail better than a full suspension. I see a lot of guys that go out and spend 1500-2000 on a nice full suspension for their first bike. You will never be able to tell the difference when you are first starting out

Whats your budget?

My first mountain bike was a trek 3400 entry level mountain bike. I paid $350 for it I think. I upgraded last year to a Trek 6000, got it for $700 on closeout ($900 reg price) back in Dec 2009 because they were bringing the 2010 year models in.

 

Thanks for this great insight and responses,it seems good Bikes are like Tacomas you got to pay a little more for the best bang for the buck! My brother in law has a TREK for years looks like a hard tail Mountain or a Hybrid might be the ticket. Theres lots of bike shops around I also have a Schwinn shop that I bought bikes from since I was a kid,do they make reasonable Mountain bikes,back in the day they made some pretty good bikes I dont hear too much about them anymore. Mostly TREK ,Cannondale and other custom bikes. Thanks for the quick responses.

 

Don't get to hung up on brands and stuff. Go to a shop and buy a bike that fits YOU and it suitable for the type of riding YOU do. Most brands all have the same components and similar frames so you are just paying for a sticker on the frame when you get into the big names.

Go demo a few bikes and see which one you like the best. Many of the local bike shops around here have demo days at some of the trails around here once a month. On those days you can demo a bunch of different bikes at once vs. demo'ing one at a time from the shop.

Schwinn kinda "sold out" when they started selling bikes at the big box stores

 

Honestly Id like to keep it $600 or under its more of an recreational get off my ass and get the heart pumping outdoor activity. I lost my job and have been very inactive for almost a year started a push up situp routine to try to get motivated and get my head out of my butt a little,excercise has good physcological benes I need I think getting into a depressed state not having any constructive activities,and am constantly on TW LOL

 

For a novice biker I'd go with a hardtail just to save the weight penalty. In that price range you're probably talking a 31# bike minimum vs a 29# front susp. bike. The Deore and XT components are suprising in the $500 price range, but there may be some corners cut on the less visible parts. Then again, maybe the components are old stock... hard to tell.
For me, top tube length is critical for comfort- therefore buying a bike without sitting on it is out of the question.
Personally, I'd look on Craigslist for a used, name brand bike. There's usually hundreds out there available after the New Year's resolution is forgotten. I picked us a decent Fisher KaiTai (I think that's the name) for a couple hundred... put another hundred into it to build a good serviceable bike.

 

if you are just getting into riding, stay away from full suspension.


a lot of your energy gets wasted riding a poorly designed and poorly "setup" full suspension bike.

go for a good hardtail first

learn the bike, the terrain, and how to handle it first.

you will get more fun out of it, the less you have to worry about it's functionality

 

Cool info thanx guys and gals,Ill start looking today for a Hard Tail and go from there

 

Just as a side note- back in '94 I had a fully customized Stumpjumper Team (down to a pearl fade paint job) stolen out of my garage. I loved the bike even though it had no suspension) I had to value out all the addons and told the insurance company, who gave up trying to talk me down and said "just go get what you want."
Trek had just come out with the carbon fiber Y-22 bikes, so I ordered one- the first one in the Portland area. I had the shop install all the doo dads even down to titanium chainring bolts, and got the bike in at 23 pounds. It was wayyyy more bike than I was a rider, and I always felt a little guilty if I didn't ride it 5x per week- $3200 sitting idle in my garage wasn't smart.

Anyway, I kept it for 12 years and rode it in 2 countries and 5 states, ending up with over 10,000 miles on it. The point is tthat I should have kept a good part of the cash and bought a bike more suited to my riding style- a mix of mountain singletrack and street health riding.

 

OK, saw this post, couldn't resist..........What a difference 15 yrs makes. I scored this naked freshly painted frame, urt & Fox Alps 4 rear shock for 150.00 off craigslist few months ago & it became a resurrection project. Deore brk levers/rear v brk, outboard bearing crankset, rear derailleur, front derailleur, hubs. LX 9 spd shifters & cassette. Lizardskin fork & shock boots. Rockshox Tora SL 100mm with remote lockout with fatboy coil. WTB tires & seat. Hayes mx-2 disc up front. Oury grips. Wife's Trek headtube badge off her road bike. Frame pivots and rear shock all fresh & lovely. Got approx 650.00 in it. Here's what it ended up like.....(pic was build still in progress as you can tell by grips and cranks and such) Totally plush and comfy in the roughest of stuff....but not featherlite. It's nickname is guitarbike because of the cable routing and paint job.


Remember, you're always 1 bike short of how many you need, lol. I'm at 13........for now.

 

Sweet resurrection project, looks great!
Yes I remembered when those came out &
Stumpjumpers too.
I always wanted a Schwinn Paramount back in the day.
ok back OT for the OP.

 

CL has deals every now and then, and some shops sell their demo/rental fleet about now... at the end of the 'season'...the tourist season,that is. Demo bikes are usually set up with decent, (not great) components, and are more cost effective so they can be beat up and tuned easily. GL getting out and getting excercise!

 

Thanks, it really came together from stuff I had and scoring a few things to complete it along the way. It isn't any free ride cliff dropping air time bike with that fork but it's enough for me these days. Have settled down on that X games type shit. Just enjoy getting sweaty,muddy and playin in the woods on these bikes. I remember the Stumpjumpers too, still have my 1992 rock hopper all purpled annodized up with Ringle stuff. Of course with 13 bikes I have stuff for road, touring, neighborhood & most things in between.

 

When you get past a certain point of enthusiasm for riding, you'll be tearing up a bike on trails that is a dual purpose bike. Get something that'll hold up to trails and it will certainly hold up to any other kind of riding. The opposite is also true...if you are passionate about road riding then you won't want to push around a heavy unaerodynamic bike around on the road. I went to that site you linked, the windsor 4900 has good components and price for a trail/dual purpose bike. If you get into road riding then keep this one for trails or anything too harsh for pure road bike and just get a road bike. Many many options out there depending on your usage frequency & preferences. I myself prefer muddy unrestrained go crazy possibilities of fat tire bikes but hate pushing a hybrid of any kind around on a serious road ride too. I have 1 dedicated road bike with clip ins and such 17 lb thing, other 12 are some version of fat tire for trail and singlespeed fat tire for urban assault and couple of cruiser/chopper things for neighborhood.

 

Quite true that as you get better and more into biking you'll want to move toward higher quality bikes for the specific purpose. I thought I was going there with the Trek (later reviews by top bikers called it a very inefficient geometry, but what did I care?) and all the upgrades I'd made to it. Eventually I realized I'd never be a true hardcore rider even though I lived within 5 miles of beautiful singletrack on Powell Butte and 18 miles of Mt. Hood with some insane singletrack there. At one time I had a road and a mountain bike, but got to the point where I decided one was enough for the riding I do.