All Things Bikes and Tacos! (...and every vehicle imaginable)

It was a pretty good debut if that’s what he was going for.

 

Cant see it with the cranks in place. I've always use those Works thread together angular BBs on press fits. Never creak and still mint when I remove them years later.

 

Ive been thinking about getting into mountain biking as another hobby. A year ago I rented a bike in Tampa and hit a few trails and it was amazing, now I'm out in California with so many trails nearby. What do you guys recommend for a good starter bike that is full suspension that is around the $1500 mark or less.

 

oh boy...you're gonna be really hard pressed to find anything new and any good at that price point for full suspension. You're gonna have to look used and in today's current market, you're gonna find inflated prices everywhere so it might be extremely difficult.

If you're willing to not have full suspension, you'll find some decent hardtails at that price point. if you're deadset on fulls uspension, i would add at least 1k to your budget for a decent enough build that you'll have fun on.

Look at Giant or Marin. Generally better bang for buck for a beginner. Also, expect to pay for accessories ie, pedals (new bikes don't come with them), helmets, gloves, backpack, shoes, etc. (not all of these are required but pedals and helmets are a must). You're also gonna be looking at alloy bikes instead of carbon. Carbon frames will add at least 1k to the price.

You'll also need to know how much travel you'll be wanting. Sometimes but not always, price goes up with travel. your wanted travel will depend on your area and the trails you want to ride. Out in my area, longer travel tends to be more common. California, i can see it going both ways. Check with your local bike shops. find them on trailforks.com and see what trails you're wanting to ride. if you're trying to go full all mountain/enduro then you're gonna look at 150mm+. if you're looking more cross country, you're looking 100-130mm. then there's stuff inb etween those extremes.

good luck! some of the fun of biking is researching bikes!

 

This is all good stuff. I was planning on going used anyway to save money and time to source a new one. All the supply and demand is out of this world with not real lead times of getting bikes in. Craigslist has quite a few good bikes but like you said it's very inflated compared to what https://www.bicyclebluebook.com/ recommends as the price.

I'm not dead set on a full suspension, I just know it would be better than a hardtail. The bike a rented in Tampa was a dragonslayer jamis which if recall correctly was a hardtail.

As far as gear goes I'm already set with a helmet and some gloves I've had in the past. I don't want to jump the gun and go all out when I know I don't have the skill or the knowledge. It would be like sending a toddler out on a brand new carbon frame bike haha

 

yeah. soudns about typical right now. Bike blue book is okay but not necessarily the best indicator of price. it very much fluctuates used in the area and the condition of bikes is so all over the place. the jamis dragonslayer is a hardtail.

that's fair. check your local websites and local facebook cycle swap pages. also check out pinkbike's buy/sell and filter for your area https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/ you'lls ee tons of stuff on there. find your local bike shops and start talking to them. sometimes, they have a year old model taht they're trying to move but just haven't been able to or some special going on. bike markups are pretty high so some dealers are willing to play with pricing to get it right for you. Hardtails will open up your options like crazy at your price point. At that point, check out any manufacturer. (you'll see a full list of most manufacturers on pinkbike's main page on the right hand side). I also wludl check vitalMTB's website https://www.vitalmtb.com/ . all good resources to have to do some research on.

 

Appreciate it! ill take a look at those and see. I saw a local bike shop with a 2013 SPECIALIZED STUMPJUMPER FSR ELITE for sale for around 2k. Seemed a bit high for being almost 10 years old.

 

yeah...that is a little high. but again...used market is insane right now. that said, have fun! lots of resources around. feel free to come back here and ask. loads of others will have thoughts.

 

I’d recommend new and upgrade as time and money allows. These are good reputable frames. First mod, a cheap transx dropper post.

https://www.bikesonline.com/2022-marin-rift-zone-27.5-1-dual-suspension-mounta

 

Bedrock Bags knocks it out of the park again! Initially wanted grey, but took a chance on waxed canvas. Matches the Vintage Land Rover Pale Green color amazingly!

 

Very, very nice!!!!

 

https://www.bikesonline.com/2022-polygon-siskiu-t7-dual-suspension-mountain-bi
This is the same bike my friend bought and he rides it at the bike park. Its a good cheap bike especially at $2k. Rockshox suspension, shimano deore drivetrain, transx dropper. A solid entry level build. They have in stock the medium and large frames. I wouldn't hesitate to order. I think the stock of bikes are catching up because my gf's family shop has been receiving a lot of bikes from scott and sense (brazilian company) after nearly 2 years of receiving almost nothing.

 

Not sure what size you are but looking at pinkbike really quick I saw this: https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3264905/

Also checkout flattireco on pinkbike. I bought a bike from them and they were pretty good to work with. They have a lot of takeoff parts too. https://www.pinkbike.com/u/flattireco/buysell/

edit: there actually looks like a decent amount of decent deals on pinkbike in that price range, even saw this depending on where you are in california: https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/3264484/

That looks pretty sick!

 

Flattire. Cool. I had my Lyrik serviced there last Friday. Super cool shop.

 

I have one of those and love it! With the upgrades I've made, I think I may have been better off ordering the T8 from the get go, but the T7 has been a great bike so far.

 

They definitely make it easy to buy stuff from they. I'd buy from them again

 

They did my fork while I waited. It was a snowy Friday. That was nice since I didn’t have to make a return trip. Took maybe an hour and a half and they where running a Winter special for 75.00!

 

Riding in the PNW has been epic in February. Unseasonably warm and dry.

 

Idk exactly the 1 my friend got. It was when there was 0 bikes available and I saw 1 on the site for $1699. 120mm rear travel, rockshox suspension, sram sx 1x12, guide brakes, and no dropper. I think the build was a mix of good and bad parts because of the severe shortages at the time. The SRAM sx derailleur didn't survive long (plastic derailleurs, really sram?!) and neither did the schwalbe tires. He put a cheap dropper, DHR/DHF tires, and a deore derailleur. Now its a solid bike. He's happy with it, but I bet he's going to buy a DH bike once he tries the 2017 specialized demo I picked up.

 

I don't know what model your buddy got, but it doesn't sound like the T7. The T7 should be all RockShox but more travel (mine is 150/140 in 27.5, you lose 10 mm if you go 29). My T7 has a Shimano drivetrain (Deore), Schwalbe tires (although I read some are coming with different tires now for some reason), dropper is standard and it's about $2k now.