What is the best MTN Bike to purchase for dirt riding. I weigh 225 so I need something strong.?

Question

I would like to stay under $1000.00 if possible. Also, is buying off of e-bay a good or bad idea when buying a mtn bike? Your help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Kona Hoss or Hoss Deluxe - extra beefy bike for large & fit dudes...

Answer 2

I agree that you should buy for a first bike a hardtail, which is a bike with only front suspension.

For your first bike, search for an aluminium frame, it's more than enough. To be honest, if you wanted a titanium or carbon fiber, be ready to spend at least all your budget on the frame alone, if you're lucky. Everybody will have their own favourite top brand and will advise heartedly toward it as the best one, but there are several good bikes out there, at very different prices. It's just finding the right one for you that's important. Personally, I love Titus and they have some very, very good and stiff frames, but the cheapest frame they offer is like 1,500 bucks or so. Santa Cruz has the Chameleon hardtail, but the frame goes for 500 bucks, and you need to buy everything extra, buying a complete Chameleon might go from 1,600 bucks to whatever much you want to spend. Or, there is a complete Hekler for around 1,700, which, in my opinion, is a very nice, capable, sturdy full suspension bike. If you can afford it, it might be one of the best bikes for the money.

Giant and Specialized offer very good hardtails, also Kona and some others.

When searching for a new bike, you should focus more in the fork and wheelset, specially for your weight (I'm also similar to you, so that's also one of my concerns). The reason for it is that those parts are where the weight is more important, the performance might be a big difference ( I changed from a lightweight wheelset to a strong one, and the bike felt very different, now it's a lot more confidence inspiring!). When looking for wheelset, check that you have at least 32 spokes.

Bars and stem are kinda cheap, so if you don't like the originals, you might later decide to get other that might fit you better (maybe wider or narrower, shorter or longer stem, etc.).

Don't pay much attention yet to deraileurs, triggers, brakes and chain (they will probably be on par on the bike). It just that it's more important to get the right fork and wheelset than the rest, which is cheaper to replace than getting a new fork or newer wheelset.

The deal about ebay is that there are just too much spammers, or people that really don't know much of bikes and overqualify their bikes. some are just tricky, and some just don't really know what they're selling, and you might just fall for it. A 2004 stumpjumper is a good bike, but a 1994 stumpjumper it's an old bike. Also, I've seen a loooot of ads which said that the bike was rode only 4 times on smooth roads, and that the owner stopped using the bike because they had a fall/illness and they can't ride, but left the bike for 2 years in the basement.... don't be surprised if you receive a bike full of dings and scratches, bad shifting and also probably other bad issue on it. To be honest, while some of those stories might be true, just play it safe.

Another plus for a bike shop is that they might be willing to help you get the right size bike, and probably offer you some free tune ups and help. Also, they should know how to install and put together the bike correctly. If you're starting, it's probably a good thing to at least see the bikes yourself than seeing a couple of small and blurry pics and have to decide on those facts.

Answer 3

If you are looking for strength then the question is not what brand to buy but what kind of material should the frame be made of and what components should it be equipped with. Generally titanium and steel/cro-mo bikes are stronger than aluminum. However, if you go for a full-suspension frame, aluminum is OK with you kind of weight. If we are talking brands I would suggest Santa Cruz. E-Bay is good for finding a great deal on an expensive hard-tail Ti or full-suspension alum. Make sure that seller confirms that the frame is free of cracks and dents, then even if the bike is used it will work great after tune up. For a grand you can get something that was 3000 new and in that price range bikes really hold up for a long time.

Answer 4

Spend the whole grand. You'll be happy you did.

If you're not going to do much "real" mountain biking (like single trac, technical, downhill, climbing) but mostly trail rides, or city streets, If this is your first mountain bike I'd get a hardtail, with front suspension forks. Disc brakes if you can afford them (nice but not necessary), thumb shifters. There are many brands(Lemond, Titus, Salsa, Gary Fisher, Trek, Turner, Seven, Felt, Electra, Sixsixone, Eastern, Spot, Bianchi, Kona, Surly to name a few), but "Giant" is one of the most affordable. They are the framemakers for many of the bikes sold in the US. Most mountain bikes are well constructed, but avoid the obvious "cheap" bikes like Huffy or stuff you can buy at Sears or Target even Costco.

Try to get as little plastic on the bike as possible, ie, the rear derailer (Shimano "Alivio" is real cheap although Shimano Dx is pretty nice). $1,000 will buy you a decent bike, but not the best.

My son just bought a downhill bike, brand new, one year old, full suspension Trek Remedy 6 for $2000. (Awesome) I have an old Trek Y22 carbon fiber full suspension (I'm 210 pounds) that my son and I both have ridden hard and it's still in good shape.

The best advise I have is, go local. Avoid ebay for this kind of purchase because you're not really getting the best deal. Those bikes have mostly low end components on them, and that's what usually wears out or breaks.

Find a local bike shop. They're the guys that will help you size the bike so it fits you right, they'll tune it up once or twice for free, they'll probably being doing the repairs to it, and IF you destroy it, they'll be doing the warranty work or replacement on it. They can also direct you to some of the good mountain biking spots, and often they sponsor bike clubs and you can ride with other bikers with your skill level. I've bought my last 5 bikes local (new) and have not been dissappointed.

If they have a model from last year often they'll blow it out cheap just to get it off the floor. (Don't be afraid to offer them less. EVERYbody will bargain. The higher the asking price, the more wiggle room they have)

Until you know more about bike "stuff" I'd probably avoid used bikes all together for now because a crappy used bike that looks nice can really ruin your appetite for riding.

Good luck. I've ridden for 30 years and have enjoyed every minute, mountain bikes and road bikes. If I could only own ONE bike it would be a mountain bike and 2 sets of wheels. One for mountain biking, one for street.

The new bikes are phenominal. Light, strong, easy to ride, great accessories. Not like the bikes from the days of yor.

Get one of those nice split bike seats (about $100). You're "BOYS" will be glad you did. And get a decent helmet. You'll need it!!

Answer 5

Stay away from E-bay in my experience. E-bay breeds dishonesty and most MTB bits are thrashed and knackered before they are sold on E-bay, and will be in much worse condition than stated.

Stick to a hardtail bike. A Cannondale chase is sweet (trust. I own one; the Chase is the sexiest frame on the market, they ride differently to most bikes though - more like a BMX). Konas are top good (my mate has had 3, they rock!). Also Norcos are built very tough and ride very nicely (I did own one). Don't buy any other trash, it just ain't up to the job at your price range.

You should be prepared to perhaps pay up to £40 for harder springs at your weight, also, try and upgrade to profile type steel cranks as alloy ones (especially isis splined bb's) will suffer under heavy impacts and weight - basically, aluminium drive chain components are a crap idea for anyone wanting product satisfaction.

Try also to avoid disc brakes, they are hugely overpriced, go wrong all the time, are actually much higher maintainence than V-brakes, and they are flippin' expensive to fix when they inevitably break when you inevitably stack. They offer more control than V's, but, contrary to popular marketing hype, have little, if any, more power than V-brakes (except in the wet, which is when V-brakes stop working entirely) - You also don't need REALLY AMAZING brakes for dirt jumping - disc brakes ONLY make sense for DH riding.

Answer 6

check out www.konaworld.com they never let me down