any one know much about MTB Frames?

Question

need recomendation!!! anything under 500 will be fine.

and info on carbon fiber/ aluminum/ scandinadium/ steel.

thanks in advance

Answer 1

I would talk to a shop and see if their factory reps from their brands have any specials. When I worked in a whop, the Cannondale and Trek reps would often let us know that they were blowing out certain frames because of supply overruns or discontinuations. These are frames that were never built into complete bikes.

Answer 2

Steel is OK for purists and will be used on a lot of entry level machines. Although heavier, they are more rigid than the aluminium frames. Also, due to the material, the tubing can be thinner. So the weight is offset by performance.

Alluminium comes in different qualities. 6061 or 7005 are good quality. You might also look at Specialized A1 premium. Alli is light, but can flex a bit. The tubing needs to be larger to allow for a better weld. Hydroforming and heat treating help with strength and rigidity, so go for frames that have had this done. There is a rumour that alli frames lose their stiffness after 3 years, but.....

Carbon Fibre. Great, light weight material, but one nick and the frames dead. This material offers a serious weight saving and performance, but....

Titanium. At 500, you can't afford this. You need to spend about £1500 to get reasonable quality. This stuff is great. It is lighter than alli (Saving about 1/3 in some cases), but has the rigidity and strength of steel. However, a Ti frame will last you a life time. If you are going to buy a dream bike, This is the stuff. (There is a company in Market Harborough that will do a lazer measurement on your body and riding style, and build you a custom Ti frame to suite you).

Anyway. For £500, I would probably go for either a good alli, or Carbon

Answer 3

Well, Aluminium is very stiff, light. But it doesn't last 4 ever, and can't be safely welded if broken.

Steel, well, there is low end stuff which is heavy, and some high end which is light and good.

Titanium is good for hardtails since it's flexy, but it might be too much for a full suspension bike. Or some companies that sell good Ti frames have to use more material to gain some rigidity, so a Ti frame might be heavier than a Aluminium frame.

I think that for a good carbon fiber or Ti frames you will need to spend about double or more of your budget. I would say go for aluminium frame, it's a very versatile material and there are a lot of frames for about that price.

About which frame to buy, it depends a lot on what you want to do. If you want to do XC riding (flats but lots of miles), you'll probably want a hardtail (bike with only front suspension) or a full suspension bike with about 4" inches of travel.

If you want to get more into a mountain and do heavier terrain, a 5 or 6 inch full suspension bike is very good, but also some hardtails are built for this purpose.