Bike advice

[ColinD]

Hi all, not mad keen into cycling, so not going to spend weeks reading up on chainsets! ( They all say that right )

 

I'm after ( I think ) a new bike to get me out the door and up a few trails/bridleways.

 

My use case is probably more road, peak so hills (strines etc), tracks, like made trails, scottish estate tracks, occasionally grass, mud. Possibly weekend tour, again scotland remote long walkins that can be biked.

 

I presently have a marin california which was gifted to me by someone shorter, flatty handlebars, pedals etc... I'm not certain it's the right size for me, getting that checked soon-ish. Of course if it's 'ok' I'll likely persevere... or not now the worm is in my head.

 

I'm not into mad fast downhill, i.e. body armour. But I might tackle some of the trails, like the mountain bike founders of old more than a full suspension thing.

 

I want the bike to try and get some cardio, and avoid running, because knees. 

 

I'm after one bike in the garage/car!

 

I've been advised a 'grit' bike might be a good call, but then also just a hardtail mtn bike. I intend to gift the marin as it was gifted to me.

 

Finally, there is a new-ish 'trek' shop near us in sheffield. Now some nice kit in there! Including a thing called a checkpoint ALR5.

 

Now my gut says own brand shop, must be something about them, but also must be a good wedge of profit too!

 

Which leads me to, are these like the mclaren/porsche etc of the bike world and is there actually something representing far better value? Like an alpkit sonder camino.

 

Welcome thought and advice for use cases outlined above

 

Budget wise, as much as I baulk at the 1700figure, I'd hope not to spend more for a few years  (It's not a mainline hobby (yet))

 

 

[JohnRS]

I have one of these, which is similar to the Trek you posted. I wouldn't use it anywhere but the road to be honest though.

I've owned a few bikes, from Hybrid's to full road bikes to hard tail MTB and for the quality and value for money I'd highly recommend a Canyon. For what you're doing probably one of these. 

My next bike will be another Canyon, without question. Their customer service is great, you can only buy them direct from them but the downside is they're all hand built in Germany and they build batches of models at a time so you could potentially wait a few weeks, their site tells you when you can expect certain models. 

 

[CWARD]

Colin, I’ll drop you a PM

[robthearchitect]

Colin

Long time since June and you are probably sorted, but is good time now (October) to buy bikes generally as 2018 model stock being shifted fast (often 1/3 off??) to make way for 2019. 

 

Am more of a road biker but if you are still needing steer feel free to give me a shout. (...and thanks for starting forum ..it was you was it not?) 

 

Rob

[ColinD]

@robthearchitect you'd think it was long enough  to be sorted Slight spanner in the works was thrown a month or two back when boss got wind I was hunting for a bike. So he suggested the cycle to work scheme. and of course a few more suggestions in the mix.

 

So I think I'm fairly set on what I think of as an old school mountain bike, hard nose, tail thing. Fairly light but not road light.

 

To that end, the sonder one is still on the list and so too now is the boardman cxr 8.9 mostly as it fits the 1k limit of the cycle scheme. Just now aware it's a new hotness so everything is a higher price than perhaps comparable non hotness kit.

 

Had I truly appreciated the depth of this rabbit hole  I may of not stumbled to the edge

 

[Ootohere]

http://merlincycles.com

Their Cyclocross & Gravel bikes are worth a look. 

 

 

 

 

Edited 2 November, 2018 by Offski