MountainSmith Bicycles

"Badger_South" wrote in message
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On 28 Oct 2004 05:42:52 -0700, (Tony) wrote:

Badger_South wrote in message
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On 27 Oct 2004 05:46:41 -0700, (Tony) wrote:

Thank you!
Hehehe I paid $10 for my Ross at a garage sale. New tires, cleaned,
lubed, and ridden about 100 miles so far.
I have a LBS that sells Trek about 10min from my house.
I'll go check it out tonight.

Thanks for all the replies.

Tony

Good deal. Take your time. Test ride these bikes also:

Trek 1000, or 1000C road bike (entry level), now with Tiagra rear
components.

http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Road...000C/index.php

or 1200, 1200C, etc.

http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Road...200C/index.php

The C is for less severe geometry, saddle approx. level with H/B.

Road bike, with drop bars has more hand positions.

I say test ride, meaning -even if- you don't plan to buy -that- bike,
b/c
you should get a wide range of experience before making a judgement of
"I
want a MTB", or "I want a hybrid" before you enter the store.

You might also inquire about end of the year sales. 2004 bikes are at
rock-bottom prices! (Lemond road bike 04 $400bucks?)

-B

I don't want to buy a road bike, because I "do" plan on getting off
road with it, and some of the trails that I'll be riding are fairly
intense. If it comes to it, I will continue to ride the Ross on the
asphalt bike trails, but weighing 230, I'm going to need something
pretty rugged for some of the trails I plan on riding. That's why I
originally was looking into full suspension and disc brakes, but the
more I read the more I'm leaning away from disc brakes and more toward
a hard tail.

Thanks for your reply!
Tony

If you don't mind, what kind of trails are you riding, and what do you
mean
by intense. Interesting. You might be able to get by with fully suspended
for about $1800 bucks, but that's minimum. That's 3" of travel.

The pros you see riding and stump jumping and BMX riding are on $4000 to
$5000 bikes. The break point on real full suspension is about $2000. Stuff
below that is just not going to work like you expect. Now some ppl get too
much bike for what they're riding and waste their money. Some ppl get a
150
Walmart bike-shped object and since it says full suspension that's what
they think is happening. It isn't.

Are you riding down the side of a mountain, jumping logs, riding in
streams
in loose gravel? Well the Ross, properly fitted and tuned will do that.
It's a cro-moly frame and the components are good. Use your legs for
suspension, iow, man. :-D

-B



Ok... I guess for "me" they would be kinda intense. One trail in particular
is called the "Mad Mile" and is narrow, rocks, ruts, roots, nothing that I
can remember that would entail jumps (I walked it this summer). Mostly what
I'll be riding is single-track through the woods, don't know about your
area, but here (Kansas) has the normal smattering of rocks and roots and
such... My budget for this is only around $400. As I stated in a previous
post the Ross will not work for this because it's way oversized for me.
Standing flat footed over the top tube puts my nuts in a severe bind, and my
seat properly adjusted is pretty much sitting on top of the frame, not much
tube exposed. I do NOT want a x-mart "bike shaped object" I have a Huffy MTB
in the garage collecting dust. Brakes are sh*t and it weighs a ton. PAINTED
rims! No more of that mess...

Thanks!

Tony