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#1
October 25th 04, 05:42 PM
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MountainSmith Bicycles
I was at my local Dick's the other day and saw that MountainSmith is
making bicycles. I can't find any info on the net, or any reviews whatsoever. They appear to be low(er) end bikes with quality(?) components. I am looking at mostly off road riding with it, as I have a roadbike. I'm 5'10 and weigh 230 (the more I ride, the more I lose, ain't it funny that way!). I'm looking for just a general trail bike, for pleasure only (read, easy stuff!). Their hardtail has similar components. Thanks for any replies! The full suspension bike that caught my eye for $300 has these components: Frame: 7005 Series Aluminum Fork: Rok Shox Judy TT Rear: RST 20A Coil Ti Kenda Hubs: KT Alloy Saddle: WTB Race Seat Pin: Pro Max Netted Allen Adjustable Headset: Threadless Shifters: Shimano Acera F Derailleur: Alivio R Derailleur: Shimano Deore Crankset: Shimano Alivio Chainwheel: Shimano Alivio Cassette: Shimano Acera Brakes: Pro Max F/R Disc Brake Lever: Shimano Acera 
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#3
October 26th 04, 11:30 PM
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Badger_South wrote in message . ..
On 25 Oct 2004 09:42:36 -0700, (Tony) wrote: I was at my local Dick's the other day and saw that MountainSmith is making bicycles. I can't find any info on the net, or any reviews whatsoever. They appear to be low(er) end bikes with quality(?) components. I am looking at mostly off road riding with it, as I have a roadbike. What is your road bike? It's an old 70's Ross 10 speed I'm 5'10 and weigh 230 (the more I ride, the more I lose, ain't it funny that way!). I'm looking for just a general trail bike, for pleasure only (read, easy stuff!). Their hardtail has similar components. Thanks for any replies! The full suspension bike that caught my eye for $300 has these components: Frame: 7005 Series Aluminum What does the bike weigh? If it weighs about 40-45lbs, (with kickstand, haha), then it's crap. If it's 30lbs or less, not too bad. Don't know, it's not listed in the flyer... Fork: Rok Shox Judy TT Go for a non-suspended bike. Are you at 230lbs, a beginner (?) going to be rock and stump jumping? No? Then more useless weight. Rear: RST 20A Coil Complete and total waste of weight. I've read that, plus your later comment on full suspension Ti Kenda Hubs: KT Alloy This is ok but what are the 'wheels'? Don't know, not in the flyer. I'll go back to Dick's and check. Saddle: WTB Race Seat Pin: Pro Max Netted Allen Adjustable Headset: Threadless Shimano is OK. but is this bottom of the barrel-ish? Yeah, fairly low on the food chain. Shifters: Shimano Acera F Derailleur: Alivio R Derailleur: Shimano Deore Crankset: Shimano Alivio Chainwheel: Shimano Alivio Cassette: Shimano Acera Brakes: Pro Max F/R Disc Crap, also? Don't know, didn't find much on that either. Brake Lever: Shimano Acera Try to look it up on www.roadbikereview.com Nothing on the Mountain Smith bikes, just on the accessories. May I suggest you upgrade your roadbike and if you must get an additional set of wheels, with some nice 700x35c tires, and swap them out for road vs trail. Those can handle most anything but mud and slop... Now if your road bike is super 'racey' skinny tires, it may not be able to handle too-wide tires. But on this kind of tire I've ridden ALL kinds of trails, sandy, stony, pebbley, crushed rock. A heavy, crappy 'low-end' trail bike, with huge knobbie tires. Hmm. Will you ever really use this? To switch from a good roadbike to a 45lb clunker can't be a pleasant experience...mostly.g uh, suspension is highly over rated. Do you really want to be bouncing around boingity-boingity? Even a suspension seatpost, with cushy saddle, advertised as comfort, hurts after a while...sinking sit bones, and an extra 2lbs - who needs it? ;-) -B Problem with upgrading the roadbike is that it doesn't fit. Cheap buy at a garage sale, rides very nice, but way too big. Nuts are in a bind when standing over the top tube. What I'm looking for (now that I've researched a bit) is a mountain bike in the $400 range. Something that I can be confident on trails, and also ride the asphalt bike trail around home. My wife and I ride about 15-20 miles every Sunday, and that's about the extent of our "road" riding. when we go camping we ride the campground, and I want to start riding the trails also. I road dirt bikes (motorcycles) every nice weekend while growing up, rode BMX bikes on trails as a kid, and now I'm 40 and getting back into the fun stuff. Thank you for your reply. It confirmed things that I had been reading all along. Tony
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#4
October 27th 04, 12:26 AM
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On 26 Oct 2004 15:30:44 -0700, (Tony) wrote:
What I'm looking for (now that I've researched a bit) is a mountain bike in the $400 range. Something that I can be confident on trails, and also ride the asphalt bike trail around home. My wife and I ride about 15-20 miles every Sunday, and that's about the extent of our "road" riding. when we go camping we ride the campground, and I want to start riding the trails also. I road dirt bikes (motorcycles) every nice weekend while growing up, rode BMX bikes on trails as a kid, and now I'm 40 and getting back into the fun stuff. Thank you for your reply. It confirmed things that I had been reading all along. Tony I may have the perfect solution for you. My brother had (of all things) a 1980s Ross! Can you believe it? He paid about $300 for it, friction shifters, heavy (32lbs), but nice otherwise, cro-moly. Trouble was the friction shifters were out of tune and several other little problems, plus the weight made him tthink about a replacement. He got about the modern equivalent in a Trek 7200FX. The FX is only 'seatpost' suspension, adding about 2lbs. But otherwise it's (comparatively) a -schweet ride-. He only paid about 320ish for it in Va Bch. It's new, in that the FX (no suspension frame) used to just be 7300FX ~$450 7500FX ~$600 7700FX ~$850 It has 700x35c tires and could be called a sport/MTB type (shimano MTB components) See: http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/City...0_FX/index.php Do a test ride of any of the FX bikes...the ride feel and geometry is similar. When you compare against your friction shifters out of tune, which yours must be (lots of slushy shifting, taking several seconds, chain clanking) vs indexed shifters on the 7200FX, you'll be grinning from ear-to-ear. For $330bucks, dayum! He was reluctant to buy an new bike. After the test tide, the fsker wanted to ride it home! ;-p HTH, -B
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#5
October 27th 04, 12:30 AM
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Badger_South wrote:
uh, suspension is highly over rated. Do you really want to be bouncing around boingity-boingity? Even a suspension seatpost, with cushy saddle, advertised as comfort, hurts after a while...sinking sit bones, and an extra 2lbs - who needs it? ;-) My current commute bike came with a suspended seatpost. Now it has a fixed seatpost. In addition to creating a "detached" feeling that I didn't really care for, the suspended seatpost also proved to be a weak link. Breaking a seatpost is unpleasant. Not as bad as breaking a chain, but still unpleasant. -- Darin McGrew, , http://www.rahul.net/mcgrew/ Web Design Group, , http://www.HTMLHelp.com/ "Red meat isn't bad for you. Fuzzy blue-green meat is bad for you."
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#6
October 27th 04, 01:18 AM
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On Tue, 26 Oct 2004 23:30:39 +0000 (UTC), Darin McGrew
wrote: Badger_South wrote: uh, suspension is highly over rated. Do you really want to be bouncing around boingity-boingity? Even a suspension seatpost, with cushy saddle, advertised as comfort, hurts after a while...sinking sit bones, and an extra 2lbs - who needs it? ;-) My current commute bike came with a suspended seatpost. Now it has a fixed seatpost. In addition to creating a "detached" feeling that I didn't really care for, the suspended seatpost also proved to be a weak link. Breaking a seatpost is unpleasant. Not as bad as breaking a chain, but still unpleasant. Yeah, I tried to get him to swap it out immediately, but he wouldn't listen to me. He eventually took all my suggestions, but getting a younger brother, at 48 to change his stubborn ways... Things were going good until a bit uf Ultra-Fred leaked out and he says: 'there's no kick stand, can I put my old (heavy thick steel) kickstand on it.' My eyes get big and I try to say, but it comes out in slowmo and audiowarped, and Jim Carey like: "No-o-o-o..." -B
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#7
October 27th 04, 01:46 PM
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Badger_South wrote in message . ..
On 26 Oct 2004 15:30:44 -0700, (Tony) wrote: What I'm looking for (now that I've researched a bit) is a mountain bike in the $400 range. Something that I can be confident on trails, and also ride the asphalt bike trail around home. My wife and I ride about 15-20 miles every Sunday, and that's about the extent of our "road" riding. when we go camping we ride the campground, and I want to start riding the trails also. I road dirt bikes (motorcycles) every nice weekend while growing up, rode BMX bikes on trails as a kid, and now I'm 40 and getting back into the fun stuff. Thank you for your reply. It confirmed things that I had been reading all along. Tony I may have the perfect solution for you. My brother had (of all things) a 1980s Ross! Can you believe it? He paid about $300 for it, friction shifters, heavy (32lbs), but nice otherwise, cro-moly. Trouble was the friction shifters were out of tune and several other little problems, plus the weight made him tthink about a replacement. He got about the modern equivalent in a Trek 7200FX. The FX is only 'seatpost' suspension, adding about 2lbs. But otherwise it's (comparatively) a -schweet ride-. He only paid about 320ish for it in Va Bch. It's new, in that the FX (no suspension frame) used to just be 7300FX ~$450 7500FX ~$600 7700FX ~$850 It has 700x35c tires and could be called a sport/MTB type (shimano MTB components) See: http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/City...0_FX/index.php Do a test ride of any of the FX bikes...the ride feel and geometry is similar. When you compare against your friction shifters out of tune, which yours must be (lots of slushy shifting, taking several seconds, chain clanking) vs indexed shifters on the 7200FX, you'll be grinning from ear-to-ear. For $330bucks, dayum! He was reluctant to buy an new bike. After the test tide, the fsker wanted to ride it home! ;-p HTH, -B 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
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#8
October 27th 04, 02:03 PM
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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
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#9
October 28th 04, 01:42 PM
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Badger_South wrote in message . ..
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
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#10
October 28th 04, 02:52 PM
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On 28 Oct 2004 05:42:52 -0700, (Tony) wrote:
Badger_South wrote in message . .. 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
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