School Me on: Downhill Freeride Bikes.

[village_idiot]

Well, after scrapping all my misc BMX frames, wheels, and parts, I have about 750 bucks, and I have decided to get into downhill style stuff, like the stuff most of you run. I have done some research and decided I want a full suspension bike with disk brakes. I'm not sure on the size, as I haven't ridden a bike in a few months, and have never ridden a MTB. I'm about 5'7" and 125 LBS, so I would probably need a smaller bike. Can any one point me in the right direction? Any help would be awsome.

[92YJCBG]

Jeepxj3 (Jason) would be the man to talk to. Im sure he will post up some advice for ya.

[Harley25]

:flamer:

[2002wranglerX]

:unibrow:
Jeepxj3 (Jason) would be the man to talk to. Im sure he will post up some advice for ya.

Oh i'm sure he will... the question is do you want his advice or good advice :unibrow: JK man!!!!! i'm just giving you a hard time.

i will say this though. for 750 bucks you're not going to get much of a full suspension bike new. Nothing with decent components at least.

Full sus i'd be thinking 1500+ minimum to get into anything decent.

the question is what do you want to do with it? Do you want a strictly downhill bike or something you can ride all mountain? I know jason is all about his stinky and doing his free ride stuff, but there's no way that bike would keep up on any XC trail. it's just too heavy. Oh it'll smoke the HELL out of us on any downhill, but as soon as you'd have to pedal up a hill... you're off the bike and pushing.

They make some nice all mountain esq bikes that can take a pounding but still are able to be ridden XC. the Stumpjumper FSR is one of my personal favorites for that. it's available in 26 or 29" wheels too.

What's nice is you're a smaller guy, so you're not going to have to buy the pure beef that someone like me, who weighs 240 lbs (yes that's down since i've been riding).

here's another option. I don't know if this guy still has any of these, but the Kona rep cleared out a bunch of smaller size Full sus bikes on PORC

http://www.porcmtbclub.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2240

That's about 2 weeks old but he might still have some of em.

If you want an all out free-ride/downhill bike.... i'll let jason point you in a direction. It's not my thing. But i will say if you want to do any XC... you might want to look in more of a Stumpjumper FSR/Fuel EX/Gary Fisher Hi-Fi direction. Still lots of travel but light enough to be ridden on everything.

[OverkillZJ]

:flamer:


rofl :081:

[Sycotik Skier]

$750 is not going to get you much of a dual suspension dh/fr bike. Your best bet, get a ride to gatto's and have them size you for a bike. I ride a 19.5" frame and i'm around 5'11" and thats on an xc bike. The specialized P2 would be a decent bike for you. It's a hard tail and it rides a lot like a BMX bike. it's a fun bike for doing skinny north shore style trails, dirt jumps, and urban but it's list price is $1350 http://www.specialized.com/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=39173&eid=103
DH/FR bikes are not cheap new.

[jeepxj3]

Dont even get the idea in your head unless your planning on dropping large $$ for the bike and protective gear.

[Cebby]

Aren't downhill bikes and freeride bikes two different animals?

[jeepxj3]

Aren't downhill bikes and freeride bikes two different animals?

yes and no, Downhill is more so of a race type bike, and tend to have larger travel 8-10in. Freeride is more so of the technical jump bike, and have somewhere between 6-7in of travel.

Freeride has also moved away from the dual crown front forks to a larger sanctioned 6-7in travel fork.

[Ronin152]

Honestly, around PA I would not waste your money on a Downhill bike. All you have is 7springs to go to and even though it is pretty decent its not any where near Colorado. Plus for 750 you can barely get a decent XC bike.

[jeepxj3]

Ronins right, Theres limited places around here that you can actually use such a bike, they are alot heavier and if your not in any kind of shape, would not be a fun bike to ride.

Keep in mind they are both concidered "Gravity" bikes, not really ment to pedal.

[Ronin152]

I would wait a little while also. I heard that bike prices went up alot this year and components went down due to such a high demand. Maybe with the bad economy you can get a good deal. Honestly one of the hardest things I have done is buy a bike. The thing I hate is that you can't buy them online so basically you are limitted to what is actually in the shop. If I were you I might try to find something used.

[96greenxjjeep]

save the money and sell the truck to buy a jeep

[village_idiot]

save the money and sell the truck to buy a jeep
as of right now, I'm workin' on buying a 94 ranger and turning it into a track rat. 8.8 exploder rear, turbo'd 2.5 pinto motor, stiffen the frame and mustang II front subframe. When thats done, I might buy a sub 1k jeep or S10 or something and build it as a trail rig.

[96greenxjjeep]

oOH........

[96greenxjjeep]

why?

[village_idiot]

why?
i think if i can curve my bad habits that i expect to form to only the track, i can same my self some cash in the long run and also improve my driving skill. plus the truck is only like 200 bucks and parts for it are cheap.

[96greenxjjeep]

you also need the know how to put it all together and skill in order to race it and the money and way to get it to the track and back

[gearhead313]

downhill and freeride are definitly not the same. I've been snooping for an aggressive all-mountain / light duty freeride bike for a little while, i just dont have the money to spend.

$750 might...ok, probably wont buy you the frame you need. It might be the wheelset you would need. If your educated enough on what you want, there are used rigs out there that can be had cheap. A buddy of mine bought an azonic saber just recently that would have been perfect. 6" bike, 4 bar rear, low 30lb's. I'd just search around mtbr.com for a starting place and see where it takes you.

[Sycotik Skier]

gearhead was that TJ's Saber you are talking about?

[jeepxj3]

You still cant compare, all mountain and freeride, again they are 2 very different animals... Weight is a big factor, my bottom bracket is milled out of a solid piece of aluminum, just to give you an idea.

[gearhead313]

my BB is titanium w/ ceramic bearings.. point? :D I would put AM and FR closer together than DH. AM and FR you still have to pedal up hills, but take hits going back down them.


Yeah, it was TJ's! I JUST didnt have the money for it, so a good buddy of mine whos just getting into aggressive mtb'ing grabbed it. I figure it needed to be in the family one way or another!

[jeepxj3]

AM and FR closer? Doubt it seriously... What kind of bikes are you comparing? My Kona is closer to a DH rig than a AM. :squint: Weights in just under 40lbs IIRC.

[village_idiot]

I would love to have a Kona, I rode one at 7 springs the day that they closed for the winter

[Sycotik Skier]

yeah I wanted that saber for myself but my jeep is draining my funds. I use to work with Tj at hite's before it closed.
I agree though. DH bikes are overkill around here. All mountain can handle most of anything around these parts

[jeepxj3]

Unless your looking to do 30 foot table top jumps!:biggrin:

[gearhead313]

I agree, there's no need for a DH bike unless you are dedicated to 7springs.


AM im considering to be a hartwood style ride.. fast, bigger ups and downs... the only thing seperating that and FR would be the fact that you have logs/bridges/latters you have to get up over and off of. an AM bike should still do a 1-3' drop/ledge/flat IMO. a freeride bike is only going to be 1" or so more travel, and the same style frame construction. There are plenty of 6-7" bikes that are close to 30lb and will outclimb my Hifi, but we're talking $4k+ markets.

DH is vastly different b/c now you take the entire "ride it back up the hill" perspective out of the bike's design, weight, pivots, geometry. There is no pride in trying to ride a DH bike around here, its plain dumb. I thought about going that route once till i really saw what other bikes were out there.

My hifi is 5" of travel and now just dropped into the 22lb range. I've followed my buddy who rides an 8/9" Foes from the top of water tower hill down to the spillway, multiple times and was able to stay within 6-8' of him at all times.... even with me bypassing the hucks he hit, in the 11t ring, full tilt. The only difference, i rode back up the hill... he pushed ;)

[Sycotik Skier]

you can do 30' tables on a hardtail, hell a BMX bike even.

[village_idiot]

I'm used to pushing bikes up hills, my old bmx shit was all geared for flat land and down hill.

[limegreentj]

i used to race bmx for hites a long time ago. i didnt know they closed though?

[Sycotik Skier]

They unexpectedly closed a couple years ago for reasons i'm not exactly sure of.

[cjw94xk]

I say buy something used and build it the way you want. I found this on CL tonight just for an example.
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/bik/948967569.html

There was also a Cannondale Jekyll on mtbr.com the other week. I think he only wanted 500 for it.