Mar 05 2010
This weekend only until 23.59 on 8th March 2010 Wiggle.co.uk are offering 15% off everything on their site as part of their Platinum Plus Promotion, the clock it ticking, click the link below to go Wiggle and grab a bargain!
Click here to take advantage of this insane promotion!
Mar 05 2010
I’ve just been informed that until the end of the weekend (Sunday 7th March) Evans Cycles are offering an extra 15% off all winter clothing using the following code: 15OFF.
Click here to visit the Evans Sale site
Jan 27 2010
I am back! After a long list of injury and rehab, I am now looking forward to getting back on the bike and hitting the trails. It therefore couldn’t be a better time to splash out on some new kit. Looking around online, I have come across some amazing deals, both Evans Cycles and Wiggle Online Cycle Shop have both started their end of season sales. I am seriously considering splashing out on a new Kona or perhaps a new rockhopper, there are some links on this page to the pick of the bunch, definately worth a look.
It’s good to be back, watch this space for more information and reviews in the coming days and weeks
Happy riding!
May 05 2009
There is a new page linked at the top of the page… I came across this Ultimate Guide to Mastering Mountain Biking last week whilst looking around for a handy guide that I could take out with me on the trail. It covers all sorts of aspects, including techniques which is something I found particularly interesting, why not check it out, if you dont like it, there’s always the guarantee!
Feb 23 2009
For those who ride a bike fairly often a good pair of shoes and clipless peddles make for a smashing investment. For those who are picking out a pair of shoes for the first time we have put together a handy little guide to picking the perfect cycling shoes.
Firstly you need to identify what style of riding you are planning on doing.
Offroad shoes offer more protection around the ankle and are made of a thicker, more flexible material to help the foot cope with uneven surfaces.
If you are planning on riding on the road or even racing then it is best to look for a lightweight stiff shoe. Most shoes that are being made now usually have carbon outer soles which stops your foot flexing and so increases the power that you can push through the cranks. Lightweight shoes also offer the benefit of saving weight on the climbs.
In summer you might consider a shoe with built in air vents and a wicking fabric to help cool your foot however you really want to make sure not to wear this type of shoe over winter, even with over shoes or over socks your feet with still be cold and wet.
A growing trend for riding in winter is to wear a cycling boot rather than a bike shoe for both mountain bikers and road riders alike mainly due to the fact that they keep the foot warmer and drier than traditional cycling shoes.
Emma Lois Watson manages the cycling shoes e-tailer Cycling Shoes Direct; the UK’s only specialist cycling shoe website.
Feb 11 2009
One of the most important components on your full suspension mountain bike or your hardtail mountain bike is your tires. Most mountain bike riders look for light weight, strength and traction in a tire and many advanced riders even have multiple sets of tires for different riding conditions.
So what tire is right for your mountain bike and riding style? Mountain bike parts are not cheap and you want to make the right decision.
Tire Construction:
Consider a Kevlar bead or folding tire – A Kevlar tire weighs an estimated 60-80 grams less then a conventional none folding tire. It does not sound like much of a weight savings but multiply that number by two and then consider the rotating weight and it becomes significant. For an extra couple of pounds, in my opinion, it is worth spending the extra money.
Terrain and Tread patterns:
As an example will you be riding on the local trails that are hard packed dirt or on slick rock?
For hard packed terrain consider a narrower and smooth tire. As an example a tire that is 1.8 to 2.0 wide.
For hard packed terrain with a good mix of rocks you might want to consider a wider and smooth tire. As an example a tire that is wider then 2.0.
For loosely packed terrain consider a knobby tire. Choose a tire with a really aggressive pattern as this will help you gain maximum traction in the dirt. For muddy terrain consider a narrow tire. Narrow tires will reach the bottom of the mud and create less resistance when turning making it easier for you to move forward.
Many of the major tire manufacturers make very good tires that are great for all conditions.
Riders Body Size:
Consider your body size. If you are heavier you might want to consider a wider tire.
You can buy your tires at a bike store, order them from an online website or from an individual sell tires posted on a mountain bike classifieds website.
The information above is a rough guide on what to consider when buying new mountain bike tires. Many bikes stores that have mountain bikes for sale and bike parts can also give you their opinion.
Bike Servant is experienced with full suspension and hardtail mountain bikes, bike parts and organizing race events for mountain biking.
bikes for sale
Feb 10 2009
This article throws light on the most prominent confusion that one goes through when buying a mountain bike. That is, whether to buy a bike with suspension or without suspension. If you are the one among them, this article throws light on the pros and cons of mountain bike suspensions and is meant just for you.
Be it car or bike they take you to your destination. There are certain factors which make you more comfortable with cars than with bikes. The same is the case with mountain bikes, be it bikes with suspension or without suspension they both take you to your destination. However the bikes with suspension cost you more than the one without suspension.
You will not understand the difference between them unless you experience a ride with each one. You might go to a showroom to buy a bike with suspension. You will be confused to hear the dealer questioning about if you want a bike with front suspension, back suspension or both. Now what’s the difference again? Simple the more equipped a bike is the higher skills it needs and even higher amount of energy it requires on the side of the rider. If you notice high end users and professional mountain bikers they use only bikes with front suspensions because they need less energy of the rider when compared to the bikes with both suspensions.
If you ride on both the bikes one after the other, you will notice that the bike with dual suspension took more energy for you to reach your destination. Rather if you notice the bike with only front suspension gave you comfort to the same extent as the dual one moreover it absorbed the jerks and shock as the dual one did but took lesser energy on your side. It left helped you reach the same destination with same comfort but with lesser energy surfing. The higher the cost of the bike usually it will mean the higher the quality of the suspension fitted (in very generic terms), it is thought that eliminating the bounce produced by pedalling and therefore energy loss is of paramount importance of a full suspension bike, the more expensive the bike is, in theory the more efficient the bike should be in turning the pedalling motion into forward propulsion.
Look for quality of the suspension system upon the cost. Or we can say go and buy a bike with excellent front suspension system rather than putting the same amount of money in buying a dual suspension bike of lower quality in the same money. Good luck
Adam Peters is the editor of many articles on mountain bike suspension published at http://www.bikecyclingreviews.com .More articles on dual suspension bicycles and cycling at his web.
Feb 08 2009
After talking to different riders, employees at a few bike shops, reading article and posting questions online I put together a couple of bullet points to consider when buying a front suspension fork.
Determine if your bike has the geometry to support a suspension fork. If it does have the correct geometry try to determine the maximum height fork it can accommodate. I almost bought a fork with 160mm of travel but the seller convinced me not to buy it because he believed my bike did not have the correct geometry.
Consider your riding style. Are you a cross country, down hill or a dirt jump rider. Make sure you buy a fork that suites your style of ride. This will help prevent you from buying more fork than you need. Suspension forks can vary in price and can be very expensive. However if you ride often spending a little more on a fork might be warranted.
Determine the size of the bikes head tube. The size of the tube could limit your selections. Is your head tube 1 inch or 1 1/8 inches, etc? Consider buying a suspension fork that is adjustable. Some forks are adjustable at the head and some have a pop lock adjuster that mounts on the handlebars. The adjustable function will accommodate different riding terrains.
Determine if you need to buy new parts to install your new fork. Do you need a new headset, stem or brakes?
Consider the installation charges of a new fork. If you plan on installing the fork yourself you will need to press on a bearing and potentially cut the fork tub. This could result in additional tools and time so you want to weigh up your options. Ask them if you can ride their bike to test out their fork. Some riders buy great bikes, immediately upgrade them and never use the original parts. You can find new or near new parts on Bike Servant which lists mountain bikes for sale, bike parts and race events.
The tips listed above will hopefully help you narrow down your choices before you purchase a new fork.
mountain bike classifiedsbikes for sale
Feb 05 2009
OK so once I begun my search to purchase my first bike I was constantly confronted with the same question over and over again, ‘What type of terrain will you be riding on?’ Now as a beginner, at the time I had no idea what kind of punishment or terrain these amazing bikes can withstand. I went with the safe option ‘a little of everything I guess road riding and the occasional off road weekend ride’. This didn’t really help my research into what kind of bike I was looking into, but the budget side of things restricted my choices. After some research into suspension and frame types and also a fairly lengthy consultation with a big chain salesman I concluded that hardtail was the bike type for me.
Budget plays a big part in life and that is no different when buying a bike, we have all seen the multi thousand pound full suspension bikes, but realistically for a first bike I couldn’t justify this, so I restricted myself to a £400 budget, I quickly learned that at this budget I would struggle to find much more than an entry level full suspension bike. Sure there were the £200 pound models, but to be honest they weighed a tonne, and pound for pound the components were cheap and inferior in comparison to a similarly priced hardtail bike. I was told that the suspension component of any full suspension bike can prove very costly and detract from the value of the rest of the bike, therefore for the same price a hardtail bike although without a rear shock absorber ,will have money spent elsewhere and should be made up of better parts.
As a new comer to the sport I wanted an all round bike, this would more than likely result in more pavement/road riding. The hardtail also came out on top of this as well. My research seemed to indicate that although full suspension bikes deliver in general a better ride comfort, on roads all that extra dampening wasn’t entirely necessary, in fact it could be argued to be derogatory. The natural pedalling motion of a human generates bounce, in a hardtail this bounce isn’t absorbed, in a full suspension bike it is absorbed more therefore potential kinetic energy is lost as part of the dampening process detracting from the efficiency and forward motion.
One further thing that convinced me to opt for a hardtail for a first bike was the maintenance issue, like many people at first when starting a new sport or hobby I was highly enthusiastic, however inevitably I thought that this may begin to fade, I was advised that full suspension shocks required a lot more maintenance and that they can be costly to replace if they went wrong, at this stage of my mountain biking interest I was quite happy to settle for a slightly lower maintenance solution and so opted for the hardtail.
To this day I still have my first hardtail bike and it is still going strong, for my budget, knowledge of the sport and the type of terrain I ride it on, I would say it ticks all the boxes!!
Feb 05 2009
When you are ready to purchase a mountain bike, if you are like most mountain bikers, you start reading mountain bike reviews. You may have found, however, that not all mountain bike reviews are accurate – or even honest! The fact of the matter is that some dealers and even manufacturers actually pay people to write good reviews of bikes that the reviewer has never even had the opportunity to ride!
There are countless sites that carry reviews of various mountain bikes. It’s hard for the average mountain biker to know who to believe – beginner bikers who have yet to make their first mountain bike purchase don’t stand a chance!
If you are looking for reviews, stick to the sites and publications that can be counted on for accurate and valuable information. Most print publications have accurate reviews. When reading one of these reviews, it is important to look on the edges of the page for very tiny print that says ‘advertisement.’ It is an advertisement disguised as a review. Its purpose is to get you to buy the bike – not to point out both the pros and the cons! When looking for reviews online, stick to the better known online magazines such as Singletrack, GearHead, Mountain Bike Review, and Mountain Bike. These are the online magazines that will give you the most accurate information in terms of reviews. You will also find the latest mountain biking news, as well as quite a bit of information on races and trails. These four websites are vitally important to serious bikers.
Of course the best reviews are the ones that you get from other bikers, in person. When you see a mountain biker on the trail riding a bike that you are interested in, take the time to talk to them. Find groups of mountain bikers in the parks, and try to talk to them when they are taking a break. After speaking with them – or before – sit back and watch them ride. You aren’t watching their technique – although that may be interesting – what you want to watch for is how well the bike handles. Seeing the bike in action is the second best review that you can possibly have – the first best review you can get is your very own review!
You can test ride bikes that are for sale in bike shops, but you can’t really put them through the motions well enough in a ‘test ride’ situation to learn what you need to know. Your best option is to test ride a friend’s bike. Give it a great workout, and by the end of the day, you will know enough about the bike to write your very own review.
Do your part in the mountain biking community by contributing your own reviews to the websites that allow consumers to submit mountain bike reviews. You will be doing many other mountain bikers a huge favour by submitting your honest – and accurate – mountain bike review!
Mt-bikes.com provides you with information on giant mountain bikes, trek mountain bikes, mountain bike reviews, mountain bike holidays and specialized mountain bikes. http://www.mt-bikes.com/
