wayneh
Likes Bikes
hello everyone, I am new here so please bear with me as I float the following for informed discussion
I'm in my early 50's (living In Tas) and haven't rode anything remotely bike related for 20 years+ or so, since my now adult kids where much younger humans. I have a desire to start mountain biking (with a bit of on road thrown in - nothing serious more exercise/fun related riding and use some of the great trails all within 30mins or less of where i live, oh yeah and I don't seem to heal as quickly as I used to so much care been taken while riding), hence why I joined here. I work in large office with lots of bike riding co-workers who all seem to have mortgaged a kidney to buy some rather special looking bikes, both roadies and real mountain bikers. I cannot spare a kidney right now....... so yes cost is a limiting factor and will be for sometime to come (divorce, new mortgage etc, you get the idea i'm sure)
I have been reading various forum posts here, visited the local library to try and get some relevant information and visited all my LBS to see whats available in the local market at my possible price point. I should say at this point all the shop staff have been excellent in giving of their time and advice. LBS brands cover the usual suspects Giant, Trek, Scott, Specialized, Merida, Avanti in particular order. I have also looked at Cell, Reid and Polygon websites Findabike has been my friend for a few weeks now keeping an eye out for a local second hand bargain (ddia lso do the eBay thing, found lots of "unknown" brands) - missed a Focus Whisper for very small $$$ on Gumtree as I didn't know the brand and while reseaching someone with better knowledge snapped it up, bummer.
Then confusion sets in as my local Ananconda drops their festive seasons catalogue into the letter box.....
Inside I find the Fluid Richochet for a very "nice" $499.00 (down they claim from $1399??), putting it around $300 - $400 less than what most of my LBS are offering me as "entry" level bikes. Specs list seems ok adn similar to LBS offerrings; Shimano this and that, Rockshox XC30 fork (guessing not air)- you get the idea
So on a purely value for money basis should I be looking more closely at this Fluid bike???
I have read previous threads about giving Fluid a miss but the questioner in those cases wasn't looking at things from a value perspective, as I read it anyway....
Looking forward to constructive replies, thank you all and sorry for the long post
I'm in my early 50's (living In Tas) and haven't rode anything remotely bike related for 20 years+ or so, since my now adult kids where much younger humans. I have a desire to start mountain biking (with a bit of on road thrown in - nothing serious more exercise/fun related riding and use some of the great trails all within 30mins or less of where i live, oh yeah and I don't seem to heal as quickly as I used to so much care been taken while riding), hence why I joined here. I work in large office with lots of bike riding co-workers who all seem to have mortgaged a kidney to buy some rather special looking bikes, both roadies and real mountain bikers. I cannot spare a kidney right now....... so yes cost is a limiting factor and will be for sometime to come (divorce, new mortgage etc, you get the idea i'm sure)
I have been reading various forum posts here, visited the local library to try and get some relevant information and visited all my LBS to see whats available in the local market at my possible price point. I should say at this point all the shop staff have been excellent in giving of their time and advice. LBS brands cover the usual suspects Giant, Trek, Scott, Specialized, Merida, Avanti in particular order. I have also looked at Cell, Reid and Polygon websites Findabike has been my friend for a few weeks now keeping an eye out for a local second hand bargain (ddia lso do the eBay thing, found lots of "unknown" brands) - missed a Focus Whisper for very small $$$ on Gumtree as I didn't know the brand and while reseaching someone with better knowledge snapped it up, bummer.
Then confusion sets in as my local Ananconda drops their festive seasons catalogue into the letter box.....
Inside I find the Fluid Richochet for a very "nice" $499.00 (down they claim from $1399??), putting it around $300 - $400 less than what most of my LBS are offering me as "entry" level bikes. Specs list seems ok adn similar to LBS offerrings; Shimano this and that, Rockshox XC30 fork (guessing not air)- you get the idea
So on a purely value for money basis should I be looking more closely at this Fluid bike???
I have read previous threads about giving Fluid a miss but the questioner in those cases wasn't looking at things from a value perspective, as I read it anyway....
Looking forward to constructive replies, thank you all and sorry for the long post