recommendations of entry level MTB

[CyclingtheBarossa]

hi, i'm looking for advice re a suitably safe, reliable MTB for under $250, used or new, including best size for a 5'7" man (me). eg brands, models, places to buy.

I'm in the Barossa, SA and am finding after looking online and in person that I'm getting a bit confused as to what might be the way to go.

I'll just be riding a few times a week on bitumenised trails, occasionally on dirt or gravel, but no true mountain biking as such, not leaps and stunts, just meandering along in the countryside. Thanks, cheers.

[Nobody]

Not a great time to be buying bikes, new or secondhand due to the shortages. $250 won't get you much even secondhand. At that price don't buy anything new because it's very likely to be rubbish. In that you'll always need to be working on it to keep it working OK, if you can get it working properly at all. If you don't know much about bike maintenance, that would mean lots of trips to the bike shop.

For what you're doing, the bike doesn't matter that much. Get whatever. Sizing will be small to medium. I'm the same height.

[warthog1]

Safe
Reliable
Under $250-

You might get the first 2.
If you add the 3rd I don't see the first 2 being there.
$250 is not enough as Nobody says above.

[Andy01]

I will reply to this thread rather than the other one because it has no responses yet (one thread is probably enough ).

I am 165cm / 5'5" and I take a Small frame. Since 5'7" is 170cm I would guess you would be a Medium in most brands, but they do vary a bit so you really need to look at the actual bike specs or better still, try it for size.

There is a number of similar threads asking for bike recommendations, so do some searching here and you will get some good information.

As above, I think you might find that $250 will not buy you much. If you either have some mechanical aptitude (and are willing to follow YouTube videos on bike setup, derailleur adjustments etc), or know someone who does, then you could get a cheap chain store (KMart, BigW, Anaconda etc) bike and basically rebuild it to make sure it is put together correctly. Otherwise you could look second hand, but again you would ideally want some bike knowledge to ensure that you are not buying rubbish - you might get lucky and find something great for $250, but it could be a bit of a lottery.

If it is for very occasional use, then the $250 might be OK, but if planning somewhat frequent rides, I would suggest saving to increase the budget to at least double that to get something half decent. I might suggest that really for "safe & reliable" use, particularly off the bitumen or concrete, you might want to spend closer to $750-800 and get a decent brand name (like Giant, Trek, Merida, Norco etc), albeit a lower-specced model.

[CyclingtheBarossa]

Not a great time to be buying bikes, new or secondhand due to the shortages. $250 won't get you much even secondhand. At that price don't buy anything new because it's very likely to be rubbish. In that you'll always need to be working on it to keep it working OK, if you can get it working properly at all. If you don't know much about bike maintenance, that would mean lots of trips to the bike shop.

For what you're doing, the bike doesn't matter that much. Get whatever. Sizing will be small to medium. I'm the same height.

Thanks for your reply, much appreciated. I may have to re-evaluate. Cheers, Paul.

[CyclingtheBarossa]

thanks everyone for your guidance, I really appreciate it. Thought i'd do one reply, to save space and time. I'll reconsider my options in light of all your input. cheers, thanks again.

[bychosis]

Just replied to the other thread. If you are mechanically minded repairing a bicycle isn’t hard with the help of YouTube and some basic tools. I believe $250 could get you a decent quality ‘old’ bike, but as others have mentioned bargains are soon snapped up in this weird market.

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[SteatoLegato]

Exactly where I started off a few months back. Its a rabbit hole
Good luck!

[Nobiker]

But if you really want to stick to that budget, wait for some bikes from Aldi or buy one from Anaconda.
The ones from Kmart and BigW will allow you to ride as long as you are mechanically able to deal with some initial minor adjustments but for light riding they'll be fine.

[bychosis]

Please don’t buy something new from Kmart or bigW. They are the cheapest of cheap and do require a lot of work to get running half decently quite often you can find these for free or $50 hardly ridden. Buying them new is a waste of resources. They aren’t worth the money when you can buy better quality second hand.

[trailgumby]

Safe. Reliable. Cheap. Choose any two.

At the present time, with supply chains being a mess, new bikes are difficult to get, and as a consequence secondhand supply is very tight. In normal times I would at least double that for a very old 26er with decent (reliable and safe) components, but these days I would say three maybe four times that is more appropriate for something that won't try to kill you.

Good luck. Bargains do come up from time to time, but you need to move as soon as you see them.

[trailgumby]

Safe. Reliable. Cheap. Choose any two.

At the present time, with supply chains being a mess, new bikes are difficult to get, and as a consequence secondhand supply is very tight. In normal times I would at least double that for a very old 26er with decent (reliable and safe) components, but these days I would say three maybe four times that is more appropriate for something that won't try to kill you.

Good luck. Bargains do come up from time to time, but you need to move as soon as you see them.

[10speedsemiracer]

As TG says, in normal times, you'd find something nice on the used market well within budget. These however are not normal times.

If you can stretch to $300 (or haggle the seller a bit), then this Scott bike in Northgate is worth a look. Size seems to be right, appears to be in ok condition, and would probably do exactly what you want to do.



An oldie but a goodie

[brumby33]

Here's a few used MTB's around the Adelaide area that might get you going.

https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-men-s-bicy ... ected=true

These bikes are in around Adelaide.

Some of these might be too big but some closer to what you want.

You may need to go higher than $250 to get something decent.

maybe $500 will buy you something that will last for a good amount of time but don't expect getting disc brakes or anything, but of you get a bike with V-Brakes, they will do the job just for for what you've indicated.

If you have an Anaconda near you, I'v seen many men ride these Fluid bikes https://www.anacondastores.com/cycling/ ... 32985-navy

or Rebel Sport https://www.rebelsport.com.au/p/goldcro ... nt&start=2

I don't normally recommend these department store bikes as they're usually at the low end of the scale in terms of quality however as you're on a tight budget and you're not about to do any stump jumping these cheaper end bikes will at least make you decide to pursue bicycling on the longer term or if it's just going to hang around the shed for most it's life and because it's a Store, you are covered under Australian Consumer law is something goes wrong.

regards

brumby33

[bychosis]

Had a look at the search listed by brumby above. There’s several decent quality bikes there around $100. A bit older and probably could do with new tyres and brake pads but otherwise be perfectly suited to riding bike paths. If the wheels spin freely, the chain and gears shift OK there’s not a lot more to be wrong. Pick a decent brand (but avoid new diamond back as they are bigW rubbish)

As suggested size is pretty important. At OPs height probably a medium, but a large might be OK for non-off road riding.