Mountain Bikes

Steve G – is that a Cotic Soul you are riding there? If so I am curious how you find it as I am in the process of designing my own frame to be built by http://solitudecycles.com/ and I think geometry wise I am currently lent towards similar setup (but with a singlespeed frame setup)

Placing the order at the end of the month and cannot wait - just confirming design atm.

'Tis indeed a Cotic Soul:



I've had it for a while now and like it lots. I've tried various forks on it (105mm MX Comp ETA's, 125m Vanillas and now 80-125mm Talas) and it seems to work pretty well with anything between 80 and 125mm. On really steep climbs it can be a little vague at 125mm and it's very fast steering at 80mm (fun in tight woodland stuff) so I've found the adjustments to be useful.

I've heard of people singlespeeding the Cotic and also the latest On-One Inbred is available as a singlespeed and has similar geometry. I'm not convinced about a long travel singlespeed myself (or singlespeeds at all for that matter) but if that's your thing them I'm sure your new steed will be fine.

quote:

On really steep climbs it can be a little vague at 125mm

Thats not an issue as I am riding singlespeed!

Anyhow thanks for you feedback - I am planning to run 125mm vanilla's. I had though about singlespeeding a Soul but just couldn't brink myself to running a tensioner and as for the on-one - as good value as they are I don't think it is for me

steve,

Ive been looking on the klein website.

I have a funny feeling by looking at the quality of these bikes that they are way off my budget. Limited choice of styles but.... Bloody nice though.(naim audio of bikes maybe?)

A case of champagne ideas with beer money methinks.

cheers, steve

Klein make nice bikes but they do tend towards a lightweight, racing bias so you don't see all that many of them about. Whether they'd be a good choice for you depends on what sort of riding you'd want to do - there are lots of good bikes out covering all sorts of price ranges and all sorts of pockets.

The entry price for a usable mountain bike is about £300 or so, something like the Specialised Hardrock Sport being a typical example. Bikes are capable with dealing with most trails but they do tend to be a bit heavy (Keith Bontrager is often quoted as saying "strong, light, cheap: pick two") and they'll also tend to have cheaper 24 speed drivetrains and v-brakes.

At £500 you'll be seeing 27 speed drivetrains and disk brakes but usually still with suspension forks of limited ability and still a bit on the heavy side.

£800 will get you a nice bike, but you can spend an awful lot more if you have the inclination, however £1500-2000 gets you a fantastic machine and spending much more will generally add to the "bling" but not greatly to the ability.

quote:

Originally posted by Stephen Tate:
steve,

Ive been looking on the klein website.

I have a funny feeling by looking at the quality of these bikes that they are way off my budget. Limited choice of styles but.... Bloody nice though.(naim audio of bikes maybe?)

A case of champagne ideas with beer money methinks.

cheers, steve

If you're looking for a quality bike on a budget, you may want to look at Specialized. They tend to offer excellent specs at most price points.

Klein the Naim of bikes? Nope, that would be Ventana

quote:

Originally posted by Milo Tweenie:
Klein the Naim of bikes? Nope, that would be Ventana

Ventana? I think not - the On-One or Cotic perhaps.

Ventana bikes are nice but they're very, very expensive.

Ok, here it is in all its gory glory:





This weekend I shall mostly be busy with cleaning materials and WD40.

Steve.

That looks in pretty good condition (it's certainly a lot cleaner than my bikes!) so a clean and lube and checking the consumables (tyres, brake pads etc.) might well be all that's required.

I can't tell much about the forks from those pictures but the lack of a disc mount places them either as pretty old and/or lower-end. No v-brakes either, but Mavic X517 wheel rims are a good sign.

The frame looks to be nice skinny tubed steel - does it say anywhere (usually on the seat-tube) what steel it is? 531 or 853 etc? I'd have guessed the size at about a 19" or so.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:
That looks in pretty good condition (it's certainly a lot cleaner than my bikes!) so a clean and lube and checking the consumables (tyres, brake pads etc.) might well be all that's required.

I can't tell much about the forks from those pictures but the lack of a disc mount places them either as pretty old and/or lower-end. No v-brakes either, but Mavic X517 wheel rims are a good sign.

The frame looks to be nice skinny tubed steel - does it say anywhere (usually on the seat-tube) what steel it is? 531 or 853 etc? I'd have guessed the size at about a 19" or so.

Yeah, considering it was stored in a roofless shed it seems remarkably good.

Frame 19" (assuming you measure from crank to top of seat tube). No numbers on the frame that I can see, just s sticker that says 'KONA Chromoly double-butted' (oo-er!)

Steve.

I've asked on another forum and initial thoughts are that it's probably something like a 92, although the forks would be an aftermarket addition because as standard it would have had rigid project 2's.

There is a useful site you should check out: Kona Retro

Thanks for the info Steve G and others.

Time wasn't on my side this weekend, but I've been able to replace tyres/tubes and clean the bike down with soapy water and it's looking a lot better though a good session with some de-greaser will be needed.

After all that, I took it for a quick spin around the block. Nothing has seized up (apart from me) but the brakes are purely performing decorative functions at the moment; the gear-change is a bit tricky - especially getting onto the big cog at the front; the saddle is for sadists and the pedals are very corroded.

I can see a couple more weekends of fiddling about in the shed coming up but it's all good fun and much better than paying out £600 for a band new Lavadome.

Steve

My MTB is a Canondale Jekyll - full suspension with lefty. Great to use, but my offroad skills are disgusting. Still disk brakes/XTR are great to use. The lefty front wheel certainly gets a few odd looks.

But I am a roady at heart with a 100% Italian Carrera.

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:

quote:

Originally posted by Milo Tweenie:
Klein the Naim of bikes? Nope, that would be Ventana

Ventana? I think not - the On-One or Cotic perhaps.

Ventana bikes are nice but they're very, very expensive.

The Naim of bikes (well, of frames, tobe pedantic) is not an MTB. It's one of these:

quote:

Originally posted by PJT:
My MTB is a Canondale Jekyll - full suspension with lefty. Great to use, but my offroad skills are disgusting. Still disk brakes/XTR are great to use. The lefty front wheel certainly gets a few odd looks.

One of my riding buddies had a Cannondale (almost wrote snapperdale there, forgot I wasn't on an MTB forum! ) - a 3000SL with a titanium lefty. He loved the bike and thought the fork was fantastic in use (it was very stiff and light for a 100mm travel one), however he had lots of problems with the fork. He even bought a 2nd Cannondale fork to use while that one was off getting fixed as it became such a regular occurence.

He ditched it in the end for a Santa Cruz Superlight but I don't think he's really learned his lesson about forks as he fitted a Pace one...

quote:

But I am a roady at heart with a 100% Italian Carrera.

I've got a roadie for commuting but I prefer the off-road stuff:

hi steve,

Ive decided to go for a - ridgeback switch_storm street racer. Apparently this bike is designed for road use and is tough enough for rough terrain just by switching tyres.

Exactly my requirments and is quite cheap too.

regards

My daughter has a Ridgeback bike and it's been fine, and good value.

The storm looks like a decent bike. Drivetrain is Deore 9-speed all round which is quite unusual at that sort of price range - they can probably only do it because they're not wasting money on a suspension fork (cheap suspension forks are crap anyway so I'd rather have the decent drivetrain). The 28/38/48 chainset could be a bit limiting off-road on steep stuff unless you're fit but it's better on-road that a 22/32/44.

The tyres fitted will be fine for gentle off-road use in the dry - I've taken my road bike on some of my local trails and it has much narrower slicks.