Cheap Mountain Bikes | GMBN Presenter Challenge

enc":2yxenrjc said:
3 extremely annoying tits take the piss out of cheap retro bikes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hw3mHE3Z-N8

Actually I thought they were all quite complimentary towards the Peugeot about it's geometry and overall ride, considering it only cost £60 it did pretty well.
It would have been interesting to see what they would have made of the Raleigh Thunder road (https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Raleigh-thun ... :rk:1:pf:0) that's currently on eBay and only likely to make £100. With it's Reynolds 531 frame and Alloy rims it would actually stand a chance of stopping, won't weigh a ton and the slightly more modern gears would shift much better too. With it's similar to modern geometry they might have been gushing about it. However that wouldn't sell anymore new bikes and kit from the sponsors.....

Carl.
 
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To be fair to them, they inject a sense of fun into what can be very dull and serious cycling product endorsements. I, probably controversially, find their videos quite watchable and varied. They do a fair bit of old stuff, fat bikes, but they they have to appeal to the mainstream so a lot of it is contemporary stuff.

They didn't really slag off the old Peugeot, and the brakes really were rubbish - I had the same setup on my bike in 1987. If they'd tried a slightly younger bike it would have been interesting.

Blake has some impressive skills. It's worth watching this for the fat bike flip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... jy9Jgnjv6U
 
Re:

Neil did say it may become his new commuter. I bet he'll be on here looking for a set of retro alloy rims/sealed hubs. It will fix the two biggest issues with it, weight and stopping and won't cost the earth.

Carl
 
I found the video fairly interesting, not necessarily offensive. My push from modern MTB back into Retro was mainly 5 reasons...

1. my age.
2. when you walk into Swinnerton cycles and the first thing you are confronted by a £7500.00 bike (seriously off-putting to the sport imo and immediately gives the impression it's only for the rich and wealthy).
3. my love of buying and tinkering with bike bits, at a time when everything seems to be getting incredibly expensive.
4. the fact that 'standards' seem to keep changing every 6 months and what was a 2 year old bike suddenly feels outdated and massively de-valued.
5. the sheer amount of fun you can have for very little spend... i.e you can pick up a complete retrobike for the cost of a single modern day MTB tyre!
 
TOMAS":1382jrmi said:
I found the video fairly interesting, not necessarily offensive. My push from modern MTB back into Retro was mainly 5 reasons...

1. my age.
2. when you walk into Swinnerton cycles and the first thing you are confronted by a £7500.00 bike (seriously off-putting to the sport imo and immediately gives the impression it's only for the rich and wealthy).
3. my love of buying and tinkering with bike bits, at a time when everything seems to be getting incredibly expensive.
4. the fact that 'standards' seem to keep changing every 6 months and what was a 2 year old bike suddenly feels outdated and massively de-valued.
5. the sheer amount of fun you can have for very little spend... i.e you can pick up a complete retrobike for the cost of a single modern day MTB tyre!

Couldn't have put it better myself, spot on! :xmas-wink:
 
Of course what they don't tell people is that a retro mtb can be faster than an expensive modern one if the retro has fast rolling tyres and tubes (or tubeless), vs a modern with slow rolling entry level tyres like the cheaper models from Maxxis or Schwalbe, and bog standard butyl inner tubes.

My own recent experience is that modern big wheels are 10-15% faster than 26 just from the size difference, but also that using low rolling resistance inner tubes (I use 10 quid latex tubes) or going tubeless can gain you about 5% per wheel, and choosing a fast rolling tyre like some of the Schwalbes can gain you an additional 5% per wheel, depending on how fast/slow rolling the old tyres were. In other words, you can make a 26er MTB, retro or not, as fast as a modern 29er if you spec faster rolling tyres and tubes. If you have a quite limited budget, then you probably still get the best value for money upgrading a 26er to faster rolling tyres and tubes, rather than spending the same (or even more) on a modern 29er.
 
ultrazenith":304utk9u said:
Of course what they don't tell people is that a retro mtb can be faster than an expensive modern one if the retro has fast rolling tyres and tubes (or tubeless), vs a modern with slow rolling entry level tyres like the cheaper models from Maxxis or Schwalbe, and bog standard butyl inner tubes.

My own recent experience is that modern big wheels are 10-15% faster than 26 just from the size difference, but also that using low rolling resistance inner tubes (I use 10 quid latex tubes) or going tubeless can gain you about 5% per wheel, and choosing a fast rolling tyre like some of the Schwalbes can gain you an additional 5% per wheel, depending on how fast/slow rolling the old tyres were. In other words, you can make a 26er MTB, retro or not, as fast as a modern 29er if you spec faster rolling tyres and tubes. If you have a quite limited budget, then you probably still get the best value for money upgrading a 26er to faster rolling tyres and tubes, rather than spending the same (or even more) on a modern 29er.

It's odd because on my modern MTB's I've found I like 29er and I also have a 650B+ running fairly heavy tyres/rims. I really seem to favour the bigger wheels over a 26er, I put this mainly down to the fact that once you get upto speed they just roll and roll... me and my mate rode the same piece of of trail at a trailcentre, he on full sus 650B and me on my hardtail 29er and I could just roll and roll and roll, whereas he was actually pedaling to keep up with me (must admit though, I was pumping into every single dip ;) haha). Its a massive discussion point and will be for ages to come... wheel size!
 

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