Modern bikes are they lardy?!

mattpayne":fgmryejs said:

Its been a long time since Ive had any interest in modern bikes, but I have a friend that would like to upgrade her old town bike to something a little more trail friendly - has to be new to fit the bike to work scheme...

so about a grand is the budget - easy! aluminium hard tail with front suspension, some newfangled 1x10 drivetrain 28-29" wheels and an overal weight in the low 20lb region

all the bikes seem to fit the bill - sort of - tyres are all 2.8"wide or thereabouts!! thats nuts! and the weights are crazy! for example, a Cannondale Cujo tips the scales at 14.5kg - ~30lbs?! back in the day a CAAD3 with headshok era bike would have been low 20's!!!

whats happening with the world!!??

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Cube access ws sl. Wife loves her access race, the sl is on budget for your friend, lighter than 30lbs and doesn’t have balloon tyres.

Generally I would agree though, too much trail and knarly focus not enough of fitness building xc.

Carl.

Same as it always has been really with lower end bikes.

Best thing would be to find a selection of bikes in your price range and research and read as many owner reviews as possible, they obviously dont need sub-catagory specific bike eg: slack angles, long travel, exotic lightweight materials, blah blah, just something trustworthy and fit for the intended purpose. Some shops offer demos which is a good idea when you have it down to a couple of bikes. People i know who have demoed bikes rarely end up with the one they had their heart on as it never quite feels right.

I've never actually bought a new bike, but if I was planning to I'd certainly try as many as poss., rather than browsing reviews or whatever. Such a personal thing with bikes, you can't rely on specifications, including the weight, it's a feel thing. As the old saying goes, " The best eggs don't always make the best ice cream".. One of my favourite bikes (I'm well into double figures) is the '95 Kästle 3.5 that LGF sold me for the princely sum of £35. Modest spec, but it just feels right to me in every way. Some of my bikes are worth 10x the Kāstle's price. I hope you can help your friend find her equivalent.

Comparing old bikes to new is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. You eat both, but your not expecting the same flavour.

25 years ago bikes were designed for xc use....yes, we all threw them off cliffs and did stupid stuff, but we weren't suprised when they broke doing it.

Now everybody expects a bike to be ok to throw off a cliff and would be suprised if it broke. So stronger wheels go on, suspension ( because the young apparently dont have knees anymore) bigger brakes.......la la la...all makes for a heavier bike, unless you spend serious cash.

But it's not really for the same thing, nor it it the same job of work.

I set myself a challenge to build a "modern style" xc bike for less than £200. Its 9.4kg. Fantastic on trails, but would I downhill it.....not a chance..