Mountian Bike

[DaveInDenver]

Maybe, but the lurk was traditional in Norwegian telemarking :ylsmoke:

Yup, it is. So are leather boots, unedged skinny wood skis, leather strap bindings (get it, all that leather, i.e. 'riding the cow'). I'm just sayin' is all. A lurk is cool and has some devotees (i.e. the TeleStick). I find it awkward, but could see the benefits since I tend to trip over poles and end up dragging them anyway. When I make a conscious effort to plant my poles I do ski better. A lurk would probably keep me from getting a lazy upper body fer sure.

 

[29er]

Flounder speaks the truth, btw, about the technical uphills, including switchbacks. And it's something that surprised me when I first got on a 29er because I had read over and over about how they "accelerate slowly." So I'm thinking of the super-steep and loose climbs we have around here and the way that I often come to a complete stop, regain my balance and then have to turn the pedals again to keep going...

Guess what? The way 29" wheels roll makes them IDEAL for that. In fact, I would say that a 29" wheel's #1 advantage is technical, rocky, loose, slow-speed climbing on steep stuff.

IMO, most of the myths about 29" wheels are... myths. Armchair physicists poo-pooing, is all. I actually bought a 29" bike because I didn't believe and wanted to be able to say, "I owned one and it was awful." Then I rode one and found it was faster, just as nimble, quite a bit more comfortable, climbs really well and the wheels are not any weaker than 26" wheels (for my applications).

 

[brut4s]

Yesterday I went on a test ride on a Mongoose hard tail and a GT F/S, any thoughts on either one?

 

[Christophe Noel]

Yesterday I went on a test ride on a Mongoose hard tail and a GT F/S, any thoughts on either one?

GT was pretty awesome for most of the late 80s through the mid 90s. Julie Furtado laid down the hurt on her GT for many moons with guys like Jimmie Killen, etc. Unfortunately, the GT of yester year is gone. The first death blow came when the sold out to Pacific Group who quickly put GTs in discount stores. The brand is coming back, but in some ways damaged goods. Mongoose had a brief hey day in the early 80s as a BMX label. Again, not really something I'd invest in. Mongoose is definately Wally World territory.

There are some other "second tier" labels that have really ramped up their offerings. Redline is one. Jamis is another. Fuji has come on pretty strong in the last couple years. I'm by no means a label hunter, but I might steer clear of GT and definately Mongoose.

 

[DaveInDenver]

The Pacific ownership of GT has brought them into Wally World territory, which is unfortunate. The iDrive system isn't half bad and they do still offer decent models. They weren't completely gutted like Schwinn, so I wouldn't steer clear of them outright necessarily. But for sure they are not the same GT as in the 1980s and 1990s. I always felt that GT never recovered from Richard Long's death, they lost their soul in that crash. But I dig my old Zaskar just the same. I got it mainly because of Juliana, well and I got a pro deal at the shop...

Mongoose. Yeah, their heyday was the IBOC with that triangular top tube. That was the bike back then. Now, pretty much no.

Like Flounder says, Redline makes some neat bikes. My CX is a '99 Redline, so it's made it through a decade of commute and race beatings, the longest continuous use without breakage for me on an aluminum frame (although it's getting some curious rattles in the BB, so this might be the last season it tolerates weekend hammerings and mag chloride on the commutes to work). My bud used to ride a Jamis Dakar before going to his current BMC 4 Stroke. Nothing wrong with Jamis fer sure, although he always had issues with the bushings in the rear triangle wearing quickly. The BMC is good frame, but probably a bit above the level you're looking.

The truth is that most of the bikes in the ~$1500 level are going to be made in the same factory in Taiwan, so don't get too hung up on the name. Shop on the frame design and component level.

 

[29er]

There aren't that many brands I'd steer away from, but GT and Mongoose are two of them.

I worked for a GT retailer for 6-7 years until they went Wal Martian. The circa early-90s GTs were great, specifically the hardtails. Our experience at the shop was that even the i-Drive bicycles that performed fairly well needed repair and maintenance far too often.

 

[Cackalak Han]

I always had a thing for a GT Zaskar in the 90's. Wanted one really bad, but ended up with a Fisher Rig ('98). Their hardtails were great, but was never impressed with their F/S offerings. The LTS models didn't feel too great, and they were heavy. I know all F/S models were hefty back then, but comparing to Intense, Spec., Ellsworth, etc., they felt really heavy.

Like others have said, try out a 29er. I did and all of my bikes are 700 wheels now (road and mtn.).

 

[DaveInDenver]

The LTS models didn't feel too great, and they were heavy. I know all F/S models were hefty back then, but comparing to Intense, Spec., Ellsworth, etc., they felt really heavy.

The LTS was a pretty remarkable design when it came out. It pre-dated all the ones you mention by a generation. The first GT dual squish, the RTS, was pretty lousy. But even that worked alright compared to the other stuff, like the Trek 9000 (what a P.O.S. that was). But compared to it's contemporaries, like the Trek 'Y' bikes and the Schwinn URT stuff, the LTS worked pretty well. I remember lusting over the 1995 or so LTS with the Fox ALPS shock and the Ti upper links. Sweet.

By today's standards it was a marginal design, but it was one of the better 2nd gen full suspension systems IMHO. Four-bar linkage and a pretty effective at keeping bobbing down. That's like I was saying, GT up until 1996 was a pretty innovative company, but when Richard Long died they lost their way and got left behind in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The iDrive concept is solid, although they could certainly have done a lot better implementing it and by then they were playing market catch-up and they just could never reclaim the market share. Once Specialized dialed in their 4-bar around 1998, 1999, all the other designs looked pretty bad in comparison and that's when GT was going through it's refocus.

 

[riverfever]

I was working for GT when Richard passed and still with them when they were bought out. I still remeber the day they announced the buy out. I left shortly after that. It was amazing how things turned around and went downhill.

Of course I had several Zaskars over the years but I liked my Lightning (ti) a lot and REALLY LOVED my bubble gum pink Psyclone.

A buddy of mine who's very quick on the dirt and has been racing for almost 30 years just built up a SS Orbea Lanza 29er last week. This guy changes bikes every few months but he called me after his first ride on it. I haven't heard him be excited about a bike in years. Pretty neat.

 

[29er]

A buddy of mine who's very quick on the dirt and has been racing for almost 30 years just built up a SS Orbea Lanza 29er last week. This guy changes bikes every few months but he called me after his first ride on it. I haven't heard him be excited about a bike in years. Pretty neat.

Well, I'm not that guy... not quick and don't have that much race experience... but still, I can totally relate to what he's feeling.

Working in shops, I had a string of bikes that I loved. But my SS 29er was the first bike I LOOOVED. Rekindled my obsession with riding off-road after spending a few years almost exclusively on the road bike.

 

[riverfever]

I need to get a 29er SS frame/fork and take all my SS stuff off the 26 and build one up. I'll probably get a Niner for that but part of me would really like to build up the Alma that way.

 

[brut4s]

Any thoughts on marin bikes? Looking at the 29ers.