Folks

Am looking to replace the families bicycles pending our 2 weeks in cornwall in the summer. When driving to Meadowhall, I've noticed outside the pub opposite the Retail Park a truck with a load of cycles. I seem to recall they do buy one get one free ( I may be wrong but at 30mph its hard to check!!!)

Anyone bought bikes from here that can recommend them or not?

Am looking to buy 4 new bikes (3 adult, 1 kiddies) so if anyone knows elsewhere that is cheap, local or online, please could you drop me a line or post on here - cheers in advance

I got my sons bike from Sterling House (http://www.sterlinghouse.co.uk) for Christmas. It's a really nice red and black mountain bike and cost me just £39.99 + about £7 (i think) P&P. They do all kinds of bikes and they are really cheap. It was delivered in less than 7 days and was perfect.

Definately worth a look.

Hmmmmmm very very tempting

Many thanks FF

Originally posted by rooby_roo
Anyone bought bikes from here that can recommend them or not?

I'd say not. My friend bought one and the plastic brake handles snapped the first time he went down a hill.

We had a look at them last year when we were buying bikes for the kids for christmas,and they were s***e !
All the flashy graphic labels were peeling off,and the materials that they were made out of were really cheap.
We decided to give them an extremely wide berth,and plumped for Langsett cycles instead.Excellent service and all bikes assembled by someone who has been in the business for years.

I wouldnt go anywhere near one of them cheap nasty £39.99 death traps. At the end of the day you get what you pay for when it comes to bikes. Pay £40 for a mountain bike and i use the words mountain bike very loosely cus the first time you hit any decent bump in the road the frame & forks could well snap.

Trek do some excellent bikes www. trekbike . co.uk

Your best bet is to go to a real bike shop, J E James, Langsetts even Decathlon do some very good bikes at a good price.

I'm with the above 3 posts - those cheap bikes are awful - in a word.

For that sort of price you get plastic parts where they really should be metal, you get cheap overweight weak materials, and unreliable componenets that will wear and break up very quickly.

Don't underestimate the importance of quality bicycles. Remember you can regularly travel <20MPH and if the cheap suspension gives way, or the headtube breaks clean off, it's straight to hospital.

Avoid any bikes with suspension or disk brakes too - that sort of stuff means that they will have made savings on other parts of the bike to make it financially viable. Sacrificing quality for bouncy shiney parts is not a good idea.

Any bike loaded with surprising amounts of kit such as front and rear shocks and disk brakes are to be avoided unless your going to spend upwards of £600 IMO.

Head to Langsett or JEJames and tell them what you want. They know what they are talking about and will help you get the best quality stuff for your money.

Edit: just for reference and an idea of how cheaply-made some bikes are, the shock unit in my avatar is a fairly run-of-the-mill mountain bike shock and it costs about £300 on it's own. That's an indication of the sort of money you have to pay for good quality suspension bikes. Anything less shouldn't really be trusted. At the cheaper end of the market, stick with good quality, traditional rigid frames.

You could also try Recycle on attercliffe road. it is an organisation that takes in bikes returns them to their former glory and sells tham at good prices. They also have new bikes that are usually discontinued lines so you can pick up a brand new mountain bike (reputable companies they had specialilized and muddy fox when i went in) for a lot cheaper than they would have been the year before.

ive been trying to get a mate of mine interested in getting out on a bike this summer,cost is a major factor,
he said he'd found one,but i talked him out of it when i saw it,
cost around £60 and full suss,
wheras i do agree with jackthedog (my new suss forks cost me £200 on my lurvely cannondale) i dont agree that anyone has to pay several hundreds of £'s to be able to ride,
id set a budget of around £150 - £250 for a bike that'l last for more than a summers quiet riding round the cannals,
as said..go with rigid forks,forget any full suss unless your going to spend around £600,

life is important.....don't risk it,

JJ..

I have to agree with the above post's when it comes to buying suspension bikes. I worked at Langsett Cycles (Mansfield Rd) for nearly 5 years.
When a certain large manufacturer released their front suspension bikes, everyone was happy. Then the MK2 version came out and the flex in the front suspension was so much that we deliberately stopped recommending them!.

I have 2 ATB's at the moment and both of them are rigid frames. IMO there is no need for any suspension unless you are going to be doing serious off road stuff. I definitely wouldn't have suspension on a bike used for commuting or riding around say..Rother Valley.

Originally posted by FetishFairy
I got my sons bike from Sterling House (http://www.sterlinghouse.co.uk) for Christmas. It's a really nice red and black mountain bike and cost me just £39.99 + about £7 (i think) P&P. They do all kinds of bikes and they are really cheap. It was delivered in less than 7 days and was perfect.

Definately worth a look. these cycles sold by sterling house if im right are mail order catalogue returns the price can be as low as £39.99 for an adult mountain bike i think they may have the odd scratch mark but i cant see a problem as they have to reach a safety standard for sale as for cycles with plastic brakes you also see these on the more expensive bikes in the shops and again they have got to be of a certain safety standard , so in my opinion shop around , get the best price .

Originally posted by tinker
as for cycles with plastic brakes you also see these on the more expensive bikes in the shops

Keh? What models? Where? How much?

My son was badly injured when the frame seperated at the head and a piece went into his throat. The bike was a Triang. Langsett have been in business for a very long time, as have Albert Butterworths on Abbeydale Road. I own a Cannondale Mountain bike which is American made like Trek, and a Peugout Pro road bike, as well as a lovely old Bianchi town bike made in 1947, which is my favorite.

Originally posted by tinker
as for cycles with plastic brakes you also see these on the more expensive bikes in the shops

well carbon fibre is generally layered with with nylon... ;)



i've built plenty of cheap bikes (around £70-150) and they aint nice, bad enough to work on let alone ride... but i guess they're built for that 3-4 times a year use rather that 3-4 times a week that i use mine. hence i payed a bit more...

Originally posted by daevh
i've built plenty of cheap bikes (around £70-150) and they aint nice, bad enough to work on let alone ride... but i guess they're built for that 3-4 times a year use rather that 3-4 times a week that i use mine. hence i payed a bit more...

Well, you say you use it 52 times as often as those cheap bikes are designed to be used for.

So should it be 52 times the £70 cost of the cheap stuff?

Dont even think that gets us near to your 'bit more'.

Originally posted by jackthedog
Well, you say you use it 52 times as often as those cheap bikes are designed to be used for.

So should it be 52 times the £70 cost of the cheap stuff?

Dont even think that gets us near to your 'bit more'.


not too far off though...


it'll do me till i can afford to change to the wonderful Nicolai Nucleon TFR (http://www.nicolai.net/order/nucleon-tfr.html)... end of the summer is looking good.

Glad to see the general advise is to stay well away from cheap bikes.

Aside from the overall quality and safety issues, the design of something costing that bit more will make the whole experience of cycling much more rewarding.

You are buying a bike with the intention to either go somewhere or have fun (or both).

A higher quality bike from a known manufacturer will be lighter, with a better selection of components. Less weight, brakes that stop and gears that go will mean during the use you do get, you have more fun - get where you are going easier!

Also, the resale value will be higher if it doesn't work out.

On a purely practical level, imagine how many components a bike is made up from. Now break out the cost of the bike into the pieces (don't forget bearings, cables, spokes, tyres, bolts as well as frame, forks, handlebars). Then think what else you get for the money. To me it just doesn't add up. And that's not written as a biker but as an Engineer.

Pop to a reputable shop and have a test ride on both and then choose. Just be aware that the authors of the frame breaking stories in here are not alone!

Originally posted by daevh
well carbon fibre is generally layered with with nylon... ;)



i've built plenty of cheap bikes (around £70-150) and they aint nice, bad enough to work on let alone ride... but i guess they're built for that 3-4 times a year use rather that 3-4 times a week that i use mine. hence i payed a bit more... so what you are saying is bikes under 150 quid are not suitable for regular daily use ? , i have to disagree with you on this i have worked on and used such cycles for many years , and i say if the cycle is used looked after and maintained regularly it will last for many years i have one now that was not an expensive bike when new it is nearly 30 years old and would still be good enough for regular daily use , so as for you saying the lower priced bike is only built for 3 / 4 times a year use is a load of rubbish what are they made for then ornamental reasons ? .

Originally posted by tinker
so what you are saying is bikes under 150 quid are not suitable for regular daily use ? , i have to disagree with you on this i have worked on and used such cycles for many years , and i say if the cycle is used looked after and maintained regularly it will last for many years i have one now that was not an expensive bike when new it is nearly 30 years old and would still be good enough for regular daily use , so as for you saying the lower priced bike is only built for 3 / 4 times a year use is a load of rubbish what are they made for then ornamental reasons ? .


Under some peoples use they might be fine and work for years. For what i use my current bike for then no, they would not last much more than a week probably... In fact, in any sort of proper off-road situations (i'm talking about more that the average semi surfaced paths) i don't think they'd last very long at all whoever the rider.

A poorly designed bike made from cheap materials isn't going to keep running however much it is maintained. If it did i would have saved myself over £3500k and done that. I take performance of a bike seriously too, generally you get what you pay for in the bike world.

But we're talking about bikes at complete opposites of the spectrum now, a bit off-topic.

For people who buy bikes for there kids, please don't listen to the age old saying off 'get them a bigger frame and they will grow into it'.

Your much better off going to an independent bike shop, where they will fit the bike correctly to the child so they will have a much more enjoyable time riding it. Also you can test ride them there. They aren't going to flog you sh*te as if you like the product and customer service your more likely to go back for other bike parts.

Cheap bikes can be nasty. But for those who aren't sure about biking it can be a good stop gap method until you actually decide if you seriously want to get into the sport or not.

You should be paying upwards of £350 if you want to use the bike several times a week and go off-road on the bike will ride more comfortably and will last longer.

I have had my bike years now and its still going strong, I paid around the £450 back in 1998.

I also agree on the suspension part, if you not going to do serious off-road mountain biking then there really isn't much point to having it as it requires much more effort to ride a suspension bike on-road.

Avoid disc brakes, as they really aren't needed, v-brakes are more than good enough are cheaper to maintain and service.

Its just a shame bike manufacturers have stopped making chromoly steel bikes nowadays except from those in the majorly expensive bike bracket. Chromoly is such a nicer rider and feel to aluminium.

HI,
I get 120 mm (4 3/4") of travel from my front forks,1/2 in sag when i sit my fat ar$e on the saddle,super plush ect,turn a lever and they lock up to 15mm (3/4") and feel amazing for use on the rd,but as you say....

"I also agree on the suspension part, if you not going to do serious off-road mountain biking then there really isn't much point to having it as it requires much more effort to ride a suspension bike on-road."

mine dont weigh that much more than normal rigid forks but if they arnt used then its dead weight being moved around,
if i was going to buy a primaraly road use bike, then id go for thinner tyres and a lighter simpler frame,
id still stick to "mountain bike" rather than road / racer type as they are more comfatable,

buy a good one and il see ya's over wharncliffe (if the moto x'rs get out the way :rant:
JJ..