What should I look for in a cheap mountain bike

08-27-2004, 05:45 PM

I would like to get into cycling, I dont intend to do any really
serious off roading or anything competative, I just want a basic
mountain bike for roads/parks etc.

The kind of bikes I have seen are advertised from £70 ($120) to about
£150 ($270), but I want to know if £70 is too good to be true? Will it
fall apart the first bump I ride over, or is a £70 bike fine so long
as I dont actually want to ride down a mountain on it?

...when making my decision what points should I look out for? - ie I
asume things like number/type of gears is important and weight? - how
heavy should a bike like this be, will it make a big difference to
normal riding if its a bit on the heavy side?

Is it worth paying for one with suspension, or is this only really
needed for cycling down Everest?

Is there a particular make of gears that is good/bad? Will it make a
difference?

I notice that a lot of expensive bikes have brake disks in the middle,
I assume this is so they dont get wet, does this make a great
difference?

Finally, any recommendations as to where to buy it (uk) - ie ive seen
some 'ok' looking bikes at Halfords...

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...and some even cheaper ones at ToysRUs (yeah I know a bikes not
really a toy!)...

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...any advice would be grately appreciated!

Thanks

David Bevan

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