YOUR MAIL, PHOTOS, IDEAS & RANTS
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STAR LETTER WINS...
Lezyne CNC Tubeless Drive hand pump & Lezyne Tubeless Pro Plugs repair kit worth £104
THAT’S GOTTA HURT WINS...
ABUS MoDrop do-it-all trail helmet worth £90
SHOT OF THE MONTH WINS...
DMR V11 pedals, DMR Stage 2 saddle and DMR Deathgrips worth £107
INSTA-BANGERS WINS...
Complete Motul bike care range worth £97.50
STAR LETTERTHE RULE OF HALVES
My bike is a good bike, but not a new bike. Her geometry is so-five-years-ago, her cassette has a meagre nine sprockets and a mechanic recently told me that servicing her shock is no longer economically viable. Which is unfortunate, because she’s still capable of way more than I’ll ever ask of her as a rider, and upgrading is a terrifying prospect.
The price of Sunday mornings in the trees has long since left the realms of ‘eye-watering’ and become, frankly, vulgar. You can spend £15k on a bike, if you want! I understand that frames and parts are expensive to make, and the people who put them together are highly skilled. But £15k? When you can get a decent pre-loved MTB for £1.5k to £2k (as long as you’re careful you’re not buying somebody else’s problems) or a new one for £3.5k?
If I dropped £15k on a new bike, it’d solve my servicing problems, but also seriously affect my budget for, well, everything else. What use is a brand-spanker full-sus if I can’t afford the diesel to get it to the forest, never mind all the other things I want to do with the time that’s left to me?
I was chatting to Peter Jones, World Cup mechanic and proprietor of Mourne Mountain Goat here in Castlewellan. He said customers often come in wanting the latest, shiniest kit they’ve seen on Instagram, even if they don’t need a bike of that spec for their riding level, and when they can’t afford it, it’s making them depressed. “I tell them it’s about the forest, the whole experience, not just the bike,” Peter told me, “but people are just not hearing it.”
So, how much should you spend on your next bike? I
