I'm looking to purchase a mountain bike to go riding with my kids. i'm planning on spening between $200- 250. When I started looking Ihad no idea there were so many different types of bikes. I would appereciate any help or guidance in this area. Any idea were to look for a used bike. Thanks

 

Try putting an ad in your local news paper and you'll probably hear from many used bicycle sales people?You may get in on repairs also...tune-ups whatever.

 

In my humble opinion you cannot get a beter spec'd bike for $250 then the Iron Horse Maverick. yes there are many manufacturers. However I also suggest that you ride evrything you can in your price range, and find out what fits you the best and feels right to you.
It it after all going to be the bike thst YOU ride. Also getting a service plan that you like that gives you a window to learn some basic repair skills is a good thing.

 

I've been out of the buying market for a while, so I won't even venture an opinion about makes and models. Precision Pedal's advice about finding a bike that fits and feels good is excellent- you can spend a whole paycheck on a state of the art bike, but if it doesn't fit you then you'll hate it and never ride it.

If you're new to this then can I suggest reading up a little about how and why a bike should fit you? A good bike shop can offer advice about fitting the bike to you- they may have used bikes, too- and if the bike is close but not perfect they can often install a handlebar stem or seatpost to make it perfect. Maybe you'll find that Iron Horse Maverick!

A hint about bike shops: EVERYBODY goes to the bike shop on a beautiful Saturday, thinking they'll buy a bike or have their old clunker repaired right then and there. If you go off-hours you'll get closer, more personal attention.

Have fun!

 

Hey,
I have a used Royce Union Mountain Bike In outstanding shape! i bought it 2 years ago for $375 and only rode it a maxumum of 12 miles I would let it go for $200 E-mail me if your interested Swimjet29@yahoo.com

 

I believe this is a BS post. Of you actually paid that kind of cash for that bike you got ripped off bad. Considering that current models of these dept. store bikes do not exceed $130, I think you are trying to rip off someone else.

 

Its a professional Bike Everything on it is top notch i got a deal on it it was $450 Retail i have the paperwork and recepts to prove it. I bought it from Sports Authority. (The Nation wide Chain)

 

OK well I apologize for making it sound like a scam. However R.U. bikes are dept. store level bikes. When you speak of "top notch" R.U. is not a bike that is known for high level qualty. I have repaired numerous R.U. bikes over the years and would not equate their bikes for anything other than beginner equipment.

 

Royce Union has never been a top notch anything.
And trust me, at $250 all bikes (from a shop) are relatively the same. Size is the one thing you want to pay particular attention to. A bike shop employee will be able to fit you proper. All you need to do is decide if you want a mountain bike, a city bike, a road bike or god forbid, a cruiser. A lot of bike shops take trade-ins and therefore have a used bike selection. Ask for opinions (stay away from the "it's an awesome downhiller" advice). I would use a city bike if you encounter little dirt, a mountain bike if you encounter a lot of dirt or even a considerable amount of sand and I NEVER suggest a raod bike to anyone unless they looking to do road riding (my idea of road riding is a 50 mile ride to the bagel shop two towns over). I am a hardcore mountain bike rider and have worked in bike shops for 12 years. Do not shop at dept. stores for bikes (that includes REI, Sports Country. Develope a relation with your bike shop. If your local bike shop is snobbish (proshop), find another that seems geared towards your liking. A really good city bike, if you want comfort, is the GT line of "Streams" (windstream, airstream, etc.) These are geared towards the comfort of a cruiser with the ease of a city bike. I don't believe they make these anymore so, you would have to find one used.

 

One more vote for going to a real bike shop and looking at name-brand bikes (Trek, Giant, Specialized, etc). Department store bikes are poorly made in the first place, then assembled by the stockboy when he's not re-arranging the toaster display. I wouldn't trust a Huffy or Royce Union to get me to the end of the block until I had gone through every bolt myself.

A $250 Trek still won't be a fabulous bike, but at least you can trust the shop to not to put the fork on backwards...

 

Better hope that RU isn't one of these... http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml00/00031.html

FYI. RU has upped it production to the level of low to mid-line bikes. Using 7000 series aluminum and mid-line Shimano parts, RU is a far better bike than it's Huffy-esque design of the '70s and '80s. Also remember, many of the quality bikes are now being sold in Dept. stores (Schwinn, Mongoose, Diamond Back), I refuse to buys these because there is no adequate support for rider. It's a "take it home and you're on your own" deal. The 1999 model "Performance 2000" is $500 bike. This is far from top-of-line. My bike was TOL awhile ago and it cost $2200. This will get you upper-middle line of bikes nowadays. With Top-Notch now hitting $5000, RU has a lonnnnng way to go.

 

my mom works at walmart and she ihas a good friend named walter and he assembles, repairs, and cleans bikes all day. i had a probelm with my bike and he was nice enough to come to our house after a days worth of work and fix my bike. aparently i had broke a gear because it was locked up and i didn't know it. he told me to get a new bike because this one would not last. anyway that has been over a year and the bime still runs fine. so if you want two good bike brands from walmart get a next or the $150-200 mongoose. they are both a bang for your buck.
p.s. murray and huffy are both good bikes as well. i have had two huffys and they both lasted me years throgh weather and everything. just keep em oiled and aired and you should be alright. good luck and get you a good bike because anyone that rides is considered a friend of mine.

 

As I stated in my last post, Many "Bike shop" bikes (bikes previously only sold by bike shops) are being sold in Dept. stores. Many of the previously badly made bikes (Huffy, Murray, RU and so on) are being made to industry standards. This was never the case during the '70 and through to the '90s. What you lose going to a dept store and paying the same price is service. Bike shops tune-up their bikes for free anywhere from 1 year to even "lifetime" (it's usually part of the sales program). This is simply tune-ups (which prevents 90% of parts failures), not repairs. Also many "bike shop" bikes come with a "servicable" guarantee on the frame. If you happen to get a guarantee on the dept. store bike, you still have to pay to have someone put it back together.

There's not a bike in the Dept store that won't fail under my normal riding. My bike (and I so want a new bike, I'm just going to have to break down and buy a new one soon) was made in 1989 by me, in the shop that I ran for 12 years and I still ride the hell out of it. Just got back from a weekend in Holcomb Valley (Big Bear) where one of my rides was a 20 mile, 2,400' ft/gain ride and a monster descent that would toast ANY dept. store bike no matter who rode it.

Now I don't expect people to ride the way I do and the original poster was only buying to ride with his kids. I've seen more bikes that I sold go from the kid that used to ride on the back with dad to being that kids first full size bike. These bikes are meant to last a long time and you need your shop for that.

 

Hey guys. A buddy of mine works at a product development firm and he gave me a flyer for this mountain bike that they are selling discounted. I've never heard of the brand before (Voxer) because apparently they were sold in South America. Anyway, they are clearing out their warehouse for a move and dumping these high end mountain bikes at a highly discounted rate. Even though the brand is unknown here, it seems to be made of recognizable high-end parts such as Shimano, Manitou, and Mavic. The website showing details is at www.bigskymountainbike.com but you can download a spec sheet at www.bigskymountainbike.com/voxer.jpg. Anyways, thought it may interest some of you. It's worth a look.
-Rob

 

That's a fairly decent spec for a bike in that price range. A couple of things I'd be concerned about, though - first, if the frame cracks, there would be no warranty support. Throw it away. Second, DNM doesn't have much of track record yet. Not that it's crap, just not a known quantity. Oh, and third - there's no way to make sure it fits before you buy it.

As for the improving quality of Huffy and RU, I do hope that is the case. Here in Canada, the department store equivalents are CCM's and Supercycle (possibly the most misleading brand name ever). Both are complete clunkers, most often with hi-tensile frames and stamped-steel brake arms, cup-and-cone BB's etc.

If anything, these bikes have become worse over time. Same crappy build and components as always, but mountain bike fashion dictates over-size tubes and full-suspension. So the 30 pound CCM 10-speed of the 1980's has now become a 45 pound anchor that is far heavier than it needs to be for tooling around the streets but too crappy to actually ride trails.

Scarier yet, I've seen a lot of these now with double-crown forks. I shudder to think of how quickly the head tube will snap off when some kid starts jumping the thing like Richey Schley.