Help with buying MTB

[mervyn18]

Hello,
I'm in Sydney and want to buy a mountain bike under $600 and found 2 bikes that I'm interested in.
They are Merida Big Seven 40 (http://www.this link is broken/Merida-2017 ... Matt-Black, http://www.99bikes.com.au/merida-big-se ... -grey-2017# [99 bikes offer a price beat option] ) and
Totem Roam 27.5 (http://www.this link is broken/Totem-Roam-27-5) [have never heard of the brand]

I can't choose which bike to go for.
I'm new to mountain biking and looking to do just some basic riding.
Please advice me on which bike to go for and suggestions for other options.

Thanks in advance!

[trailgumby]

Take them for a test ride, preferably on the same day.

I am not a fan of those cheapie Suntour forks. Had an earlier version on my son's first dually. Not because they're boat anchor heavy - that's a given at that price point - but because I found it impossible to tune them so they worked properly. The rebound adjustment does very little and there isn't enough range in the preload adjustment to get the right amount of sag.

Why are those adjustments important? A badly tuned fork can easily send you off the front of the bike when descending, and create poor tyre contact with the ground when you need it most. Fortunately Manly Dam wasn't as rough back then as it is now.

No idea what the other fork is haven't heard of the brand. Could be better (can't be worse), but with the unknown brand getting service parts could be an issue.

Apart from that, they seem relatively equal and the rest of the spec seems quite reasonable.

My suggestion would be to look into a secondhand 26er with better forks and running gear, or (better) a 29er.

What size frame are you looking at getting?

[mervyn18]

Thank you for the reply!
I'm probably getting a medium size frame.
What should I look for in second hand bikes because I have no idea what is good.

[trailgumby]

How tall are you?

Anything with Deore level Shimano or better will be good enough.

Hmmm... slim pckings on eBay. This could be worth a look... Not enough detail on what fork is on it, but from the photo looks to be RockShox. Confirm before parting with cash.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Trek-Mamba-2 ... SwrfVZXiEn

[mervyn18]

Thanks for the link!
I'm around 5' 8" (170cm).
I've postponed my plan to buy a bike to next year because I don't think I will be able to do much riding this year and will save my and increase my budget.
How much should I aim for to get a decent bike with good components?

[bychosis]

One man's decent is another man's junk level. But...I think $1500 seems to be a decent price level to get decent quality components. Having said that it really depends on what sort of riding you will be doing. Tame trails can be handled on a $600 bike, and your investment is not as large if you find you don't end up riding as much. A $600 bike will handle fire trails really well, but not so much the single track rough stuff.

The biggest difference in equipment on a hard tail mountain bike is the forks for reasons outlined above, followed by the brakes. The brakes make a big difference and hydraulic is significantly better than cable, but good v-brakes are better than cheap disc brakes. All the other stuff IMO works well enough that it will be fine for all but aggressive riding.

[Calvin27]

For basic riding, anything is fine. Don't worry about the fork or groupset. Brakes are important first and foremost. I'd be choosing hydraulics as a minimum.

Groupsets will wear so replace those as you go. Better forks are a huge improvement but likewise the prices follows.

A $600 level bike should get you going at the trails. A lot of people here have ridden for a long time and won't recommend it for single track but I disagree. Either of those two bike will handle singletrack. The other consideration is the merida will have better resale when you inevitably want to upgrade to dual suspension .