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So, Mrs Poly is looking to acquire a new set of wheels (probably £1000 ish on a hardtail after much hardtail v's full suss debate). She keeps bringing me specs asking which is better. Being a mere mortal I don't actually know...
SRAM have very helpfully coded all their stuff with numbers - bigger no = better (this sort of logic I can deal with).
I thought Shimano went: Alivio < SL < Deore < XT < XTR ? But now I see things listed as "Deore XT" etc, and "SLX". I wonder if it makes sense for your target market to be unsure which of your products is better!
Then if move to brakes then within the Avid range it seems Juicy < Elixir and presumably 3 < 5 so Juicy 3 < Juicy 5 < Elixir 3 < Elixir 5 < Elixir R (or CR?)
Tektro seem to have a baffling range of names with added pro and comp suffixes.
But how does this compare across brands? So e.g. is an XT chainset roughly similar to an SRAM X.7 ? Which Avid brakes are the same level as the Shimano BR-M486 or the Tektro Drako?
And then forks become even more confusing, with RS Reba RL, RLT, XX and Recon in Gold, Silver, R, RL, and TK flavours with it seems their being 100, or 120 mm travel versions available too... And how do those compare to RST's or Fox?
All this before we even get into the minutiae of headsets, bottom brackets and hubs!
So to the crux of my post - is there a recognised list / scale which describes the relative market positions of all these?
Shimano range goes deore, slx, (deore) xt, xtr
Rockshox forks go something like Tora/sector/domain (depending on travel), then reba/revelation are the nextstep up
Then you have options such as qr versus maxle axles, different damping, spring, and adjustment options, and different steerer materials.
As a quick guide, forks with a steel spring rather than air will be cheaper but heavier, same with a steel steerer versus an alloy one, more adjustment=more money, most will come with the motion control damping though which is pretty good for general use.
A basic elixir brake is probably equivalent to a shimano deore and so on...
It's hard to compare one bike to the next so don't get too bogged down with the minutae of spec, because stuff wears out, personal preference with contact points etc so go for the one that feels best. There is always a market for selling bits on here that you don't get on with or want to upgrade. At that price there will be some great (and not so great) bikes out there so try them out before you buy
Oh, and for comparing SRAM to Shimano groupsets, Deore is equivalent to X5, SLX to X7, XT to X9, and X0 to XTR. I think!
thanks
that is actually proving harder than you might think! She's only 5'3" so that forces her towards small, and probably small woman specific frames (she currently has a Specialised Hardrock Womans Small frame which is a good fit - but the shocks are dreadful and the brakes are cable disks - so anything new will be amazing by comparison!).[b]Slowrider:[/b] At that price there will be some great (and not so great) bikes out there so try them out before you buy
Because of the size constraints very few places seem to have any stock so even trying one in the shop or car park is tricky and a real demo is harder still.
Collect together the likely suspects and then post them up, then expect many conflicting answers and no clear consensus.
Frame, forks and wheels are what to concentrate on. Other stuff is important but has a lesser effect on the feel of the bike.
my missus is 5'5" and happily rides a small Cannondale(mens frame)when she isn't 8 months pregnant.
[b]akira[/b]Collect together the likely suspects and then post them up, then expect many conflicting answers and no clear consensus.
OK I was specifically trying to avoid a "which bike... thread".
But here's the spec. 5'3" woman, (weighs about 8 stone so the weight of the bike will be a big portion of the total mass), early 30s but only been riding seriously for a couple of years, mostly local routes, some trail centres (reds) - but "cross country" rather than "jumps" or "downhill". Done one multiday ride and wants to do more but family commitments mean she'll not be doing that more that a couple of times a year. She's a once a week type of rider. Friends ride better bikes and are usually faster on the ups. Some friends more aggressive than her but some much more timid. She rode a friends full sus and was taken by it - but is now thinking that a lighter/faster on the ups hard tail with less maintainence will give similar fun - and get better forks and bits for the money. The budget is £1000 ish - we're stricktly one bike per person in this house - so this has to last at least 4 or 5 years! She's still improving her technique and has bigger balls than me so is likely to be confidently riding blacks with 2ft drop offs within the lifetime of this bike,
The shortlist she has printed off the specs for are:
Ghost MISS 7000 Recon
Cube 2011 Access WLS SL
Lapierre Tecnic 700 Lady
Lapierre Pro Race 200 Lady
Kona KULA LISA
Scott Contessa Scale 10
Oh we might need a crash course in wheels then as to me they are just round things that join the tyres to the bike!Frame, forks and wheels are what to concentrate on. Other stuff is important but has a lesser effect on the feel of the bike.
Poly - I'm 5'3" too and have ridden quite a few different frames over the last couple of years - some women specific, some not. If you / Mrs Poly would like some unbiased advice on frames, sizing, or different kit - I'd be more than happy to help. I'm a complete bike geek so it'd be a pleasure! Give me a shout on juliet.f.johnson@gmail.com if you want to take me up on the offer. Cheers!
she certainly wouldn't rule out a small man's frame - but it would be all the more important that they had one to try for size.[b]carlosg[/b]my missus is 5'5" and happily rides a small Cannondale(mens frame)when she isn't 8 months pregnant.
Just to confuse things a bit Elixr Rs are the old Elixr 5s.
Fork wise,
Tora, Recon, Reba, Revelations IIRC (tho Reba / revs are pretty simular). RSTs are generally a bit budget (at least in reputation. Some people think fox forks are better than RS, but owning both I disagree (i'd buy another set of RS).
Juliet - thanks I'll pass on your email address to Mrs P.
Ewan thanks for that. My feeling was RSTs were low end - but I wasn't sure if they did high end too.
They confuse things every so often by releasing a more high end fork (and in the olden days they made things like the legendary(?) mozo pros) but essentially they're a bit budget. That said when compared to budget RSs like Tora's there probably isn't any real difference.
Just a quick note to say she picked up a Cube Access WLS 2011 from The Bike Chain yesterday. Thanks for your feedback folks especially to Juliet (Mountain Monkey) for her off line discussion with Mrs Poly.
She seems to be happy with the purchase so far (well except when she fell off yesterday)!