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Hello,

My name Ian...little bit about myself.

I am 42 and bored shitless at the weekends.

I am into running and and road biking for fitness (Trek Domane), although at the moment i've got a injury so can't run or ride.

However I quite like the idea of getting into some XC stuff over the winter and it would be great to meet up with some local people but first I need a bike.

Could someone point me in the right direction about buying a bike please
Cheers
Ian.

Try a bike shop ?


just kidding... and welcome. XC is very different to road bike you'll need to just go and sit on as many bikes as you can, try Velo Virtuoso (hadleigh), Leigh cycle center (leigh), les cycles (canvey) You'll need to decide if you want a full suss bike (suspension has changed a lot over the years and is much better designed for efficiency) or a hardtail (front suss only) but you'll want around 120mm travel these days i guess as a minimum and then tune it to your preference, then as your riding speed increases retune it to suit... and so on and so on....

There's a whole bunch of us that head out from Belfairs each week during the evenings and occasionally venture further afield at weekends...

Cheers - Actually I did try a bike shop lol - I went to even at Thurrock but the guy just confused me even more.

I will check out the shop suggested

Ta

Ian.

A good tip is to buy some bike mags and read through reviews of bike gear, etc..Some like MBR often have big sections explaining all the diff bikes and the differences between XC/AM/Freeride/DH, etc

I buy Dirt but that has less reviews and is mainly geared towards the DH side of things.

Thank you Andy

When you say "getting into some XC stuff over winter" can you clarify that ? do you mean riding around the local trails through the woods, or doing something a little more specific ? as this will ultimately dictate which sort of bike you should go for, there are a lot of genrés to choose from and some cross over into each other, here's a basic run down...

http://magazine.bikeradar.com/2010/07/23/different-bike-types/

To be honest i've no idea - I suppose I like the idea of riding the local XC trails like Danbury and Thorndon Woods and meeting up socially with people - I had two rubbish bike when I got into the road side one really bike and one which turn out to be stolen this was me basically trying to save money when what I should have done was bought the Domane in the first place so I just don't want to make the same mistake again...blah blah etc...

Thanks for the link I will take a peek...

Ian.