Mountain Bike experts! I Need advise!

AlexGT

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Hi all!

This is going to be my first serious MTB, and I'm deciding between these 2 brands: IBEX or Motobecane, I would like to know which one has better components and materials, to me and my wallet sounds like the Motobecane is the winner but want to hear your opinions.

I'm not a hardcore cyclist and I probably won't upgrade/replace the bike in a few years, so durability is a plus, I will do parks and an ocasional trail.

Here are the bikes and the specs.

Hard Tail:

Ibex Alpine 650 $599 + $35 S&H
http://www.ibexbikes.com/Bikes/ALP-650-Details.html

Motobecane 700HT $397 +40 S&H
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/motobecane_700HT.htm


Full suspension:

Ibex Ignition 3 specs $799 + 35 S&H
http://www.ibexbikes.com/Bikes/IGN-3-Details.html

Motobecane 700DS Specs $449 +40 S&H
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/700ds.htm#specs


Thanks! :popcorn:
AlexGT
 

Mad1

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Wow i must have been out of the mtb arena for longer than I thought, I've never heard of either of those makes.

Bike brands I would go for are Specialized, Marin and Trek they do good bargin bikes.

If you are after durability then I wouldnt go for a full suspension, hard tail's are easyer to handle too.

Out of the 2 hard tails there its a tough choice the moto has an XT gear set while the Ibex only as LX, but the Ibex has WTB rims while the moto has Weinmann rims which suck and the rims are a very important part.
 

monkeyboy

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I'm into mtbing and have never heard of those brands either. BTW, both of those hardtail bikes just have regular Deore groupsets with LX and XT rear mech. Even so, these bikes seem to be pretty good value for money. e.g. on the 700HT, the groupset components alone would cost that much to buy. They all have mechanical disc brakes which are not so good though. Might be worth paying a bit more for hydraulic disc brakes.
 

CLHC

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If you're going to spend that kind of money, then "for a few dollars more," check out other bike manufacturers like Yeti, Scott, Kona, Klein, Karpiel (well maybe not from them per se), Cannondale among others.
 

mrichelo

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AlexGT,

Do you live is the US? Those brands sound european or something. 4 years ago I bought a Specialized entry level bike for around $600, it came with decent components, and disk brakes, which are totally worth it. I chose to spend a bit more money and go with the bike that had the disk brakes, and I'm really glad I did.

To get a decent full suspension bike, I won't spend less than $1000. So, I would go with a hard tail, unless you are doing some seriously hardcore riding. For just cross country, the full suspension bikes are heavier, and it is not worth it unless you really use the full suspension.

Also, it is a really good idea to buy a bike from a good bike shop near you, especially if it is your first real bike. Fit becomes really important if you are going to spend any time on the bike. If you don't have the proper fit, you can end up hurting your knees, or giving yourself back, neck and shoulder pain. etc.

A good bike shop will make sure you buy a bike that fits you, and they should set it up for you, and after you ride it a bit, set it up again after all the cables stretch and "wear in"

I hope you find a nice bike, mountain biking is fun!

Mark
 

Minjin

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Those are both internet brands. They save money by not having a retail presence and by using cheap frames with good componentry.
 

AlexGT

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I was originally thinking in getting a Haro escape, since the one I tried at the LBS fit me very very good, it was very comfortable. I would like to keep this at or below $500 but get something better than the "Walmart special" I'm in the States BTW.

Do you know any other bikes that have the geometry similar to the haro escape?

Thanks!
AlexGT
 

Trashman

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Motobecane has been around, for as long as I can remember. I didn't know they were making mountain bikes, though. They used to be big in road bikes, back in the 80's, and possibly much earlier. One of my neighbors down the street was, big time, into road racing. So much into it, that he competeted in the Tour De France. He had a Motobecane. If I'm not mistaken they are French, or at least *were* French (made in France), at one time. I wouldn't be surprised, though, if they're made in China or Taiwan like everything else, these days. I think, even my Gary Fisher (which is owned by Trek, BTW) was made in Taiwan or China! For the most part, though, it's a very good, reputable brand, as far as I've always known.


EDIT: Dang, that Wikipedia has everything! -->http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motobecane

Alex, what kind of trails will you be riding? For smoother, more level surfaces, I think a hard tail is the wait to go. Even for easy trail riding. For more down hill ride and for more technical stuff, with lots of of nooks and crannies that you need to creep over, full suspension can make your life much, much easier.
 
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RGB_LED

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I do a lot of cross-country mountain-biking and IMHO, for the $500-600 range, you can do better than the two bikes you looked at... If you are willing to increase your budget, you will get a far-better bike with better componentry.

If not, brands like Specialized, Trek or Kona will give you good value as they are large companies who can afford to make a large number of bikes and price them fairly competitively. Try these two sites that are US-based:

http://wheelworld.com/itemlist.cfm?category=120
http://www.jensonusa.com/store/dept/104-Bikes.aspx

My friends and I order from JensonUSA primarily for parts but their customer service and delivery is pretty good, even shipping to us in Canada. Haven't orderd from wheelworld but it was another recommendation.

Good luck and happy trails!
 

binky

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Mountain biking is a blast. Good for you. It's fun no matter what the terrain and unless you're just crashing off big drops or riding without a helmet it's good for your health. Where on "earth" you live, though, will definitely have an effect on what bike you'll want to get.

Example: I live in New England, U.S. and the trails are all full of rocks and slippery roots. Plus, it rains in the summer and gets icy in the winter. For me, as soon as full suspension came out I got myself a really nice squishy-tailed bike and never looked back. With the unsuspended rear, riding over the junk here in this neck of the woods if you don't pick your line and have your tires pumped high you're just plain going to pinch-flat and then you're mosquito-bait until you can swap the inner tube. I hate that. Sure, now there are tubeless tires. That helps some with pinch-flats but I've discovered other advantages to full suspension that I never expected, such as going uphill is easier because the rear wheel stays planted well over the rocks & roots.

I would say look at your current riding style. If you're doing "parks and an occasional trail" then a hardtail might be the far better choice. It doesn't have as many joints to break (or maintain) and it's usually far lighter than fully suspended bikes.

If you do go for a fully-suspended bike, I can't see what the joint is in the Motobecane. I can see that the Ibex has a sort-of Horst-link suspension modified to put the rear-wheel pivot above the rear axle, presumably so they don't need to pay Specialized a royalty fee. (Sorry. I have a grudge here. Please ignore my nastiness on that point.) I think if you were to ride these 2 bikes you'd find a world of difference between the way they feel. The Motobecane looks a lot like the old Trek Y design but I'm just totally guessing on the design as I'm too lazy right now to go look it up beyond checking the Motobecane website which doesn't seem to tell me except saying that it has a large bearing for the pivot and that the suspension is "fully active" which sounds like a measured definition but is really a very flexible marketing term. It's supposed to express that the act of riding the bike doesn't adversely affect the way the suspension reacts to the bumpies, but there's really no universal definition of how to measure that.

Oops -- I have to run. Others above have great comments on frame & components. I agree that it's probably going to be a lower-end frame but with components that are slightly better than competition at each given frame spec. Too bad you can't actually heft each of these, ride them, and generally test them before buying. At least it sounds that way.

Good luck and welcome to another addictive & fun sport. My wife complains that "every time you go out riding it seems you break something and it's another $xx dollars." Then we laugh and I silently try to figure out how I'm going to fix the bike without spending the actual $xx dollars needed to fix it, you know, because she's totally right but that's why I love her because she's so darned right all the time but I wouldn't want to really let her know that I know she's right. :)
 
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