Any ideas for a good Mountainbike?

For 2 cent advice from someone who knows little about the topic.
Every June the Green Bank Radio Observatory holds an event called the Space Race Rumpus.

The bicycle supplier for the event is the Giant Bicycle Company, which I had never heard of before. But turns out they the the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world, based in Taiwan.

They make all types of bicycles, most appear to be high quality, but at the price of also being expensive. ( prices range from $330 to $8,000)

If they are the largest bicycle manufacturer in the world they may be available in Sweden.

Maybe one of their models would be available to you, within your budget, and would match your requirements. Except for a short ride around the parking lot on one model, and looking at other models they truck in for the event, I know little about them.

Here are links to their US websites. Maybe they are also have a website in Sweden or have dealers there.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/

Ah, here is a link for Sweden listed on the Giant website, but the listed website wouldn’t open for me. Maybe it no longer exist or maybe it’s just shutdown from maintenance when I tried to open the website.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/about-us/office/sweden

Anyway, you have gotten better first hand advice from others. but just thought I would mention the Giant company. fwiw.

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Echoing what @todoroki34 and others said upthread: I ride an (apparently) indestructible, 25-year-old MTB to fish a few times a week. For years I’ve only had knobby tires on it, though most of where I’m riding is either fully paved (asphalt) or a fairly firm bike trail of packed sand.

After a tire-wall blowout last year, I needed to buy new tires. Instead of the traditional knobby tires, I decided to try a set of smooth “balloon tires” — Schwalbe Big Apple — that I found on sale.

Oh man are they fun.

The balloon tires added a good bit of suspension to a non-suspension bike — it’s a much more comfortable ride. And since they’re smooth, the ride is also faster and more efficient, at least on hard surfaces.

Might not work for your situation, but they’re worth checking out.

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Great Peder, and thank you for emphasing about getting proper measurements. Since I plan to spend a bit this will be very worth doing.

Thank you for the links.
Giant was my first mountainbike, it was quite inexpensive and I used/abused it for many years. Great quality.

Not lacking in options! :smile: Thank for the input, I’ll check it out. There are some rocky roads where the biggest brookies live and balloon might be worth a shot.

Btw I’m taking my girlfriend’s bike up to brookie country today, I don’t think she knows how rocky it can be up there. :wink:

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Ok, so I went a little off-budget but here it is now, a Scott Scale 710 plus

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Very nice. That’ll do. $2600?

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Thanks! Yes, original price is around 2700$ but the local bike shop is having a sale so it was 1900$

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I am looking at a Surly Krampus, a 29” + bike (fat tire) that has a huge following.

I am moving towards exploring the forest stream on a fat tire bike.

Many bikepackers use this platform to do their thing.

I will write about it soon.

Cool. I really want to buy a fat tire bike myself…especially for the surf.

Look forward to the report.

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Would’ve been hard getting to the creek without it today.

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Cool. Or is it co-, co-, cocococollllddd. Cold. :cloud_with_snow:

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It was right on the 32 degrees farenheit, so almost t-shirt mode compared to what it usually is this time of year. :smile:

Tomorrow onwards it’s going to be real cold so I figured this was the last time in a while fishing was possible. The bike made its way beautifully through some tough icy terrain. One brookie caught, tons of fun had! Now the bike ride is a blast, instead of something that simply has to be done.

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Where I live the Cranberry River is a popular trout stream. Between the upper entrance and the lower entrance is about 24 miles. From the towns of Marlinton to Richwood. Probably longer as the stream meanders. There is a road but it is closed to the public. So it’s either walk or ride a bicycle, a popular option, to get to the middle parts. It’s about a four hour drive from home, and 2,500 ft higher in elevation. 10˚ there today according to the weather forecast for the Cranberry River. As a rule of thumb it is always about 10˚ cooler there than at home, which makes it nice there, and in the surrounding area in the summer.

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We have some roads are closed to the public as well. Most people who fish around here aren’t too keen on walking/biking very long, which means more solitude for me.

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The exact reason why I love living and fishing where I do. I’ve found, in general, if it takes people more than 15-30 minutes to hike to a fishing spot, they won’t do it.

Of all the people I’ve met when out fishing further than that, they have all been hikers or backpackers and none of them were fishing.

I live close to a section of the Appalachian Trail, in particular where it goes through the Green Mountain National Forest. The GMNF is roughly 400,000 acres (1615 square km) of land for fishing (hunting, hiking, etc.). There are certainly areas that are very busy, but hike for an hour (or more) and you won’t see a person all day and catch beautiful wild fish.

I feel very fortunate, to say the least.

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You are fortunate indeed! Cheers to lazy people!

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That’s an awesome first bike choice.

Mountain bikes are both my career and passion. I had a couple of 60km~ round trips with as much single track as possible to fish some streams last season. Already hatching plans for next season!

If you feel like you want more grip with the pedals then look at some of the nylon offerings at the moment, they’ve really brought the price down for a good grippy platform.

e.g

https://www.evanscycles.com/oneup-components-composite-flat-pedal-EV311313?esvt=52850-GOUKE4795888&esvq=&esvadt=999999-0-1299316-1&esvcrea=205573698203&esvplace=&esvd=c&esvtg=pla-380689807626&esvo=EV311313-NA-BLK&esvaid=50080&gclid=Cj0KCQiAzMDTBRDDARIsABX4AWxUPD9-l__Bpo4ZySP-2jfECiTF7_IYEhO0hVG3s5QJjFgKTHsGwFsaAuhJEALw_wcB

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Thank you for the input! The grip on these pedals are far better than any other bike I’ve had, which doesn’t say much because they’ve all been real cheap. :slight_smile: