Inexpensive mountain bikes

[bingo296]

I am casually looking for an inexpensive mountain bike that would be more suitable than my Cannondale Quick for ratty dirt roads, fire roads, and some non-technical mountain bike trails. I had put knobby tires on my Quick and have used it. Now I find that the tires have been rubbing on my fork and have removed paint down to the carbon. A full suspension seems over the top for my needs, pricey, and difficult to find for someone 4’11” tall with a short reach. So, I am looking at hardtail bikes.

My standover is about 27.5″ but I have very short arms. My Quick has a 50.5 effective top tube, which is pretty good.

So far I have found:

Specialized Myka Sport (maybe disc) that comes in a 13″ size, 52.5cm top tube, and about 25.6″ on standover, at $630. Or I could go as low as their non-disc, nonsport version at $470.

[img]http://s7d5.scene7.com/is/image/Specialized/9394?$Display$[/img]

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/…cname=Mountain

Specialized Jett Comp, also in a 13″ size, 53cm top tube (getting to be a bit much), with bout 25.6″ on standover, but kind of pricey at $1250:

A bit more out of the box, a kids mountain bike with a 12″ frame, 49cm Top tube and 24 inch wheels, a Kona Kula at $949:

http://www.konaworld.com/kids.cfm?content=kula_2-4

Bikes direct has a number of possibilities in their Motobecane brand, with 52cm top tubes, and acceptable stand over at 26″, but most seem to be sold out and the ones I originally looked at are now gone.

Thoughts?

Topic

[jabberwocky]

What stem length is on your Quick? Remember that actual mtbs can run shorter stems than road/hybrids. The trend these days is actually towards fairly short (<70mm) stems on most mountain bikes.

[bingo296]

@jabberwocky 32244 wrote:

What stem length is on your Quick? Remember that actual mtbs can run shorter stems than road/hybrids. The trend these days is actually towards fairly short (<70mm) stems on most mountain bikes.

My Quick has a 50.5 effective top tube, which is pretty good. I see that my well fitting Cannondale Quick has a seat tube angle of 76 degrees to go with the 50.5cm top tube. How does that compare with these other bikes?

[jabberwocky]

I got the top tube, but that only measures to the middle of the headtube. To get total reach, you also need to add the stem length to it. If your Quick is sporting a (for example) 90mm stem, you could conceivably get a frame with a 52.5cm headtube and put a 70mm stem on it to get roughly the same fit.

Given your dimensions, you’ll definitely be looking at extra small bikes. I don’t think you need to go to 24″ kids bikes though. Most manufacturers do make very small bikes. I don’t know if you’re female or not, but the big manufacturers pretty much all have women-specific lines these days, which will usually have small sizes available. I know a few ladies in the 5′ range rocking regular 26″ mountain bikes.

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