Mountain bike advice for our lad

[a4gom]

I've bid on a few bikes on the bay but have missed out, haven't been too committed so far as most have been miles away, collection only and and some of you know I'm struggling on the car front at the moment!

Anyway wife was chatting at work on friday with her colleagues asking if any of their kids who had just made the move from pedal to petrol had anything to sell and she's been offered a Marin Rock Springs, the lads just bought a new bike for close to £3k!! I've not seen it yet but I've seen some pics and it looks like he's kept it in good nick. Apparently he's made some upgrades to the rear derailleur, gear shifters, rear rotor, handle bar grips, gear cable and hoses (carbon), it's just had new pads, fluid and tyres. The rest is as new / as stock.

£200, sounds like just the thing, anyone any experience of these?

[Mark (smokey mow)]

I've bid on a few bikes on the bay but have missed out, haven't been too committed so far as most have been miles away, collection only and and some of you know I'm struggling on the car front at the moment!

Anyway wife was chatting at work on friday with her colleagues asking if any of their kids who had just made the move from pedal to petrol had anything to sell and she's been offered a Marin Rock Springs, the lads just bought a new bike for close to £3k!! I've not seen it yet but I've seen some pics and it looks like he's kept it in good nick. Apparently he's made some upgrades to the rear derailleur, gear shifters, rear rotor, handle bar grips, gear cable and hoses (carbon), it's just had new pads, fluid and tyres. The rest is as new / as stock.

£200, sounds like just the thing, anyone any experience of these?

Any idea what year it is?   Early ones had a round tube frame with a single trailing arm pivot whereas the latest were a monocoque construction with the Whyte designed TARA/Quad 4-link pivot.

I had a 2007 east peak, basically the same frame as the rocksprings but with a slightly cheeper groupset and I was very please with it.  When new my East Peak was a £1200 bike, the rocksprings more.

Edit: this was mine

[a4gom]

2007, I have no idea what the pivot is but it says Quad tara on the swing arm

looks pretty similar to yours but blue

This isn't it but looks almost identical

[Mark (smokey mow)]

2007, I have no idea what the pivot is but it says Quad tara on the swing arm

looks pretty similar to yours but blue

This isn't it but looks almost identical

I'd say then that £200 would be a fair price for it, I sold the frame only from mine end of last year for £175.

A couple of things to consider though, at that age the bearings in the quad linkages will likely need replacing,they spend their life exposed to wet cud but IIRC are only around £30 to replace.

The other thing is that the monocoque frames can be very noisy.  They creek a lot around the bottom bracket area (possibly the bearings) but being large hollow sections you get a lot of trail buzz transmitted through the frame that resonates inside the frame sections.

[a4gom]

Cheers, i'll have a look at the bearings and have a ride and see what it's like.

I'm not bothered about the noise as I won't be riding it

[brindle]

If you do buy new - there are some great bargians on 2011 models as the 2012 models are out now.  Wiggle are doing a 2011 GT Avalanche 2.0 for £425.99 - its a really nice specced bike for the money and a £650 bike.