Looking at a budget leisure mountain bike...

[Whoey]

I've been itching to do some leisure cycling, and it seems Decathlon here has a somewhat decent bike for 99eur, a Btwin Rockrider 5.0 Mens

The official site offers no info about the mens model, only the womens model. They are essentially the same, just the crossbar is different and the Mens is all black instead of the maroon.

http://www.btwincycle.com

I'm not looking for a hardcore bike, just something to go for a ride from time to time. I also find the mountain bike style more relaxed than a street/racing bike, even if the street/racing bikes offer less resistance (perhaps more is a good thing!)

Any opinions?

[Whoey]

picked it up this morning after all... and found the link altho it doesnt seem to exist in the site menus for me.

http://www.btwincycle.com/EN/rockrider-5-0-men-s-60072742/

the 5.1 model is 60eur more, and hardly much difference besides 0.2kg lighter, and front shocks, not really worth the price increase imho... and for me to get from A-B it's enough... not planning to do the tour de france offroad or anything. Plus a cheaper bike is less likely to get stolen than an expensive one!

Handled nice on my trip back home from the shop, altho I wish I had mounted the waterbottle (gave it to the wife to take with her on the bus) and got some water at the shop. It's 30C and sunny, and made the hills a bit uncomfortable. It came with some horribly cheap battery operated lights which I plan to get rid of ASAP... the front light takes 2x C batteries (that's probably the 0.2kg of wieght right there)! and the rear 2x AAAs

Maybe now I can do some longer treks to get pics of some nice scenery outside town.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Welocme back to the cycling fold mate

I've never heard of them before though

[I'm Still Bison]

Steel frame I've been giving a lot of thought of more off road biking,and less street myself.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Steel frame I've been giving a lot of thought of more off road biking,and less street myself.

I supose hedges and shrubs are a lot softer than tarmac

[Whoey]

offroad is probably smother than the bike trails here in town, wish I had the camera on part of the trip back... I swear it's more offroad than paved.

[I'm Still Bison]

@ Mike,the right kind of shrub can make a nice cushy landing zone,I'll try to plan a route away from rose bushes
 @ Whoey,you wouldn't happen to be riding in my town,would you? That's a more than spot on description of the pavement here.

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

Just be careful then

[Mr. Whippy]

Mountain biking has higher injury rates and significantly higher mortality rates than skiing and is much higher than road biking.

If you're not 20-30 ish, keep this in mind....

[Whoey]

Sadly I'm no longer 20-30.

Here in Pamplona they just recently started putting in bike trails along some of the main roads. I believe it was part of a electoral promise that the mayor made. Essentially in most part it is little more than painted lines on the cement tiled side walks, in a lot of areas these side walks are quite wide and allow the space in addition to the side walk without too much trouble for pedestrians, in other parts, it takes up the whole side walk.

This area being the home of Miguel Indurain (link) there are generally a lot of road cyclists that are training for the Tour/Vuelta etc. I wouldn't suggest they take their very expensive road bikes on some of the trail I took on my way home the other day, the cement tiles they use on nearly all side walks are broken and uneven, with a very offroad feeling, with tree roots pushing the cement and tiles up from beneath. There are other parts where it is paved and it is fantastically smooth.

Also with the way people drive here, I'd rather not be on a road bike on the road. Although it does seem like cyclists get more respect than pedestrians (when crossing) from cars and other traffic. We ourselves have had several near misses on cross walks.

[Pacu]

I always wondered what happened to "big mig" after he won all those TDF's.

Glad to see you're getting out enjoying your bike.

[Whoey]

some googling found this:

http://bikedashboard.mathieugardere.com/

might have to load it up on the PDA and give it a go...

[Mr. Whippy]

Hey cool! Is that compatible with HTC Touch Pro?

[Whoey]

might be...  I have it loaded up on the PDA but can't try it out today... I'll have to try the PC side on the laptop, and see how the maps part works...

[Whoey]

I'm planning to bike out to the aqueduct in Noain (just south of town) it was finished in 1790!

http://www.turismo.navarra.es/eng/organice-viaje/recurso/Patrimonio/2859/Acueducto-de-Noain.htm?masInf=1&o=2859

so I will drag out the DSLR, PDA, GPS, and some multitools/knives... and have a nice photoshoot with a 220 year old structure as a backdrop