Can anybody give me any ideas on what entry level DH bike i will need to start me off and what price range am i looking at??

debb

price depends a lot on if you are after new or second hand... for second hand bikes you could have a look at the  descent-world forum for sale section to get a pretty good idea of what is out there (I think you need to be registered to look, but hey its free)

cheapy 2nd hand kona's go for not much < £500 maybe or nicer specced bikes (lighter) for over £2K and everything in between. New you could spend as much as you like without really trying

rule of thumb is cheap, light, strong - pick any two 

maybe look at 'freeride' bikes rather than 'dh' - manufacturers labelling not mine. geometry is probably more important than the length of the forks.

I have got one of these with 7" forks and it is lovely, but not the easiest to get hold of in the UK.

even better in blue and pink

£2300 with a few upgrades on the stock build kit with totem coil forks and dhx5 coil shock... from my brothers lbs in vancouver. Frame only here is £1000 I think but I'm not sure the distributor has any or is any good.

the off the shelf build kit with that fork and shock was CAD $3885 inc GST- other options are on the transition website in USD I think? If you happen to be travelling to the US the exchange rate is looking pretty good

What broz says mainly.

A DH bike is going to be very very DH specific. Very little is done for woman or light weight people during the design, so you're likely to have a bike that's going to be heavy and feels lardy. Plus they are just not ridable at slow speed.

 FR bikes are more than capable of tackling DH track and Jumps. They might not be as stable as DH bikes at very high speed, but due to be generally lighter and having a less slack head angle they are more agile, wich in my opinion is a bit of a bonus to corner. They will be more versatile too as you'll be able to climb (yeah not too fast though) if you keep a triple ring set up.

I would go 2nd hand to be honest. As from what I have discovered during BUSA is that DHer just don't care about bikes and throw them in the lift without care, so it will end up scratch and scruff very quickly.

I would look to old stinky with 6-7" of travel, or if you can afford things like RM6 RM7 (bear in mind they are quite long bikes when the saddle is up, and I would go for a smaller size) or even a switch (but I am bias as I have one). A guy on STW was looking for 350£ for a perfectly well maintained stinky in 17". The commencal have very good review too, and being not that expensive new I am sure you could get a nice deal 2nd hand. Plus they use a trsut link like a RM6/7. IMHO most important is going to the the wheel/tyres/tubes... It makes an awfull lot of difference to the handling of the bike.

Hi Debz

I was looking for the same sort of thing about eight months ago and had the usual problems of trying to find a DH bike that wasn't too big and heavy for me but was still capable of riding a full DH course.

After lots of information gathering I decided to go second hand too, as I didn't want to spend a fortune til I knew what I really wanted. 

It is very difficult to get a bike that is set up right for "the average" female D'hiller as most of the springs and shocks are tuned for riders around the 10 to 10.5 stone minimum.  I was lucky to find a bike that had been "outgrown" by it's teenage rider and had everything tuned for a lighter weight which was perfect for me.

Unfortunately my DH bike is not used anywhere near as often as I had hoped, mainly due to a high worktime/playtime ratio so I am probably going to sell it on.  If you are looking for a second hand bike and want details of mine, let me know.  Otherwise, I would advise trying out as many different bikes as you can get your hands on and not spending too much money until you are sure that DH is what you want to do (although it is very addictive).  You can always upgrade at a later date.

I think Brozza's bike looks fantastic and if I had the money, that's the one I'd go for as it is built specifically for a female rider.

Good Luck and let us know how you get on.

p.s. where are you based.  If you want to meet up at a DH course sometime that would be cool.

Brozza, not forgotten about our planned get together at some stage, just a pity we live so far away from each other.  How is the new bike going?

Brozza that looks fantastic  - how does it ride?

I've only recently started really getting into d/h having been riding for years.  Started off with a 15" Kona Coiler which gave me heaps of confidence but I found it pretty long for all round riding.  Just bought an Intense Tazer after having a quick go on a friend's 5.5 and Slopestyle (cheers Kim!)  and demoeing a couple at Mayhem - pretty tough but only 4" travel so much more suitable for most of the stuff I ride while still being pretty d/h capable.  Haven't taken it then full length of Cwmcarn d/h yet (that'll be Wednesday ) but it feels pretty good playing around on the bottom section.

Anyone up for a d/h meet at Cwmcarn?  I can bring doughnuts

Forgot to mention, kona has bike in all size.

I remember a kiddy once having the stinky rasta for Xmas....

In size 13" 

have a look here...

 http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/read.php?f=5&i=700097&t=700097

I don'tknow what size you are.

But it will suit me and I am 170cm.

Price is bargainastic 

oooh doughnuts could get me to cwm carn, then you could try it for yourself mamadirt

suzibear could you make it down to cwm carn for a day? 

am pretty keen to do an uplift day there, just struggling to find a free day - sun 31st of Aug anyone?

or maybe this sat or sunday although not sure might have other plans already, and the uplift is fully booked on sat anyway...

I could do this Sunday or Sun 31st.  The uplifts do get booked up pretty quickly.  We tend to try and go on Wed afternoons which seem to be a little bit quieter - can always play around on the bottom of the track until there are uplift spaces available.

Getting back to tiny bikes - I briefly owned a 13" Stinky (24" wheel) - fantastic fun but its super short toptube meant it was a bit of a pain pedalling anywhere.  Love to have taken it down the Cwmcarn track though - I wasn't brave enough then.

Would love to do Cwm carn (and doughnuts).  As always my forward planning is very precarious so just set up a date that suits everyone else and I will try to work around it.

Just noticed an ad in MBR mag this month for a women specific freeride weekend at Glentress Freeride Park in October.  Go to www.downhiller.co.uk for details.  Haven't checked it out yet but could be interesting.  Sounds like they have some top class coaching lined up.

Any chance of you doing a review of your bike Brozza ?  I keep looking at it and thinking how much I really need one!