Will i end up overbiked? does it matter?

[shouldbworking]

My GT Avalanche 1.0 has seen better days. It's not quite dead yet but the rims are decidely on the piss and have been trued many times before, the forks are pitted and the lockout no longer does its thing, the headset is graunchy, v-brakes are decidely last century and its generally looking a bit tatty.

I've been looking at replacements - I don't want another £350 bike as It'll just fall apart like the current bike has (fall apart may be an overstatement, but you get the idea). So I started off looking at ~£600 bikes... but these arent significantly better, in fact I don't think I'll get a bike that'll last and be worth upgrading without spending a grand.

At that price range suddenly I find myself looking at some very nice kit that I'm sure far surpasses my ability level (fitness good, skill non-existent). Is this likely to present a problem for riding or will it just flatter me?

Bikes I'm thinking of :
456 xc (would have got one already but they havent got any glow in the dark left and suddenly the other colours looks a bit boring)

giant trance x3/4 - good prices to be had via paulscycles

boardman fs pro / large

[anonymous-user]

i would look at the anthem over the trance, never liked the feel of the trance but the anthem is a nice all day ride and although people have raved about the frame for a while now, its still one of the best out there in terms of speed and comfort but then i am a big fan of short travel fs xc bikes. the scott scale/spark (cant remember which one is the fs/ht!) and the fs focus are well worth a look.

there is no such thing as overbiked really, with a better bike your confidence increases and you just find yourself riding longer and faster...

[Gooby]

My bike capabilities far exceeds my capability. It is a great feeling that one day I will get better and my bike will support me in anything I do.
Some bike will flatter you and help you go a little faster every ride some (especially full on racing bikes) will punish you if you dont have the skill required for what you are riding.

Ride a few, it will soon become obvious what you like!

[Digga]

Gooby said:

My bike capabilities far exceeds my capability. It is a great feeling that one day I will get better and my bike will support me in anything I do.

Me too.

It's also great feeling properly 'tooled-up' - that when you're on the trails, enjoying the ride, you don't feel like you're putting 6 months of wear and hammer into a single day and that the bike is on top of things.

It has to be said, most mass-market bikes of a certain budget are designed (quite logically) around percentiles. So they meet the 'general' 80th or 75 percentile of frequency of use, weight of rider, gnarlyness of trail and/or rider. In general (although by no means always) spending a little more means the better the bike, andhe larger the percentile you're buying.

I'd say either bike the OP is looking at will be a very good next step.

[ewenm]

Usual advice of buying the best frame you can - you can always upgrade components later.

As for being overbiked, it doesn't matter and you'll improve anyway. I'd say very few people aren't overbiked in some way.