I've been away from mountain bikes for some time, raced them a good few years ago, so I decided to get myself one due to the incredibly bad weather and unrideable roads of the lovely Scottish winter. I chose the Bianchi Kuma 5300 from Solid Rock Cycles.
I was quite surprised to find what kit I got on this bike compared to what I'd get on a similar priced road bike, it seems like much more for the money, maybe due to larger production volumes, but a pleasant surprise anyway. Hydraulic disc brakes, suspension forks etc, here's the full SPEC. The frame colour also includes the traditional Bianchi blue/green colour, a definite draw for a 'roady' buying an mtb, a bit of heritage.
As expected when you buy road bikes, the rear mech's are specced up to give an appearance of a better groupset than you've got, this MTB has the same thing with a Shimano Deore rear mech and the front mech and shifters all Alivio 9 speed. The shifting all works very well, had it in sand and mud, no problems. I've never ridden disc brakes before, what a difference to canti's or V-brakes in the wet and dirt, I expect it won't be long before they become standard on road bikes, the stopping power is massive, I could never set up canti's properly anyway.
I've experienced the changes in road bikes over the years, so probably not noticed the changes as being particularly dramatic, it's hit me with this bike just how much things have moved on. This is better than the bike I was racing in the 90's. I know some people still love them, but in the past I was riding Pace RC35 elastomer forks, the Suntour XCM forks on this one soak up the bumps just as good if not better, found myself using the lockout lever a fair bit too on solid ground too, very useful to avoid the out of saddle bouncing. I've no idea if these forks are considered good, average or poor, but for me they've allowed me to gain back some of my old lost offroad skills, and the frame and fork set up appear to allow me to ride single track reasonably well (for a roady) and I'm getting better.
Overall, I'm very happy with this bike, it's the ideal addition to a roadies winter stable, a good quality mountain bike that doesn't break the bank and seems able to withstand a fair bit of punishment in seriously dodgy winter conditions. It may not be the very lightest about, but it handles well & I have to admit, I've been having a lot of fun on it. I may even attempt to race it this year, then we'll see if really is better than my old race MTB, I'm looking forward to it.
The full Bianchi range is available from www.solidrockcycles.com in Balmore for around £600. You can buy it online HERE.
Colin.
