Looks generally ok to me.
With any new bike buy, make sure they can actually provide it in a reasonable time scale. Don’t die of fright if you pay the £10 build fee and they get something wrong. I couldn’t see if referenced anywhere, but up its usual to have a check after a month or so as it’s usual for new bikes to settle in a bit after a few rides - typically the gear and brake cables will stretch a bit and some random bolt will undo itself.
This one won’t run full mudguards, but you can get a plastic clip-on ass-saver to keep the worst of the wet from puddles streaking up your back. I don’t favour the suspension on the forks myself - expense, weight and a thing to potentially go wrong in the future is my view of that, but I’m not an MTB’er.
With those fat knobbly tyres, it will happily eat up the trails with the family - when I had a bike similar to this, I changed the tyres for a thinner, smoother tyre.
A decent range of gears is offered and disc brakes that will stop you on a sixpence - we argue long into the night on this forum about disc brakes vs rim brakes as discs have got more widespread in road cycling. (Weight, expense, complexity - but let’s not get into all that now.)
Budget wise, leave yourself some spare for a pump, spare inner tubes; most of us carry a cycling multi tool and pliers if going any distance. You should be able to use a car foot pump on this one at home. Halfords will sell you own brand or Muc Off cleaning and lubricating products - keep those in mind as most people enjoy a bike more if it’s clean, lubed and the tyres pumped up. Being from down south, I don’t have ready access to Wilkinson’s, but they do a range of this stuff. (Don’t use WD 40 as a chain lube.)
You don’t need any cycle specific clothing if you’re just pottering around with the family, but you might find the limitations of “civilian” clothing after 60-90 minutes of riding. Avoid denim jeans - chafey, moisture/water-absorbing, massive thick seams in all the wrong places. Gloves of a type that will allow you to operate the twist grip gear controls. Check out the middle aisles of Lidl and Aldi, they some times have cycle clothing that many people swear by.
Welcome to the fellowship. There are bits of tribalism and snobbishness, but it’s all good-natured and fun. A couple of things to get you started - extend your off-side fingers outwards when you meet other cyclists and/ or give “the nod.” Triathletes, should you meet any, like if you do any reservoir trails, aren’t proper cyclists. E-bikers, well, great to see them out on two wheels, let’s hope they eventually become cyclists as well.
Detail about suspension forks
https://www.diymountainbike.com/lockout ... tain-bike/
003 by 531colin, on Flickr
