Since moving to the South, I’ve learned about the abundance of mountain bike trails that are relatively near our residence. I’ve had a mountain bike before. A heavy steel framed bike with basic front suspension. But since living in a condo in Makati meant space was limited, I opted for folding bikes instead. Fast forward to 2019 where we have ample garage space, I thought that it would be the right time to get a mountain bike again. Looking around the web, I recalled how difficult it was to build a bike on a limited budget. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this bike. I figured that 1) I’d probably only ride it during the weekends and 2) I learned that having an expensive bike equals to expensive maintenance and parts (Brompton).
So I checked different bike shops online, watched bike reviews and read blogs on different brands and I found out that there are a lot of affordable brands out there. Unlike 10 years ago where it was mostly big name brands, now, you have a ton of choices for all kinds of budgets. I found one that I liked for the color scheme and the specs, but the price posted online was different from the one in the shop. Turns out, the promo was over. So I went to another bike shop and got this.
A Trinx M1000 mountain bike. A 27.5, 3×10 speed mountain bike with LTWOO parts. LTWOO is a company founded by a former SRAM R&D engineer. And you can see from the design of the RD and shifters that they have similarities with SRAM group sets. Reviews have been good for LTWOO bike parts so I decided to give them a try. Not using Shimano or SRAM parts brought the bikes price down. Trinx has been around for quite sometime, especially in the folding bike segment. I haven’t read or seen any bad feedback with the quality of their bikes.
Here is a link to the Trinx website for a complete spec list.
I got the bike from Bike South Warehouse in San Pedro. They offer the best prices compared to other bike shops here in Laguna. Check their Facebook page here.
So how is it? Coming from a 16″ bike, the ride comfort is way better because of the larger tires. It weighs a little over 15kilos, 2 kilos heavier than the all steel Brompton. The LTWOO shifters are smooth, and has this premium feel to it. No misses in shifting. If there was one thing that I’d like to adjust, it would be the brakes. The hydraulic brakes feel a little spongy and it doesn’t have the bite that I expected from hydraulic brakes. Maybe it just needs to be bled and adjusted better. The 10 speed cogs with 11-36T allowed me to take on flats and a challenging uphill in Davilan Trail in Carmona, Cavite, 20mins away from our residence. I was thinking of changing the cogs to 11-50T but this seems to do the job well for now. The front suspension is a welcome surprise. I didn’t expect much from it coming from a built bike, but it does it’s job pretty well. I pondered on getting the model with the air fork, but that would cost another 3000 pesos, plus they only had it in 26″.
If I would upgrade something on this bike, It would probably be the crank. I’d change it to a 2 speed crank, probably a hollowtech, to also reduce some weight.
Kuripot Biker 