1. Trek Jetta Limited Edition Mountain Bike
2. Schwinn 1995 Anniversary Edition Mountain Bike
3. Carrera Mountain Bikes Website

This is a brand new Limited Edition 2009 Carrera Kraken mountain bike in black and white. Won in a competition we have no use for it at all so it is in perfect. Ladies carrera kraken mountain bike 0.99p start sulcata green limited edition. This auction is for a LADIES CARRERA KRAKEN MOUNTAIN Quick Change My husband purchased.

Halfords have a habit of offending the opposition in terms of both components and ride value with their Carrera machines. The Kraken continues this trend. It has a better fork than many other bikes in its price range, and it’s among the few sub-£500 bikes to get 27 gears. With hydraulic braking and great it’s relatively light as well as cheap. So is there a downside? Well, there certainly isn’t one that relates to the ride, but some riders might flinch at the fact that this model has been available relatively unchanged since 2011 – Halfords don’t live by the autumn model-change thing of other manufacturers.

Look out for the new Carrera range in late spring. Ride & handling: Slightly clunky over rough ground but great for carefree fun Most bikes at this price boast – but rarely achieve – 100mm (3.9in) of fork travel. The controlled compression and rebound of the Kraken’s plush 120mm (4.7in) model combines with a compact frame, generous crotch clearance and aggressively treaded to create an amazingly well controlled ride on trails that are often best avoided on bikes under £500.

The fork still shows its limits on rough drops, but it works with the relaxed head angle to reward a more attacking style than on any other bike here. The deep square-edged tyres grip superbly on softer surfaces and the high profile adds loads of comfort, again boosting both the confidence and the control that comes from having a fork that would typically appear on a bike costing a couple of hundred pounds more.

The frame stiffness and overall ride setup make charging across demanding terrain as deflection-free and controlled as on a far more costly bike, stressing hard-hitting carefree fun above pure cross country speed. But the reasonable weight (13.7kg / 30.1lb), and in particular a below average wheel weight, ensures that acceleration is nippy when the need arises. But comfort and shock absorption are the Kraken’s biggest attributes. It’s well above average for the price, with only the clunky fork lockout detracting from that. But it’s not really meant for steady urban use so you won’t need the lockout much. As a hard-hitting trail machine, we haven’t tested another sub-£500 bike that can touch it. Carrera kraken: Frame & equipment: Well controlled travel with light but tough wheel/tyre set Okay, the Kraken’s frame is a bit less sleek and more workmanlike than some others, but the tubes offer clearances and reinforcements where it matters, open-gusseted behind the hourglass shaped head tube and bridge-gusseted from the low top tube across to the extended seat tube.

The Allen key seat clamp faces forward, out of the rear wheel spray, there’s lots of mud room and there are two sets of bottle bosses plus rack mounts for riders looking at utility usage. But the Kraken deserves more than round town use. With its long plush fork, fat grippy tyres and aggressive ride posture it’s one of the few bikes we’ve tested under £500 that can handle proper hard, fast and technical trails. The fork is still an SR Suntour model, as on most bikes around this price, but it’s the XCR model with a hydraulic lockout, and offers a plush achievable 120mm (4.7in) of travel as well as a reasonably well controlled rebound. The rebound is still more lively than on forks with proper rebound damping but the action is much smoother and the rebound has a soft top-out rather than the hard thunk of the XCM model. The preload dial is effective in stiffening/loosening the spring but the lockout is a bit clunky over rough surfaces when employed: we left it off.

Most riders find ’s X5 drivetrain a bit more clunky than options around the same price, but the shifting is reliable and it’s unusual to find nine rear gears on a sub-£500 bike. The brakes are excellent too, with the 180mm rotor up front adding to power and confidence on descents. The wheels are also great. We know nothing about the durability of the no-name hubs but the rims are double walled eyeleted models and Continental’s Mountain King 2.2in tyres offer great traction and a large enough profile to boost comfort on rough terrain. The Carrera branded 26.5in handlebar, stem, saddle and seatpost are all good quality offerings with masses of adjustability.

This article was originally published in magazine, available on and. Get inspired by our deals. Description 16, 18., 20in Bottom Bracket Square Taper Brakes Clarks SX hydraulic disc, 180/160mm rotors Cassette SRAM 12-32t/SRAM Cranks SRAM X5 42/32/22/SRAM Fork SR Suntour XCD hydraulic, 120mm (4.7in) travel with lockout Frame Material 7005 T6 aluminium Front Derailleur Shimano Alivio Front Wheel Weight 2170 Grips/Tape Carrera Handlebar 680mm riser Head Angle 67.5 Rear Derailleur SRAM X5 Rear Wheel Weight 2800 Rims DMD 26in Saddle Carrera Seat Angle 71.5 Seatpost Carrera Shifters SRAM X5 3x9 Stem 65mm Weight (kg) 13.5 Weight (lb) 30.1 Tyres Continental Mountain King 2.2in.

Trek Jetta Limited Edition Mountain Bike

Although purists may scoff, Halfords’ in-house brand has long been a byword for quietly competent, competitively specced bikes that just get on with the job. The Kraken sits roughly in the middle of the range, offering a build and design that puts it head to head with entry-level off-roaders from the big-name specialist brands. Can a car accessory retailer’s in-house offering really be that good? Frame and equipment: a workmanlike build There are plenty of hints that the Kraken is aimed at riders who might want to push themselves fairly hard. For starters, there’s the 120mm (4.7in) travel fork. The Suntour XCR is a significant step up from the XCM, with 32mm stanchions (versus 30mm on the XCM) and better damped internals.

Schwinn 1995 Anniversary Edition Mountain Bike

Bigger stanchions add stiffness, and in the XCR’s case it’s a difference you can really feel. Then there’s the chunky frame construction, which suggests the Kraken is designed to take a few knocks in its stride. From the strengthening gusset at the junction between the head and down tubes – which protects this vulnerable area from damage if you suddenly become closely acquainted with, say, a tree – to the square-section chainstays and extra seat tube brace, the detail is all aimed at making the Kraken both stiff and strong.

Mud clearance is good even with meaty fitted, thanks to some nifty cut-and-weld curved plates embedded in the slab-sided chainstays. We’d gladly swap the fork’s lockout lever for adjustable rebound damping though. The plush, accurate suntour fork makes speed a must – stanchions that are 2mm bigger in diameter make more difference than you might think: The plush, accurate Suntour fork makes speed a must – stanchions that are 2mm bigger in diameter make more difference than you might think Commuters haven’t been forgotten, with a neat set of rack eyelets at the rear providing an easy route to transforming the Kraken into an urban workhorse. It’s also potentially a good bet for tall riders, with a range of sizes up to a whopping 22in frame. Shorter riders might struggle though – 16in is the smallest option available. Carrera’s reputation for value is mostly upheld with the Kraken’s kitlist, though it’s surprising just how many components are unbranded.

Kudos to Halfords’ designers for upgrading the front brake rotor to 180mm, which should mean less brake fade on long descents. The Clarks brakes themselves have an unusual lever shape that works best with one-finger braking, but don’t have the power to make the single-digit option work in practice. On the gear front, ’s ever-reliable Altus derailleurs and shifters shunt the chain smoothly between the nine sprockets at the rear, and across a Suntour crankset’s three chainrings up front. Ride and handling: quietly impressive – until you need to stop Combine a long top tube with a short stem and a fork built for playing, and you’ve got all the ingredients for a fun trail bike.

We reckon Carrera could’ve improved things even further by lopping another degree or so off the 68.5-degree head angle, which would tame any (slight) remaining fidgeting at low speed while improving high-speed stability. But really, we’re splitting hairs.

The Kraken handles well and goes where you point it without fuss. It’s impossible to overstate just how big a role the fork plays in elevating the Carrera above the ordinary. We’re used to budget forks being a brake on outright performance, and the Kraken’s XCR is the exception that proves the rule.

Accurate, surprisingly plush and completely predictable, it holds a line through high-speed rock gardens in a way we wouldn’t expect of a cheap fork. We found ourselves riding aggressively, weight forward to let the fork do the work, and pushing both ourselves and the Carrera hard on fast, rocky trails. It didn’t flinch – and neither did we. That’s not something we’d expected to be able to say about a £500 hardtail with a 120mm fork.

The lever shape is acquired taste, but the clarks brakes’ biggest problem is they don’t work too well: The lever shape is acquired taste, but the Clarks brakes’ biggest problem is they don’t work too well There is, unfortunately, a fairly large fly in the ointment. The Clarks brakes – despite the 180mm rotor up front –are simply no match for Shimano’s budget stoppers.

Carrera Mountain Bikes Website

While there’s enough power there – just – after a bedding-in period, the levers feel hard and unprogressive. Which is a shame, because the Kraken’s fork and geometry encourage the kind of shenanigans that call for good brakes. This leaves us in a bit of a quandary. On the one hand the good spec, solid handling and exceptional – for the money – fork add up to a great deal. On the other, sub-par brakes are no fun. Overall though, we think the Kraken is worth a punt. With better brakes – perhaps a long-term upgrade?

– it would be exceptional. This article was originally published in magazine, available on and. Get inspired by our deals. Description Wheel weight includes tyres.