£1000 - £1500 to spend on new bike

saias

I currently ride an 06 Norco Atomik which i intend to sell shortly, at the moment im using it mostly for my 25 minute commute to work which as you can guess can be kind of a slog on a heavy downhill bike.
I'm looking at getting a "do it all" bike which i can use for commuting aswell as all the usual off-road stuff.

I'm open to all options including full sus, hardtail, single speed, geared etc, the most important things for me are the frame, forks and brakes.
the only real option i've been able to come up with so far is an Identiti Mr Hyde FRX.

can anyone give me some ideas as to which bike would be suitable?

The Spiderman

If you are using it on the road as much as off,Ireckon a decent lightweight hardtail would be your best bet.

saias

that's what i figured aswell but i'm finding it hard finding something i like, have you got any suggestions for specific bikes?

Father Faff

I guess it depends what you want to do with it off-road. A decent hardtail would be ideal as the previous poster said unless you are wanting to do All-mountain or downhill stuff with bigger hits in which case you may want a log-travel full-susser. Of course the tyres make a huge difference too to speed on-road.

supersonic

http://www.marin.co.uk/marin-2008/biked ... ModNo=3873

saias

that marin look good but im not overly fond of the forks, theres no adjustability apart from rebound from what i can tell.

i'm still fairly convinced this is the best bike i can get for my money
http://www.hardie-bikes.com/products.php?plid=m1b23s3p1279
but im unsure about the forks, i cannot find any reviews or real imformation about the white brothers v1.3 forks, has anyone got any experience with these forks or would i be better off going with the cheaper option of the Pikes 426 U-Turn forks?

as i've been browsing the net i stumbled across this
http://www.azfreeride.com/?q=node/255

although obvously a lot more expensive this does seem like an almost perfect bike for trails, minor downhill, cross country and commuting...any thoughts?

dawnophile

If you already have a hardcore bike, why not get something like a Specialised FSR.

Personally, with £1500 i'd get a steel hardtail frame and build it up (Cotic Soul? Cove Handjob?). When the money ran out, i'd put on some bits from old bikes until I could get what I wanted.

ChingfordMarin

Orange P7 Pro with:

Fork upgrade
Hope headset
Performance Pack

Just under £1500

Im tempted.....

BoredHousewife

why not just buy a cheapy apollo or something like that to get to work on and keep the norco? or get a bus pass

supersonic

The White forlk on the Identi did poorly when reviewed in WMB.

saias

BoredHousewife wrote:

why not just buy a cheapy apollo or something like that to get to work on and keep the norco? or get a bus pass

i thought about that before but to be honest i just dont have access to any good downhill trails where i live so the norco will just end up beeing a heavy XC bike, unless of course someone knows some good downhill in or near hertfordshire?

stevietease

I'm with Dawnophile,
For a grand and a half you could easy build yourself something light(ish) up
You can get a decent Azonic AZ-7 frame for less than 200quid from the US,
A set of SIDs for 250
A set of Mavic XC717 on Hopes Pro II's and full XTR kit on offer from either Merlins/Chain Reactions or Evans.
Coming in under 21lbs and under your budget!

BoredHousewife

stevietease wrote:

I'm with Dawnophile,
For a grand and a half you could easy build yourself something light(ish) up
You can get a decent Azonic AZ-7 frame for less than 200quid from the US,
A set of SIDs for 250
A set of Mavic XC717 on Hopes Pro II's and full XTR kit on offer from either Merlins/Chain Reactions or Evans.
Coming in under 21lbs and under your budget!

Is this your shopping list? I like it

mtb.boy

Get one of these (if you can find one somewhere)

http://www.btwincycle.com/EN/Product_ar ... index.html

Costs £1345.00 and weighs 10.5kg.