New and need opinions

jorbish

Hi Ive been wanting to get into riding for a year or so now but haven't really had the money till now. Basically i want to know what the best xc bike i can get within the £700 - £1000 price bracket?


Would appreciate all of your opinions

Cheers
Jordan

Andy B

best is highly subjective.

you need to test bikes to find which is best for you!

Have a look at Merlin Malt's, Specialized, Giant, Trek, Orange, Commencal, loads to choose from, try to make a shortlist if you can.

jorbish

Yeah have been checking them out and thanks for the info.

Just wondering if there are any that stand out from the crowd as far as durability, quality and reliability goes.
Thanks though

supersonic

They all pick from the same pool of parts, but the best value tend to be Merlin and Boardman. Doesn't mean much if you don't like how they ride though.

jorbish

Ok. Cool thanks for the advice. I'm looking at kona coliers ATM. Are they any good? Also are kona stinkys any good for xc? Sorry if the questions seem noobish

Cheers

Jordan

Andy B

Coilers & Stinky's are way too heavy for xc & far too much travel.

you want to be looking at bikes with 100mm-120mm forks.

hardtails (no rear sus) are much lighter & better specced for £700-£1000.

jorbish

Andy_B wrote:

Coilers & Stinky's are way too heavy for xc & far too much travel.

you want to be looking at bikes with 100mm-120mm forks.

hardtails (no rear sus) are much lighter & better specced for £700-£1000.

right ok. Well the thing is i have an amazing hill behind my house and its quite long and steep so i want a bike that i can use to get up steep hills and down them but also go for xc rides with my girlfriend. so i dont know where i am with regards to choosing a particular type of bike. is there anything thats a pretty good allrounder?

Cheers

motherhucker

Are you looking at a high specced hardtail that can pretty much handle everything or a decent full suss that wont quite match up component wise? Both of these options were recently reviewed in mbuk, results were:

Full Suss:

1. KHS XC-604
2. Carrera Banshee xxx / Mongoose Teocali comp
3. Merida AM 500D

Hardtail:

1. Merida matts tfs 850 trail d
2. Land rover mezzana / kona caldera
3. Diamondback apex

The stinky is definately too much of a freeride bike for your needs, and so is the coiler really although you could get away with it if you wanted to hit the trails hard when youre not on the xc loops.

Nodnol

If you want a no-nonsense hardtail that can handle most you will throw at it yet make it up the hills, look at the Orange Crush. Leisure Lakes have them on offer I do believe, at £800.

jorbish

thanks for the great advice guys! So basically I should be looking at hard tails rather than full sus bikes? Will a full sue bike be no good for xc? I wanted to try a bit of dh too so I need a good allrounder really. Thanks for the advice tho guys really apreciate it!

jorbish

Looks like im opting for the carrera banshee xxx. Thanks for the advice everyone i hope ill love to ride it as much as i love the looks of t!

Thanks again guys

supersonic

Are you sure? It is about as far from an XC bike as you can get - very heavy. Good for going down and heavy trails, but XC? No.

jorbish

ok. do you know of a good bike for what im looking for then?

Cheers

supersonic

As Andy says, a bike with roughly 100-130mm of fork travel.

There are some capable full sussers as this price, but tend to add weight and have lower specs.

On the XC side of things, can't go wrong with a Specialized Rockhopper. A bit tougher, but still lightish is the Saracen Zen. Full suss, look at the GT Aggressor XCR, and Giant Trance.

Testing them would be advantageous.

hopper1

If I where you, I'd go for the hard tale.....
A light full sus does not come cheap (if it's well specced!).
A good hard tail will cost much less, but will still be capable of going down hill (and have a much better spec!).
DH limits of a hard tail would basically be speed, if you want to challenge Peaty, then a hard tale would be outclassed.
I can understand your dilemma, I bought a full sus Giant NRS1, which is very good for all round riding, but as I've got more into it, I'm now looking to buy a hard tail!

CFS

Recently bought the Mongoose Teocali mentioned above.

It rides really well, good traction on the climbs, good fun down hill.

It would've been a pretty good buy for £800 but I got mine for £499 from discount cycles. direct.

Unfortunately they're not doing them now but a few places like Wiggle are doing them for about £650.

jorbish

Great advice thanks guys its really appreciated! ill have a look at the suggestions and ill post here before i buy and get everyone's opinions before i buy!

Thanks again

Jordan

hopper1

You could also look at www.pauls-cycles.co.uk they usually have a good range of well discounted models. Some are '06 or '07 models, but you'll still get a whole lot of bike for your money, or have excess cash left over for your kit etc...

thirty1

Have a look at Brodie bikes. They are a Canadian company, much like Kona bikes. They are new to the UK so you dont see to many on the trails.

I know the guys at Progressive bikes who are the importers, and they have a few bikes on offer that might interest you.

First the Brodie Mettle, it is a 4" travel full susser, ideal for xc and light weight too. They have a 19" on sale for £1000 reduced from £1699 it is an ex demo bike hence the reduction.



They also have the Baku in a 16.5" frame size. It is a 5" travel bike, little bit more burly but still fine for xc. That is reduced to £950 from £1499 but is a brand new bike used for trade shows.



They have a hardtail called the Climbmax, not sure how much this is but my mate bought one and they did a deal for about £775 on a new one, and they should be £1199 ish, really nice frame and decent kit too.

The bikes are all on here http://www.progressive-bikes.co.uk/index.html


I really should be on commision!

supersonic

Do you work for them?!

thirty1

lol, not quite! My mate is the owner of Progressive bikes, so i suppose i have a biased point of view!

I can understand what you mean after just re reading my post, just ignore me!

There are plenty of good bikes out there anyways, and i like the look of the merlin's for the money, very good value.

supersonic

Lol, ok, just try and keep it 'neutral' ;-)

Phill54

Jorbish there are many top bikes in that price range.

Cube LTD Race.

http://www.bikus.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p126

Cube LTD Team.

http://www.bikus.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p125

You should also take a look at GT Avalance expert and GT Zaskar Expert,

http://www.merlincycles.co.uk also have a great offers on the commencal combi deluxe aswell as having fantastic bikes of there own.

One thing i learned when looking for my new bike recently is to listen to the advice of the more experienced members of this forum who must get fed up of saying "Try them out"

And it's true just because they look good it doesn't mean they ride good everyone feels different on each bike.

I was dead set on a GT Avalance expert but i ended up getting a merlin malt 2 it just felt better for me not to mention i got much more bike for my money. If you live near chorley you should go and visit merlin or if not see if your lbs have cubes in stock.