Hello!

jabaflabba

Hello all,

I want to get into mountain biking, and have a budget of around £300ish(could stretch). I have read the buying advice, and bike suggestions, and apologise for creating yet another thread.

However, I wonder whether anyone had any opinions on a few bikes that are in my LBS.

Scott Aspect 55 09 for £349.
Claud Butler Cape Wrath d24 08 for £347 - as well as a range of other claud butlers including alpina, stoneriver etc.

Would it be worth heading to Halfords to try the bikes in the store, as I see they have been recommended (Carrera Kraken/GT Aggressor). However since I am new to the whole thing, would it be better to get it from a shop that knows what its doing.

Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.

Wax_On

Hi, I have just been in the same position as you and after a lot of looking around I bought a Carrera Kraken. Very pleased with the bike, great value, I booked to collect on-line and got an extra 10% dicount, total cost £319 but it has to be said Halfords were definately average. My advice (although from a fellow beginner) would be to get the Kraken but let a specialist bike shop sort out any problems you cannot sort yourself.

stumpyjon

One of my neighbours bought a Scott Aspect 55 earlier this year and another bought a 45. The 45 is a much better bike for the money (although it looks like prices have gone up alot since last year). The 45 gives you a better drivetrain and hydraulic discs. if you can stretch to the 45 I'd recommended it.

Northwind

I don't know the Scotts, but the Kraken is very good value. X5 drivetrain, decent tektro comp hydraulics, and the fork while bucget is pretty reasonable, for the price bracket. (It's about the worst fork that can be considered any good, which sounds bad but you'll find it on bikes costing over £500, and you'll find much worse on bikes costing £350. SR Suntour aren't a very well regarded brand but IMO these XCR 120s are better than a Dart 2, and you get the remote lockout too)

Don't get me wrong, it's not awesome or anything, but for £350 it's very hard to beat on the general spec. Other bikes can beat individual parts but I've not seen any that's as good an allround package out of the box.

There's 3 downers for me... The pedals are horrible, no grip at all, I found my feet slipping on the road never mind when muddy. The tyres are pretty terrible, they're impressive looking Tiogas which do have moderate grip, but they're incredibly slow rolling and they weigh over a kilo each. Horrible choice, they're honestly worse than the tyres my last mtb came with, in 1991. And of course, final assembly will have been done by a halfords person, which can be fine or can be bad news. My local is pretty decent but obviously ymmv, by quite a lot...

I'm very pleased with mine, I did a wee bit of modding to iron out the creases- the pedals went instantly, the tyres soon after- and it's a perfectly decent performer at a very good price. Admittedly I did change the fork, but I didn't have to

jabaflabba

Cheers for your tips so far. The carrera Kraken has gone up in my estimations!

I think my max budget is £400, which would put me in the range of a Claud Butler D27 Cape Wrath which has been given good reviews I see in this magazine.

If I headed up to £400, what would be a good bike to purchase? Worth trying to get the Scott 45 on cheap? the Claud Butler or the Kraken?

Help is much appreciated.

stumpyjon

If you can look for a 2008 model Aspect 45. Won't be much difference in spec but it'll be cheaper and possibly discounted, e.g.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Scott-Aspect-45 ... _12416.htm

just do it quickly as all the shops are selling off last years (2008) stock at the moment and popular sizes will go first.

Northwind

jabaflabba wrote:

If I headed up to £400, what would be a good bike to purchase? Worth trying to get the Scott 45 on cheap? the Claud Butler or the Kraken?

I'd definately be looking in the sales. Oh, don't be fooled, the Kraken isn't really on sale at all, £350 is pretty much its natural price- Halfords do short term price hikes then "discount" back to normal afterwards. I suspect there's another proper sale due but they seem to have held off a lot of the 09 stock so maybe not. So do bear that in mind.

I don't know that Scott, but the spec's a bit... meh. Very obviously built down to a price, around a good frame. And that's OK, because it does tend to mean you get a very upgradable frame, the kraken works well as a whole but it doesn't have that same upgradability. I'm having trouble with the Tredz website but I did notice a Giant XTC 4.5 at £350 which is probably a better option.

My feelings are, on a bike in this price range upgradability isn't such a big deal. If your budget is £350-£400 you want something that isn't going to cost another £100+ to work out its shortcomings. It would be better to just spend more in the first place.

If, on the other hand, you might have some money in the bank in 6 months to upgrade, then the Scott looks better than the Kraken. Or an 08 Rockhopper or something.

At the end of the day there's probably a dozen bikes in this price range which are all very good, and all have their fans and detractors and highs and lows. It's a great time to be buying a bike!

jabaflabba

right, i'm on the search for the discounted bikes!

A website has the scott 45 for a good price, yet only has a large in stock. As i'm 6'1" would that be adequate?

stumpyjon

Probably but it can vary. The standard advice is go and sit on one as two bikes of the same size can actually have different lengths top tubes etc.

That said you can tweak any bike to a certain extent by moving the saddle back and forwards, up and down and you can adjust the bars position.

Bit of sizing advice in this thread.

http://www.bikeradar.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14693549

I'm 5 11 and ride a large (19") frame and I've have people say that's a bit on the big side for me. It's a trade off between controlling the bike and being too cramped.

jabaflabba

After a little search online, I have found a few bargains, what are your thoughts to these? ( I have one more LBS to visit, but their website didn't give me any clues to discounts)

Claud Butler Cape Wrath D27 (22") £389.99 - http://www.tredz.co.uk/.CLAUD-BUTLER-Ca ... _14590.htm

GT Avalanche 1.0 Disc (XL) - £399.99 - http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=25896

As I am looking for something that I probably won't upgrade unless something breaks, which one do you think it worth going for? My LBS only have the new version Scott's in stock, and as far as I know these two bikes are the best sub £500 (according to Bike Radar). I have tried the Claud Butler, which was comfortable, and would suit my daily commute, but may feel more restricted when doing trails. I also tried an avalance 3.0, which was only a large and felt a little small, but still enjoyable.

Apologies for asking questions, just want to make sure I get something decent.

3110neil

i went to halfords to take a look ,in the end i went to evens cycles ,good range and know a lot i got a cannondale f6 disc £323 plus if you go to a nat west bank and pick up a free sensa mag it has a 10% off voucher for evens any way i think i got a good bike dart2 forks avid juicey hydrolic discs all shammano parts
if you want oil ,spark plugs go to halfords want a bike go to a bike shop

Northwind

They're both supermarkets at the end of the day... Good price on the F6 disc that! Nice brakes on those, juciy 3s isn't it. Dart 2 is OK as well, same ballpark as the damped XCR. They're another "good frame, cost-cut components" bike mind but still, for £320 you can't complain.

Muddy.Bail

i would personely go for the scott aspect 55 its a great bike and doesnt let u down in most places