XC Race Bike for around £600

jakemckenna

Hi,

I was looking for a bike that I could compete on in the Midlands XC series and the NPS XC, but I am on a budget of about £600.

I was looking at the GT Agressor, Merlin Malt, Cube LTD, and a couple of others, any ideas or anyone got something similar.

I am selling my Scott Scale on here at the moment and on ebay I was just looking for a bit of an upgrade.

Thanks.

ben110

why are you selling your scott scale? what year and model is it? this is a race bike why not spend the £600 on upgrades such as wheels, forks and finishing kit??? this way yuor have a beter upgraded bike and it will be custdom to you aswell, if you do go for the new bike option merlin malts proably the best in your selection howevea thius will defo be worth a look http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/Cycle/7/Felt_ ... 360032852/ or some of the http://www.wiggle.co.uk/mc/Cycle/7/Focu ... Tail_MTBs/ range are very good vaule for your money hope this helps you mate

jakemckenna

Yes, well the Scott's frame is a little small for me and I think it is time to just get a new bike, thanks for the reply though, I will definately consider them.

Cheers, Jake

Daniel23

just bought a gt avalacnch 1.0 08..

I was looking at entering the same race, do you think my bike would be able to cope?

supersonic

Yes. Down to you really!

Have to say, the Scale is probably the lightest XC frame at this money, I'd look at another one!

Surf-Matt

Been using wife's Rockhopper Disk a bit recently while my Stumpy was being repaired.

Bang on the money at £600 and we've replaced the stupid risers with straight bars and stuck proper pedals on it - you could easily race it.

jakemckenna

Daniel 23,

I think that the 1.0 probably would be up to some racing but it would be great if you could tell me what you think of the GT's?

And do you think you will be doing the Midlands XC aswell?


Cheers, Jake

Daniel23

jakemckenna

Hi Mate,

I think that the bike is really good value for money, MBUK called it the best 500 pund bike last year and gave it 9/10.

It really is a great entry level bike, I have done about 100 miles on it so far and I must say I am very happy with it.

I am new to mountain biking to be honest with you Jake, but I am wanting to get into xc riding rather than the likes of down hill, free ride or jumping...

I was looking at the midlands race and I am training hard and building up my fitness, I will deffiantelly be entering some rides/races this year and being from the northwest the midlands isnt too far, so I may well go for it.

In regards to the bike, the one thing I MIGHT upgrade in the future is the forks, Oh and I picked mine up for 400 quid .. the 09 its 540 and is the same bike, but I think the 08 looks nicer... plenty of websites are selling them for 400 quid which when you look at the bike is a bloody good bargain! In my eyes it looks like a 800 quid bike!!

Daniel.

BlackSpur

GT is a very good bike (I have one!) but it is geared towards slightly harder riding that, say, a Scale. Scales have very nice frames perfect for upgrading and will be lighter than the GT with racier geometry.

couldashouldawoulda

Just a quick review of a GT Avalanche 1.0 being used for XC: (when I bought mine I didnt know what kind of mtb'ing I'd get into). To be honest I'd say it's almost impossible to get the ideal XC bikefor £500. But I'm really glad I got my GT - it's got me really fit and loosing weight at an amazing rate. As things wear out (I ride 10 hours+ / week) I upgraded it to lighter components. It's gone from its original 13.8 kg / 31 lbs to 10.5 / 23 lbs. ebay rules!


As stock I'd say the bike is slightly too strong / heavy for real xc racing. But the bare frame is 1.9 kg (4 1/4 pounds) so its not too far off race weight. The real killer (for me at least) were the wheels (2.2kg) and fork (2.3 kg) and crankset (1.2kg).

The frame is the strong point when starting out - it inspires confidence and you can go downhill faster then you'll believe. Nowadays I think the seatpost angle is slightly too far back which is a bummer on the climbs but a bonus on the fun bits. Now I;ve got a new seatpost which helps remedy this. All the rest of the geometry suits me perfect. The original Suntour fork is heavy but it works surprisingly well, I only found out how good it was when I 'UPGRADED' (?) after too many bombholes to a Rockshox Reba Team Dual Air. The only real problem is that you cant adjust the Suntour at all - but when I got the Rockshox I set it up as per the Suntour (crazy or what?).

Overall I still give the GT 5/5. For £500 you cant go too far wrong and if you shop around you can get an '08 model for even less. For XC I believe that the rider is far far far more important how much you spend on the frame / fork / wheels etc. Of course you can never spend too much on tyres - maybe that's just me. Just decide on the bike - and enjoy. And - if I ever see you on the same course as me I'll just have to get past you.
.

Gwaredd

You thought about the Clad Butler Cape Wrath D27? Seems to do brilliantly in every review. This is assuming that it has to be bought new of course.

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... 7-07-14054

Cheap bikes here too. Enough to fit a better set of forks (like Reba's) or crank easily.

http://www.holcroscycles.com/productdet ... Bike-(2008).html

http://www.bikeoutlet.co.uk/products/Cl ... 392-0.html

jamieh5463

Have a look at the trek 6300 its £650 (not £600) http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/mountain_hardtail/6_series/6300e/
You can get this on evanscycles or try ur LBS, i went on a club ride the other day and this was the only bike thart didnt clog up with mud! cos its got good clearance it is also nice and light as well