First serious mountain bike for an ex-roadie

tris_d
tris_d Posts: 6
edited February 2009 in XC and Enduro
Hi all,

This is my first post here. I have recently got back into cycling again. I started time trailing and road racing when I was 13 but I have not done any serious riding in over 10 years and now I am three years past thirty. I got a hack bike about a year ago and ever since I have been itching to get back into some serious riding again.

I have been looking at some XC hard tails and I was hoping at spending £1500ish. This is a significant amount of cash for me and the local shops really don't have any HTs for demo.

The Stumper Jumper expert looks like very nicely specified bike but £1700 is a lot of cash for me but is it worth a stretch over say a Marin IFT, Trek 8500. Plus at this sort of money I could be looking into carbon frames but will it last as long as an alloy?

Any advice at all would be of great help!

Tris