fast and lightish hardtail for under £1500

ellsbells1973

any personal views on a lightweight-ish hardtail, budget upto £1500,mostly fast singletrack so a 100mm fork will be suffice, i am riding a 100mm full bounce but just fancy going back to a hardtail, mainly for a weight compromise more than anything, a couple of bikes i have been looking at are the malt 4, a cube reaction gtc, stumpy ht comp, and the boardman, i think i am right that they are all roughly around the 23-24lb mark which is a good 7lb lighter than my current ride

The Spiderman

Fancy building it yourself?

Buy an On One Scandal frame for £220,RS SIDS from Merlin for £330,XT groupset with wheels for £640,RF Deus bars,stem and sepost for £120,your choice of tyres, for £50 and saddle for £50.

Can`t think of many off the shelf hardtails that would be as good for less than £1500.

Off the shelf option,look at deals on 09 bikes.Cannondale Taurine at £1300ish would be tempting...

Or save loads and buy a Boardman HT.

Lapierre t 400

the on one build mentionned above sounds like the best path for a 1500£ bike

Torres

That scandal build is brilliant for the cash!

Of course, it depends what tools you have and how mechanicaly competant you are, if you've got a fairly comprehensive tool kit (and know how to use all the tools ) then brilliant, but if not and you need an LBS to build it for you remember to factor in those costs in to the overall budget

But, if i was after a lightweight XC race bike i think i'd be sold on that

supersonic

You can get some Scott Scale 30s for your budget:

http://www.westbrookcycles.co.uk/bikes- ... e-8511.htm

And at 22.8 lbs is very light., with one of the lightest frames available.

njee20

Scratch the ScandAl, search eBay for 'Carbon MTB frame' and take your pick! I got one a couple of weeks ago, mine was £160 + shipping, took 10 days or so to arrive, my 18" frame weighs 1260g. Then follow the build above!

LoUiS1985

cube reaction RX

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=44334

i've got last years model! (only real difference are the brakes)

they're light, mega-fast and loads of fun!

fox f100's with remote lock-out on the front, xt drivetrain and excellent formula stoppers!

great value for money!!

clwydian_rider92

Any Giant HTs on Pauls Cycles? They usually have a good selection.

Eranu

I'm not sure the Carbon Reaction is available in the UK yet, but I may be wrong.

The Boardman is a good bet as is an alu Reaction. As super says the Scott is an ace bike, I only didn't get one due to the spec v the 2008 cubes.

You could always buy one of these if they have your size...

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Mode ... elID=30526

Northwind

I think I'd maybe look at the Boardman, which gives you a good budget for upgrades should you choose. It's about 24lbs stock IIRC. Not sure exactly where I'd spend the £500 though, wheels most likely but it'd buy a lot of carbon doodads.

The Spiderman

If I were to buy the Boardman,I`d spend most of the £500 change on wheels,though the standard ones are already meant to be fairly light.
I`d expect something like Hope Pro 3 SPs to be lighter though.
Or buy some Ritchey WCS carbon bars,to match the stem.
A decent XT or better cassette would save 150g and if as I suspect the standard tyres are wire beaded you could lose another 200g for switching to kevlar beded versions.
Either way,it would be easy to get it to sub 24lbs with the change....

jmillen

Get a Boardman Pro for £999 and have £500 to spare is the way I'd go (albeit slightly biased view).

Okay, you probably shouldn't buy a bike with the view of upgrading parts straight away. With this in mind though, the spec is already excellent as standard X0/X9 etc and you'd have some £££ left over to pick up a cassette and some carbon bits if you feel the need as I've done.