Which bike? Budget - under £300

clucas1978

I have £300 for a hardtail mountain bike. Any suggestions?

Here are a few I've spotted:

Diamondback Sorrento 09 - Bone 18in - £264.99
Norco Bushpilot Mountain Bike 09 - Blue Med - £259.99
Felt Q220 Mountain Bike 09 - Matt Black 17.5in - £279.00
Carrera Vulcan Disc Spec 18" Mountain Bike 09 - £299.99

spidan

I'm in the same position as you as in after a relatively cheap bike.
The only advice i can give is beware, you must sit on them to try the size.
I assumed I'd fit 18" bikes and nearly brought a 18" carrera vulcan. I nipped into halfords just to have a look and swung a leg over a few bikes. The 18" was too big. My bits were resting on the top tube.
you gotta try for size to avoid disappointment.

JamesBrckmn

Rockrider 5.3 @ £300? from decathlon.

warrerj

In the WMB test this month the Sepeialized Hardrock came top of the sb £300 test. Worth a look.

diy

For £300 quid you can get some pretty decent used bikes.

Typically 3-4 year old bikes that would retail at £1K or 8-9 year old FS bikes that would have retailed over £2K

The Spiderman

For this money I`d be looking at a 1-2 year old Specialized Rockhopper or similar.

HebdenBiker

Gary Fisher Marlin?

mudslinger

I'm in the same position in that I want a cheap MTB for my commute. Very little local stuff appears in the classifieds / ebay so am looking for new.

Considering the Rockrider from Decathlon - is the 5.3 worth £100 over the model below?

Wiggle are selling the Kona Fire Mountain for less than £300 - any views on this?

The Spiderman

Worth a look:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=33981

http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productDetails.asp?productID=21403

If you can up the budget to £400ish then something like an ex demo Giant XTC from Rutland would be within reach.Much better!

Worth taking your time and hunting out a used bargain though.I got a mint Rockhoper for less than £300 when I started out and sold it after a years use for more than I paid for it.

Gazmondo

The Spiderman wrote:

For this money I`d be looking at a 1-2 year old Specialized Rockhopper or similar.

I've just bought an '07 rockhopper in fantastic second hand condition, for £330 delivered.

The Spiderman

Just need to have some patience...

mudslinger

Cheers. The Avalanche seems a good deal.

An XTC would be very nice. Pauls & somewhere in London are selling the XTC 4 for about £450-£460. However I need to make sure I don't get carried away & spend too much! I have a Trance as my main bike so a new bike is purely for commuting & holidays where I don't want to run the risk of the Trance being nicked.

The Spiderman

Good example of what you can pick up2nd hand if you look around:http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-trek-4500-as-new-condition

mac_man

There are some bargains to be had 2nd hand

I got my lad a Rockhopper 09 for £340.

Found my brother in law a gorgeous GT Aggressor XCR 09 that's still retailing on Halfords for £799, for £350.

Both bikes bought off the classifieds. Both in mint condition.

But I would only ever buy lightly used bikes. Anything that's been used a few years is likely to have issues. Anything much older than that will have major issues unless it's been meticulously maintained.

The Brother-in-law was given an 8 year old Giant full suss bike by a mate of his. Needed a lot of work doing to it so just not worth the bother unless you knew what you were doing, and had a supply of cheap parts.

steve77345

My first MTB was a Specialized Hardrock, bought it from a student who was being chucked out his flat and he needed the money only paid £50 and it was 2 months old and mint, he threw in gloves backpack and a can of WD40. So maybe thats an extreme example of bargains but even brand new the Hardrock is a decent buy.
Steve