Halfords Sale (now over)

Mental Mickey
Mental Mickey Posts: 406
edited October 2010 in MTB general
Did anyone take advantage of the recent Halfords 'extra 10% off at checkout offer'?

If so, what did you buy? Did anyone buy a bike?

I thought of that guy who was considering the Carerra Vengeance Ultimate, as it was already reduced from just over £600, down to £400, he could have got it for £360 which might be a bargain.

I've had quite a struggle to stay off that buy button, the Voodoo Wanga seemed to be calling out to me and the 10% discounted price of £809 seemed a decent offer, but to save my pennies for now and save shed room, I had to convince myself that A) I just don't need another bike next to my Alu HT And FS bikes and B) There are negatives about the bike which might make the wait for some sort of customs build involving a Cotic Soul frame well worth it, then again this Wanga could be the ideal introduction to the feel of steel without spending at least 1.5k perhaps for a decent Soul build.

Alloy Rims: Yes
Brake Type: Hydraulic Disc
Chainset: Raceface Evolve XC chainset
Exact Frame Size: 17"
Fork Lock-out : Yes
Fork travel: 100mm
Forks: Rock Shox Reba SL fork with 100mm travel, lockout and rebound adjustment
Forks - Adjustable damping : Yes
Frame Colour: yes
Frame Material: Steel
Frame Size: 17-18
Frame-: Voodoo Black Magic butted thin wall heat treated Cro-mo frame
Front Brake: Avid Elixir R hydraulic disc brakes with 180 rotors
Front Mech: SRAM X7
Gear Shifters: SRAM X7
Gender: Mens
Handle Bars: Raceface Evolve XC finishing kit
Hubs: Formula sealed super smooth bearing hubs
Number of Gears: 27
Pedals: Alloy platform pedals
Quick Release Wheels: Yes
Rear Brake: Avid Elixir R hydraulic disc brakes with 160 rotors
Rear Mech: SRAM X9
Rims: Mavic XM317 rims
Saddle: Voodoo
Seatpost: Raceface Evolve XC
Stem: Raceface Evolve XC
Suspension: Front
Tyre size: 2.1"
Tyres: Geax Barro Mountain
Wheel size: 26
Approximate Weight (KG): 12.45

Here were the positives by my reckoning.

Frame, seems to be well rated as a good steel frame and very handily, they made it easy to convert it to SS which is often a thought which pops into my head now that winter mud is approaching.
Weight, not too bad at around 27/28 pounds.
Gearing system fine.
Fork, superb I'd imagine for the money, I have a Recon SL on another bike and can't fault it at all.
Brakes, I've used these before, they work pretty well, easy to switch pads over too.
Rims, not the top Mavic ones by any means but probably more than good enough for messing bout' in the woods, local TC red route.

Potential negatives, which helped me talk my way out of parting with the cash from friday through to yesterday.

Frame: I hear that lovely paint work comes off a little too easy.
Gearing, not keen on X7 shifters, they stick a but too much from past experience.
Brakes, I find Elixir's can suffer from being just a little bit too grabby at times, again from past experience.
Raceface chainset, I've had a cheaper version made my Raceface before, while this may be better, I'm going to hazard a guess the bottom bracket will last all of five minutes. I'f prefer Shimano, Hope or something.

So this is a 2 part question, other than the 'did you get anything good in the sale'? I'd also ask if anyone agrees with my thinking on the spec, or have I unfairly misjudged?

The reason I ask is because I may still get this bike at some point as the Cotic Soul build (I'm no skilled mechanic) would cost be a fair bit I'm sure, so if Halfords do another sale of 10% or with any luck 15 or 20 %, then I may find it hard to resist next time. :wink:

Comments

Categories