To buy or not to buy, that is the question!!

Rickster1978
Rickster1978 Posts: 31
edited January 2011 in MTB buying advice
So I'm in the market for a new bike and have narrowed it down to the following list.

Carrera Fury
Boardman Comp HT
Voodoo Bokor
Rockrider 8.1

I know the specs are similar for all of them and the reviews are pretty favourable. But can anyone else out there who's made a similar decision let me know what swayed it for them. Why did you choose the bike you chose. I'm particularly interested to hear the views of anyone who's got one of the 4 bikes I've listed.

I popped into my local Halfords today and had a look at the boardman and the fury and they both look very nice indeed. The Rockrider is obviously the cheapest option but they all come in between £500 and £600.

So come on then guys, what should I go for?

Comments

  • leaflite
    leaflite Posts: 1,651
    Why not the boardman team HT-its the same price as the bokor currently, and is the best specced out of them all.


    Generally:
    Boardman= XC race bike
    Bokor and Rockrider= XC/Trail bike
    Fury= longer travel trail bike
    GT Hardtail
    The Apollo Project
    Titus FTM Carbon
  • punkatron1
    punkatron1 Posts: 134
    I'd agree with the catagorisation of all 4 bikes in the above post. I've got the boardman comp and its a great bike for XC, which is what I wanted.

    The frame on the Fury was too fussy for my personal taste and the rockrider looked quite plain. I'm sure both are great bikes though.

    I nearly got the bokor 6 months ago when it was £500 but the offer ended (gutted). I think this bike would have been the best of both worlds (trail and XC). If you can get it for less than £600 (where by the way?) then I'd go for it.
    Too many bikes, not all fully built.
  • connorhadfield
    connorhadfield Posts: 90
    the rockrider is a great great bike to ride!!! my dad had one and i prefur it to my scott scale 40
    connorhadfield@gmail.com
  • voodooman
    voodooman Posts: 183
    Go for the Bokor

    Great bike, that rides like a steel frame (flex and give, not too stiff) and pretty good spec too. Oh and the sliding dropouts mean you have a top frame for SS later.

    However the paintwork is nice but paper thin and WILL come off. You'll need either lots of tape or not mind a shoddy finish in a short space of time. Personally it's good for me, I like the well used look and it makes it less likely to be nicked.
  • IDave
    IDave Posts: 223
    I've got a Fury that I bought last summer after a lot of people on here recommended it. It's a great bike, I absolutely love it. Although I should say I don't have a lot of experience since it is my first bike since I was a teenager over 10 years ago!

    I've taken it round the red route quite a few times at Glentress and it handles it really well, I was riding the red route on my second visit to a trail centre ever and I reckon the Fury was a big part in how quickly I picked up the basics.

    If you do get one, I'd recommend taking it to your LBS for a full service before hitting the trails though, as mine was set up pretty badly, and by all accounts, most Halfords bikes are the same in that respect.
  • getonyourbike
    getonyourbike Posts: 2,648
    I got a fury because with the trails I ride, 100mm of travel either wouldn't cut it or would just make life harder than it should be. The fury is more of a trail bike than an xc bike. I'll confidently have a go at anything on mine, big drops, hucks, jumps, rocky downhills and general trails.

    I'm not sure if any of the others have an air fork too but for me that was essential because if i had coil, I would need to change the spring to a lighter one for my weight. I can quickly and easily adjust the pressure to set the sag correctly, not so much that it bottoms out on big hits (I try and get it so on the biggest stuff it's about 5mm from bottoming out) but supple enough to flow over smaller stuff.
  • punkatron1
    punkatron1 Posts: 134
    both the Voodoo and Boardman have an air fork.
    Too many bikes, not all fully built.
  • punkatron1
    punkatron1 Posts: 134
    both the Voodoo and Boardman have an air fork.
    Too many bikes, not all fully built.
  • getonyourbike
    getonyourbike Posts: 2,648
    punkatron1 wrote:
    both the Voodoo and Boardman have an air fork.
    there you are, but the main thing that i'm saying is, that peronally I've found the extra 20mm of travel quite useful and i'm glad I've got it. It all depends on teh riding you will be using the bike for
  • IDave
    IDave Posts: 223
    getonyourbike wrote:
    punkatron1 wrote:
    both the Voodoo and Boardman have an air fork.
    there you are, but the main thing that i'm saying is, that peronally I've found the extra 20mm of travel quite useful and i'm glad I've got it. It all depends on teh riding you will be using the bike for

    Let's not forget the 15mm Q-Loc axle too! :wink:
  • Northwind
    Northwind Posts: 14,675
    I'd go for the Fury too . Actually no, I'd go for one of the others since I've already got a longer travel hardtail but if I had no bikes, I'd have the Fury. It's just that bit more versatile, yet still a good XC bike- you'd think it'd carry a big weight penalty but it's not bad at all. (and when you replace the cranks- because you will, you'll get fed up of feeding them bottom brackets at a stupendous rate- then you lose a big chunk of the lard. They cleverly collated 90% of the bad points of that bike into a single wearing component)

    All good bikes though. The Rockrider has a pretty rotten wheelset though, they'd be a letdown on a £200 bike tbh. But that's pretty trivial, I think the rest of the spec probably makes up for it.

    I would personally take a Fury, stick bigger rotors and fat tyres on it, take off the reflectors and the big ring then ride it down the fort william world cup route. I wouldn't do that with any of the others. But I don't think I'd ever regret getting the fury even on long xc rides.
    Uncompromising extremist

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