Bike recommendations, for a mate, honest.

EKE_38BPM

A mate of mine has asked for recommendations for a bike. Its the usual 'mostly on road but with the occasional bit of off-roading and gearing that will let me climb that hill near me' that all novices want.
His budget is £200 (I know, thats the price of a entry-level wheelset) and I've warned him with 'buy cheap, buy twice' and 'you get what you pay for'.

I've suggested he have a look at the Carrera Subway Limited Edition at £200 or the budget busting Carrera Vulcan at £300.
Any other recommendations?

And since I'm asking questions, I've seen someone make a image a clicky link. How?

tailwindhome

Carrera is the perceived (or is it received) wisdom on the MTB forum for value for money starter bikes. That and Decathlon

Timing is everything when buying from Halfords - I bought the Carrera Vulcan (the non disc version) for £204 at the start of the winter - they're a different price every week

No issues with it

tailwindhome

My laptop keeps crashing or I'd post up some links

Check out the MTB forum Beginners or Buying advice, or do a search on Carrera, Vulcan or Vengeance and you'll get some info from people who know about bouncy forks and such like. I just bought mine for pootling about with the kids and it was spot on.

The best offer at Halfords at the moment would seem to be the Vengeance Ultimate half price at £320 which Supersonic described as astonishing value. But you are getting into budget creep there.

There also seems to be little rhyme or reason to Halfords pricing policys sometimes the better spec bikes are cheaper than the lesser models.

Kieran_Burns

To be fair: I can't knock the Carrera bikes. I started with a Carrera Gryphon (£300) and really enjoyed using it for over a year before the bridleway on my old commute killed it off.

I think it's a fine way to get into cycling without committing huge amounts of money on the bike itself

EKE_38BPM

Budget creep has begun! He says he can stretch to £300 (which probably means £350 plus bits).
I've pointed him at the newbie pages on here and offered what advice I can, but as I don't spend any time looking at flat barred off-road capable bikes I can't offer much assistance.
Are there any other brands he should look at? He doesn't really trust Halfrauds, but I told him that the bikes are OK, its the monkeys that open the boxes that are the problem.
e.g. I went into Halfrauds and asked the monkey a simple question. I got the reply "I don't know anything about bikes, I just put them together." That doesn't exactly fill you with confidence, does it?

CiB

Tell him to stop wasting his & everbody else's time with this entry level 'ooh I want a bike that does everything' nonsense. Cut out ten years of incremental improvements and start with something quite good...

This.

This is what he needs.

EKE_38BPM

CiB wrote:

Tell him to stop wasting his & everbody else's time with this entry level 'ooh I want a bike that does everything' nonsense. Cut out ten years of incremental improvements and start with something quite good...

This.

This is what he needs.

No good off-road. Might mean his deposit for a house goes out the window too!

Kieran_Burns

Tell him to buy a bloody tricross - 2nd hand if he won't buy new. 8)

tailwindhome

Eke don't get confused here by budget creep and KBs dirty chat.

Your job here is to keep your mate the hell out of Argos/JJB etc

Carrera or Decathlon are by all accounts unbeatable at this price point.

Irritatingly the Carrera Vengeance Ultimate was down to £319 but seems to have disappeared off the Halfords site.

Greg T

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Tell him to buy a bloody tricross - 2nd hand if he won't buy new. 8)

2nd hand.

not a lot of money goes further 2nd hand . . . .

let's face it - he'll ride a towpath once . . .

EKE_38BPM

Greg T wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

Tell him to buy a bloody tricross - 2nd hand if he won't buy new. 8)

2nd hand.

not a lot of money goes further 2nd hand . . . .

let's face it - he'll ride a towpath once . . .

He wants new and he reckons he'll be off-roading a bit (I doubt it though).
He also mentioned the possibility of doing a London to Paris charity ride. An off-road bike sounds perfect for that!

Why do people ask for advice and then ignore it?
A mate told me about a former colleague who was in the market for a commuting bike and had a budget of ~£300. After a trip to Evans, Halfrauds and an LBS and test riding a few bikes a suitable one was found and my mate was satisfied that he helped a wannabe cyclist...until a few days later when the colleague rides into work on a full suspension MTB looking very smug and telling my mate "Look at this, only £80!" Oh dear!