Playful hardtail...

Oldskool_Paul

Hi all,

Looking for some suggestions on a new ride. Here's the deal.

I have a Cycle 2 Work voucher for £1000 burning a hole in my pocket. Initally I was going to get a road bike to compliment my MTB (A Commencal Meta 5.5)

After thinking about it a bit I'm almost (and I mean almost) thinking of going for a hardtail that I can chuck some slicks on for commuting/road riding but I can use it to play on offroad etc too.

I want something that's 'playful' in character but not like a jump bike type thing, needs to be able to do some miles too. I ride Cannock Chase very regularly as I work in Rugeley so using the Dog/Monkey as a benchmark for the kind of stuff I like doing. I'm hoping I can save some wear and tear on my full susser and keep me skillz polished with a hardtail lol. I also do the odd Enduro so it'd be nice to have a spare bike, plus the fact my Commie seems to be getting a fair bit heavier! I've been riding mountain bikes for nearly 18 years so I know what I like but just a bit rusty on specs as my current ride is 3 years old.

I'm aiming to spend around £750 so I can get some decent lights with me voucher too and maybe a lock for locking it up at work.

Any suggestions welcome...apart from Boardmans/Carreras because my voucher is for independent shops only....of which there are many however!

Thanks for reading

diy

Buy a couple of 501/2bs with XM-L chips in for 13 quid a pop, some cells and a charger, leaving you 30-50 quid for some semi decent locks (its about quantity as well as quality) leaving you 900 on the bike, which means:

Cube LTD
Spesh rockhopper comp
Whyte 805
trek 6300

are all worth a look.

rockmonkeysc

Saracen Zen could be fun

Oldskool_Paul

Cheers, I'll have a look at those.

Been looking at an On-One Inbred, the SLX is £850 at the moment, seems like a good buy until I saw they charge an extra 12% for cycle plus vouchers....ho hum

diy

yeah the voucher scheme is a bit like an ISA, because you're saving cash they all want their slice.

Hardly any shops will haggle with you if you are using a voucher, but I've not heard of too many that charge extra.

tbh unless you are on 50% tax its hardly worth the bother.

Given that the schemes charge you 60 quid too, thats around 200 quid gone to start.

Rich Hcp

Go for the roadie and enjoy the best of both worlds.

I put slicks on my rigid MTB and it was still slow on the road because the gearing is not ideal.

Slicks are rubish off road, so you loose that.

So I bought a roadie (Spez Allez Sport)

Then I realised my MTB was old & crap and bought an Orange G3 on the CTW

So now I have a roadie I like and a MTB I like

Sorted

Si1988

RockmonkeySC wrote:

Saracen Zen could be fun

I can wholeheartedly recommend the zen. If youre not a big rider there are still afew 14" and 16" framed 2010 zen 3's floating about for around £760. I think I was lucky enough to get one of the remaining 18s.

RevellRider

http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/produc ... ?&id=13056

Maybe something like this. You said it's a voucher that's not accepted in Halfords so Leisure Lakes may be able to do this sale bike on CTW

Oldskool_Paul

Good shout on the Zen & Ramones (keep it in the Commencal family!)

Been thinking though and decided I need something to contrast my Meta rather than a 'scaled down' version. I'll end up with 2 bikes sucking up me cash so going for a road bike now although I hate the stupid garish graphics they're adorned with....but that's another story!

Cheers for your input guys