Hardtail or FS?

rob13

I appreciate this has been probably done to the death, and I know that most will recommend not to touch a FS bike if its below £1000, but would you in the circumstances outlined below, go for a brand new hardtail or second hand FS?

Budget - £800 max
Type of terrain - Moorland/Forest trails - Dalby Hamsterley & Guisborough
Ability of rider - recent road rider but wanting to add MTB to the stable again

Previous bikes - Specialized Rockhopper 08 - didnt like it, didnt like the way it rode, despite it being rated very highly at the time. Felt too sluggish

cooldad

Plenty of good FS at that price, look at Boardman or Carerra from Halfords, or any number of older models on sale from Pauls Cycles or similar.

Pudseyp

Agree look at the hardtails and FS on sale at Paul's Cycles...

jon1993

If you found the HT to slugish then a fs will not help this at all, they do feel sluggish compared to road bikes. I'd advise a HT boardman team I think there about that price range. I just got the pro and love it but as your use to your road bike this will still feel sluggish to you but less than the rock hopper as there lighter I think

Pudseyp

^^
Yep different gearing and rolling resistance.

cooldad

Any MTB will feel sluggish next to a road bike, on the road.
Most road bikes are pretty rubbish on a bit of singletrack though.
Get used to it.

rob13

Gents, you didnt think I'd expect road "Performance" on the trail did you?

What I'm after is that direct feeling when you put the pedal through its stroke. Maybe that could be geometry or perhaps its a stiff setup. I know that the co-efficient of friction will naturally make a bike feel like slower.

Been out to the LBS' today, seen the following bikes:

Cube Ltd range
Boardman HT range
Scott Scale & Aspect range.

Theres also Canondale, Trek & Giant but they appeared to be fairly expensive in comparison with the Boardmans & Cubes. Had a quick go on a Boardman Pro HT and thought the Reba shocks were mega. Really progressive, smooth and just a really nice feeling to the bike. I only tried the 16" being a 29" inside leg. The bike felt compact and I wasnt stretched out across the front.

So if you had the Cube, Boardman & Scott ranges (Hardtails) available, which would you choose? I'm keen to complete the Boardman stable putting a HT next to my road bike, but the Cube's are beautiful. The Scott's while being more expensive, are available to demo in the coming weeks with new '12 models. My budget was initially below £500 (2nd hand) but I can already see that being stretched quite a way!

Pudseyp

Scale
http://paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p3229
Aspect
http://paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p3233
Scale
http://paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p3029

cooldad

I'd take a Boardman. Don't know much about Cubes, but a friend rides one (around the £5-600 level) and it's far heavier than my FS, while the Boardman was about the same weight.

jon1993

Haha just checking you didn't think that. well I speak from experience with the boardman pro and its amazing. Tapered steer tube doesn't move at all and stiff reba forks very very informative for a mtb gives you great confidence racey geometry in the frame for the pro and team. lower models have a more relaxed position plus decent fast rolling tyres and 2x10 gearing which is so Much better than 3x9 and all in all will be hard to find a lighter bike for the money. Not to sure about others though sorry.

rob13

Jon, have you had issues with the BB30? It seems quite a few on here have complained of the bearings going in them

jon1993

haha halfords seem to think so :P i just got a full new set of bearings and a chainset because mine where faulty haha not! i just wanted the spare parts haha. Also got a tyre replacement out of them because well i also wanted spares lol.
tbh i havent done enough miles to really know. ive done 200 miles and no problems so far... basically they sent out a batch of bikes with bb30s that wernt lubricated properly. After 50 miles i got some creaking but as there a different method of attaching the cranks they just press up to the side of the bearings at either side and a bolt on the non drive side crank arm tightens (gets longer) to press up against the bearings if that makes sense lol, tightened that it stoped the creaking. Also at that time i removed the bearings took the seals of them and filled with a bit more thicker grease, and liberally greased the contact between bb and rod going through between crank arms to stop creaking. 0ther than that as a precation nothing so far. They are said to be cheep bearings but then again cheep to replace only £30 worst comes to it you can get a insert to change to gpx lol but i dont think its half as bad as people are saying.