Giant XTC Advance SL0, Should I buy it? £4,500

irishrover

Hi there,
I am very new to MTB's, I used to ride a lot when I was younger and now I do it for the excersise.

I have been offered a 2011 Giant XTC Advance SL0 (18 inch) from a local dealer at what I think is a good price but I am not sure if I should buy it. It maybe more bike than I need so I could always sell it on.

Is 4.5k cheap or the going rate for a 2011 bike, bearing in mind the 2012's are just around the corner?

Any feedback would be great.

It is Spanking new very Light still got the plastic on it.

Look forward to heaing from you all.

Dave

njee20

You could build a lighter bike, to your exact spec, for less, using a Whippet frame or similar.

If that doesn't appeal, and you want the Giant then yes, go nuts, you won't go wrong. Personally I couldn't spend that on a hardtail though.

mac_man

Do you want to spend £4k on a bike? Have you tried it? Have you tried any others?
It's a lot of cash to splurge on something you may not like, assuming you haven't done anything more than a ride around the car park on it...

It's your cash and you can do as you will. For all I know £4k might be pocket change to you ;-)

Personally I wouldn't spend that on a hardtail unless I was a world class Pro XC racer.... it's just totally OTT for a bike that you admit yourself is just 'for exercise'. Ultra light bikes won't necessarily last any longer than a £2k, or even £1K bike. One of the cheaper Giants will do the same job with enough cash left over for a decent foreign holiday and a weeks worth of skills training, plus bike accessories etc, etc.

Resist the urge to splurge...!!!!

Try a few bikes for a day... full suspension, hardtail, XC, all mountain... whatever you fancy. Most shops will knock off the cost of a demo from the price.

Just my 2 cents...


EDIT... as soon as you ride it you'll knock loads off its value. You might be shocked at how little you get back compared to what you paid for it.

neiltb

for that money you could go straight to n+1+1 with a nice hard tail, nice road bike and decent full sus.

If 4.5K is a drop in the financial ocean, so is 1K and if you really like it 3.5K down the line.

At that kind of money you are in the realms of diminishing returns.

Slow Loris

I think with hardtails there's little point spending over £1.5k unless you're a pro, as anything over that you would probably not even notice any improvement.

As someone's already said, go to On-One and see the spec you could get on a Whippet for a fraction of £4.5k. Chain Reaction also have Sunn Prim S1 for £1199 that looks pretty good and weighs 9.8 kg.

Pudseyp

You want to spend £4.5 on a bike for excercise !!!

Save £3k and get something like this
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b4s2p2294

386ka

Pudseyp wrote:

You want to spend £4.5 on a bike for excercise !!!

Save £3k and get something like this
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b4s2p2294

Agree, it's a great deal to resist. Everything in the line above this bike should give minimal weigh savings, for a great cost, and almost non-existent performance upgrade, which only the pros will notice. Dont spend 4500 pounds on a bike which you aren't sure you'll ride.

Edit: otherwise, if you're willing to spend the money, you wont go wrong with the deal you've been offered.

cooldad

Buy it, stick it in the shed and I'll buy it off you for £500 next year.

The Spiderman

As said above thats a pro level race bike.A very nice one,and one that I would covet,but when it came to riding,it will be a very one dimensional,balls out xc sppedster bike.

If you`re a mere mortal you`d probably have as much or more fun on something more verstaile like a Whyte 905.

Or save even more and look at a new Boardman HT Pro for £1k.

For the odd ride,local xc stuff even a trip to a trail centre thats probably all the bike most of us would ever need.

omegas

irishrover wrote:

Hi there,
I am very new to MTB's,
Dave

Set yourself a max budget of around £600 , if after a few months you fall in love with the sport go and spend some silly money on a bike.

Treadstone Assassin

I have an XTC advanced SL1 which I bought earlier this year from Paulscycles.Although it is a brand new,out of the box bike,it is the 2009 model.It cost £1799.Within reason it has everything you could want in a carbon hardtail,xtr,fox,mavic etc etc.Whether you have buckets of dosh or not,the financial bath you will take on that £4500 bike if you want to sell it on will be spectacular,and I cant believe the £4500 bike would offer anything materially better in riding terms to us mere mortals,over the cheaper version.It is the indian that fires the bow!

Having said all that.........I think you should get it........looks the biz!!

Scalpel_79

dude!!!!!!!do not buy- for this amount of money you can build a space ship!!!!

---

LITERALLY!!! Full XTR + Formula R1 on the Rear, THE ONE up front (carbon levers), 160 + 160 rotors, superb wheels,...etc. Do a research, before you do anything else. £4.5k is a great budget for a Full Susser, these days.

cooldad

I think Irishrover has left the building

irishrover

Hay, I'm still here, been busy mulling it over.
Thanks for the input it is a bucket of cash your right and it will not make me a better rider just because I have 4.5k dangling between my legs,
Ok, let's look at something more realistic. I'm six foot tall 98 kg and that's not all beer belly lads before you ask
What should I be looking at? Oh and what size, some shops are trying to sell me smaller bikes with extended stem and seat posts?

I'm going to budget it to 1.5k, oh and what's the story with 29" wheels? Any advantage?

Thanks again for the feedback and @cool dad, my shed is not even worth 500 so you could have had them both!

waby1234

What type of riding will you be doing?

irishrover

I'M a born again rider, exercise mainly nothing hair raising, I would like to have nice bling on the bike as I know the cheaper lower quality components are just crap ;-)

So to answer your question, road 80% and trail the rest...


Thanks

omegas

irishrover wrote:

I know the cheaper lower quality components are just crap

Wrong

A lot of bike parts are consumable components, just because they are cheap does not mean they are crap.

irishrover

What was the point of that OMEGAS?

I have a bike that is covered with cheap components it cost about 280 pounds, it rides like crap feels like crap and is crap...

Thanks for the photo of your....... Bike ;-)
Dont see your point though...

The Northern Monkey

I'd spend 1k on a road bike and £6-800 on a hardtail MTB.... or something like that.

Cheaper than the original 4.5k and you have bikes suited to what you actually ride.

Bikes for £280 are rarely bikes, they are BSO's!

felix.london

irishrover wrote:

What was the point of that OMEGAS?

I have a bike that is covered with cheap components it cost about 280 pounds, it rides like crap feels like crap and is crap...

Thanks for the photo of your....... Bike ;-)
Dont see your point though...

Shimano XTR brakes are £175 a set.

Shimano Deore brakes are £50 a set.

Shimano Deore brakes are not cheap, "crap" components

I think you need to stop worrying about the price of stuff and concentrate on what the bike/components will be used for (imho )