time to get a new bike

barneyisourhero

Hi, following my previous post, I have abandoned my idea of buying a second hand Giant Talon 0 to replace my Claude Butler Cape Wrath D27 (2007) in favour of a new bike.

I have had my cape wrath since new and I want to move on to better things. The frame is a large and I'm more suited to medium. I have a budget of 800 ish and use my bike for trail riding around bristols new trails and some general hacking around woods and stuff.

I don't like the look of the boardman, before anyone recommends it, no reason other than that really. I had looked at the corratec air tech as a full susser, or the ghost bikes too for hardtail options. What I'd like is some recommendations as I have read the corratec is more suited as a xc race bike and not too good for what I might use it for.
Also would it make more sense to go hardtail considering my limited funds.

Pretty ambiguous post I know, but if someone can point me towards the sort of bike that they would consider suitable it would help me a lot.
I've been to my LBS but they don't have a great selection in my budget so I'd probably look further afield

Pete

1mancity2

Look at Decathlon and Voodoo bikes.

The Rookie

For £800 its worth looking for a last years model discounted through an online supplier, pauls get a lot of thumbs up, but I also have used discount cycles direct as it's attached to my *rather good) LBS and I can get anything sent there for collection!

Nice one here http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/p ... s_id=11115

Other option is a Boardman.....

Simon

oodboo

Might be £10 over budget but I likes

http://www.discountcyclesdirect.co.uk/p ... s_id=10940

barneyisourhero

Hi, thank you for the recommendations so far, when I get home I'll look them up in more detail.
Am I right in thinking the corratec air tech is not quite suited for the type of ridding I will be doing, or is xc racing basically the same as trail riding and such? I ask because I am really not sure what makes a good trail bike and differentiated it from xc race bike. I guess lightness and thus agility, but does this make it unsuitable for trail riding, or is it the same?

t0pc4t

if you're being strict about it XC bikes would be shorter travel but lighter whereas trail would be used to imply longer travel bikes capable of taking bigger hits but not being quite so light.

That being said it's largely twaddle as you can get XC bikes that will cope with most trails quite easily (my Anthem is pretty versatile despite being an XC bike, have caned it over Ashton Court a few times) and there are 'trail' bikes that are light enough to go racing with.

If you are buying new then for £800 I'd be looking for a hardtail but there's still a world of choice out there, from race focused stuff like Scott Scales right through to hardcore hardtails like the Ragley Bluepig.

So it depends what you want really.

If I were you I'd think about the kind of riding I'm doing and choose a frame and fork based around that then prioritise these when you buy. Things like drivetrain and stuff you can go lower spec on and it can be replaced incrementally. If you skimp on the fork you'll be stuck with it for some time.

Right now, if I were in the market for a hardtail I'd probably be looking at a Merlin Malt for that money.

oodboo

xc bikes tend to have 100mm travel and steeper angles
trail bikes 120-130mm travel and a bit slacker for comfort
at this price point there's not going to be much difference in geo as the bikes are more general use than the more focussed and expensive xc bikes.
Of course I'm generalising a lot here.