£600 to spend......but which bike?

Adam918

Hi
Looking for a bit of advice from you guys, lots of knowledge in this forum.

I am looking at getting a MTB for predominately riding off road in the hills, been looking for bikes but i'm not sure about specifications wise what bike you would recommend.

I have £600 to spend and at the min there is far too much choice!!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated...

cycle monster

Welcome but to get a meaningful response you will need to provide more information. Where do you intend to ride and what type of riding inerests you? There is a world of difference between general trail centre riding and downhill for example.

cooldad

Read through the 'Buying Advice' forum to give you somewhere to start.

rapid_donkey

If you look through the forum, this is quite a common question:

viewtopic.php?f=20005&t=12845773

My reccomendation would be the Carrera Fury from Halfords.
Buy it, go over every nut and bolt, then ride and enjoy, and be amazed at the capabilities of a bike costing a fraction of most other bikes on the trail as you overtake them (thats what I do ).
And if anything goes wrong, theres always a Halfords nearby.

Anonymous

In the same sentence there you just gave reasons to and not to go to Halfords and buy the Fury.

With about £600, you won't go too far wrong with a Specialized Rockhopper. Good frame, reasonable components, they handle well.

Alternatively, push your budget to £700 and you'll get the Whyte 801 or the Orange G2, both british bikes designed for british riding. great frames, half reasonable kit and very upgradable as your riding progresses.

cooldad

Both the Whyte and the Orange have rubbish forks and spec for the money. The Fury is way better specced, and a whole lot cheaper. No contest.
Even better find a 2011 Fury with Epicon forks.

mattrgee

Genesis Core 30
http://www.royles.biz/product/6980/Genesis_Core_30_2011

Adam918

Thanks for all the advice so far...

I have been looking through the threads and there are lots of different views, initially i'll be trail/hill riding but i'd like to do a bit of downhill later on.
I like the look of the cubes, furys and especially the boardmans which are on sale at the moment, my only issue is Halfords!! seems to be a lot of complaints about them!

cooldad

Boardmans and Carerras are fine, Halfords can be a bit hit and miss, like most big chains. Generally I've found that the bike people during the week are fine, the spotty teenage weekenders are as rubbish at Halfords as any other shop.
Don't let it put you off the bikes - do a few simple checks before riding, which I would do with a bike from anywhere anyway.

cooldad

ps I know that some spotty teenagers are useful - no offence.

pps - Downhill, as opposed to riding downhill, is a specific disipline, and needs a monster travel chunky bike. What you are looking at will go down hills fine, but will not cope with Downhill.

The Rookie

Pauls cycles are currently doing a Giant XTC for £650 that is awesome value.....
http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.p ... 1b0s2p3483
Recon air/XT,SLX/Shimano brakes

Anonymous

Thats right Cooldad, just look at the spec, thats exactly how Halfrauds have to trade.
Lets not bother looking at the frame or how well they actually ride.
By the way, did they actually sort out the problem with the bolt through on the epicon?

.

cooldad

You seem to have issues. Spend some time going through the forum and you'll find a lot of very happy Carrera, Boardman and Rockrider riders. The spec is excellent for the money, and the frames are good. They ride well.
At this price point most 'name' brands spec awful forks, which do more to spoil the ride than anything. Easy enough to replace the forks, but add another £2-300 for a decent fork to the price of a name brand bike, and you're up around the £1000 mark.
And the name is Halfords. The joke is really old and stale.

chez_m356

UnivegaDrew wrote:

Thats right Cooldad, just look at the spec, thats exactly how Halfrauds have to trade.
Lets not bother looking at the frame or how well they actually ride.

obviously the carrera's and boardman's are complete crap,which is probably why they get such bad reviews in the magazines, oh hang on they don't do they, as for recommending the rockhopper, the frame is made by the same people that make carrera's, boardman's and decathlon, and the spec is very mediocre

chez_m356

cooldad wrote:

The Fury is way better specced, and a whole lot cheaper. No contest.
Even better find a 2011 Fury with Epicon forks.

you can still buy them now, its called the Boardman Comp, i kid you not, just look the spec up, exactly the same as the previous model fury

Coolnick

I've got the Boardman HT Comp bike and can't recommend it high enough at this price point. Reasonably light, decent air fork and cockpit components. If I had my time again I'd buy this bike in a flash.

jus71n

I had £600 to spend, but desided to go for a "nearly new" Cube ltd team 2011 off eBay for £480

Adam918

Coolnick wrote:

I've got the Boardman HT Comp bike and can't recommend it high enough at this price point. Reasonably light, decent air fork and cockpit components. If I had my time again I'd buy this bike in a flash.

Been today to collect my new boardman HT with web discounts came in at just over 550 so very pleased with that! Thanks for all the suggestions and stand by for all my which kit is best threads lol

Ian43

I concur Carrera and Boardmans and Voodoo's all have unbeatable spec for the price, I know as I have the Boardman MTB pro which is a year old now and I have only just last month had to change the bearings, other than that a fantastic ride and no issues at all and better specced than a lot of the fashionable "name brands"

jt_intheuk

mattrgee wrote:

Genesis Core 30
http://www.royles.biz/product/6980/Genesis_Core_30_2011

I would consider the Core. Good bikes

Coolnick

Enjoy Adam, you will enjoy it!