Jan Sales hardtail - c£700

chrisw333

A mate of mine is looking for a new bike at around the £600-£700 mark. General local bridleways and trail center use (Cannock , CYB etc)

Obvious choice is probably the Boardman Comp @ £699 (I'm aware of British Cycling discount), but I wondered if anyone has seen anything in the sales that is also worth looking at. I know he needs to try for size etc, but as a starting point we're probably looking at med / large size wise.

Boardman Comp
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... zone=PDPz1

I do also like this Genesis Core 30 (2011)
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _Bike_2011

Any thoughts on above or alternative bargains out there?

Ta

winter_zombie

hi

i have the boardman team pro hardtail
the boardman range is brillent, my advise would be at the lower end of your budget go for a voodoo hoodoo and with the british cycling discount it will work out at £449 so its a £50 saveing OR if you want to spend the lot i would advise on goiing all out and getting the boardman team hardtail. its £850 but with the british cycling discount it works out at £765. its over your budget but for that little extra its well worth it. the spec is good and the bike feels and rides mint.

chrisw333

I thought you may say the Boardman WZ! I agree with you, but struggling to get him to trade up to Team, even with the discount, so looking more like the Comp model.

I just wondered if I'm missing any bargains out there and also how people felt the Genesis stacks up to the Boardman as an alternative.

paulneenan76

Check out the Radons at bikediscount.de - the Canyons should be in that budget too. Also worth googling or searching this forum for the Trek ex display stock sell off website for some absolute bargains - I think I posted it before so search my posts.

Also the Decathlon Rockriders are pretty much the best bang for your buck outside of Ze Germans or mail order.

The Boardman and Voodoo's are great value but you can definitely get better for £700.

Happy hunting.

winter_zombie

paulneenan76 wrote:

Check out the Radons at bikediscount.de - the Canyons should be in that budget too. Also worth googling or searching this forum for the Trek ex display stock sell off website for some absolute bargains - I think I posted it before so search my posts.

Also the Decathlon Rockriders are pretty much the best bang for your buck outside of Ze Germans or mail order.

The Boardman and Voodoo's are great value but you can definitely get better for £700.

Happy hunting.

their may be better bikes out their, but i dont agree that for under £500 the voodoo is by far the best bike to buy.

the boardman range is good but i think it only realy shows spec wise when you hit the team or pro model.

i know many others will not agree with me, but in my own view the rockrider/decathlon brand is fine untill something goes wrong. just like my bike when it went wrong i got very poor service and with out draging out the whole story again, in the end as they dident fix or help in any way with the bike i simply threw it on the local council rubbish waste tip. but that was my experiance, others will swear on a stack of bibles saying they are amazing.

we all have our own views and experiences

paulneenan76

Yes the top end Boardmans represent better value than the comps - but that's where the voodoo comes in.

The decathlon bikes are good, amazing value, but won't come with Trek or Giant style support or support that your LBS provides. Like SKY for instance. Bloody great service till you have a problem, at which point it goes down hill fast.

If it was my money I would drop my cash on a Radon ZR team 7.0. Reba rl fork. Slx XT deore 10speed drive train - £670.

Or look at he canyons.

97th choice

paulneenan76 wrote:

The decathlon bikes are good, amazing value, but won't come with Trek or Giant style support or support that your LBS provides. Like SKY for instance. Bloody great service till you have a problem, at which point it goes down hill fast.

Disagree, their components carry a 2 year warranty and the frames 5 years, and I have found their in store workshop staff to be excellent in every regard. It might vary from store to store in that respect but shouldn't be unversally panned!

snoopsmydogg

Why not the Carrera Fury or Voodoo Bokor?

Fury gets great reviews from what I have seen and both can be had for under budget

paulneenan76

^^^^^^this

The previous Fury had a better spec in some respects but the lates version is well regarded, number 1 in wmb for entry level HT. The Voodoo's are cool.

More often than not I bet Decathlon are fine. Of course if you don't have one locally it may put you off. If that's the case then buying mail order is likely to also.

Tell him to go sit on a voodoo, Boardman, fury and a genesis, and then pick the one he feels works for him.