advice on a new mountain bike

phezman

Hi everyone, I'm pretty new to the whole mountain biking thing and I'm in the market for my first 'proper' bike. I've got a budget of about £400-500. I've done a bit of looking and come up with a few names, although these are a bit under budget so i could stretch it a bit. Any thoughts/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm looking at -
Voodoo Hoodoo (£450 at halfords)
Carrera Kraken (£459 at halfords also)
genesis latitude 00 2012 (£500 in sale)
GT Krakoram 2.0 2012 (£500 at Paul's cycles)
I'll be going about 40/30/30 on roads, dirt paths and some downhill stuff in the local woods/ maybe further afield in future.
thanks in advance

petriodet

have you considered the rockrider 8.1 i would avoid the vodoo as it is heavy and on the road you will not appreciate it, without links it's hard to say about the others but the rockrider is really good value.
Also worth noting at this price it might be worth looking at a second hand bike.

phezman

petriodet wrote:

have you considered the rockrider 8.1

Yeah ive seen a lot of good things about it, i'm unsure how much better it is? (would be willing to get that as a last resort though sorry about lack of links -
Carrera Kraken
Voodoo Hoodoo
Genesis latitude 00 2012(i know it says discontinued but i can get it new for 500) - The genesis is looking like my favourite right now i think?
GT Karakoram 2.0 2012

The Rookie

The Rockrider 8.1 is now £550, still the best value for money.

The Genesis for £500 is very very good value, but it will be heavier, the Hoodoo is worth considering, the others not.

For what you want, the RR is great, the Genesis and Hoodoo both good and you'd not be disapointed.

phezman

ok, but I was thinking in the future of doing more off road stuff so the weight might not be such an issue? The rockrider looks great - now a serious contender im thinking. what about other factors as well as weight like the forks, brakes etc? cheers for the help

supersonic

The best forks here are the Recons. Brakes, nothing in it, all good budget units.

petriodet

phezman wrote:

ok, but I was thinking in the future of doing more off road stuff so the weight might not be such an issue? The rockrider looks great but I'd like to stay under £500 if possible. what about other factors as well as weight like the forks, brakes etc? cheers for the help

brake and fork performance are negatable because they will be nothing in it, spend the extra £50 it's definitely worth it.

phezman

just heard about the cycle to work scheme, and it would seem i could probably extend my budget to about £750 if it is what it says it is? ive not got any experience with it so if its all rubbish then please let me know pretty much the same criteria but now with an extended budget any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

cooldad

Does your company do it? If so find out which one.

phezman

cooldad wrote:

If so find out which one.

Yes they do, but what do you mean by which one?

cooldad

There are a few different schemes and some dealers only deal with one or the other.

phezman

Oh ok sorry. Its actually up in the air at the moment, and we're not decided on which one yet but I could pretty much choose which one we go for. Looking at this one though, for the fact its the only one I can find that has decathlon on board!

phezman

Ok, I've been looking around, and i think the decision now is between the Rockrider 8.1, the Rockrider 9.1 and the Boardman Team hardtail. thinking about doing some xc in future so i suppose im looking for something fairly good all round. sorry for the sudden change in budget :roll:

Murphybarnes

If it's cycle to work you are tempted with it is best to research it it at least a little bit as It does sound too good to be true in many cases and easy to dismiss the nuances in favour of a shiny brochure or web site. In most cases it is an excellent introduction to modern MTBs, as in my case, but just make sure you are aware of the whole process, particularly the final stages, as it would be painful watching men in brown coats removing your prized possession.

snoopsmydogg

both are good bikes and decent spec. The decision will easily be made by which scheme your company use.

iirc Rockrider are Decathlon only and Boardman Team are Halfords only.

The Rookie

Make sure you understand C2W, the first years payments are LEASE payments - usually to the value of the bike, at the end of the year the bike IS NOT yours, after that most schemes allow you to take ownership in one of 2 ways, purchase with the value being set by HMRC (known as Fair market Value) which will be 50% of the new price (thus wiping out your tax saving and then some) or an extended (few years) lease which is effectively a tax dodge round the FMV which may or may not get clamped down on by HMRC as it's an obvious 'benefit in kind' to my eyes.