New bike for new rider with 1k budget

cubic 808

Hi all, first post and first bike to be bought. I'll be mostly using it for trails and rides out with my son in Grizedale (so nothing too serious.......yet) i started out with a £600 budget and sure enough after looking around that has crept upto 1k!! Now i'm not saying i want to spend 1k as i don't want to spend money on an expensive bike that'd be a waste on a beginner but i do want the best my money can buy that'd be suited for me.

I'm hoping to take to the sport and likewise my son, and after reading through a few threads people have said to spend more as its cheaper than upgrading but i'm not sure if this would count for a beginners bike? I have no idea how suspension forks, hydraulic brakes, lockouts etc work so not sure if these would even be beneficial or even needed for a novice?

Anyway the bikes that i have in mind are:

Cube Ltd
Rockrider 8.1
Voodoo hoodoo

I really like the look of the Cube but have heard they are "twitchy" so would this not be suitable for a beginner?

Any advice appreciated, cheers guys

The Rookie

No need to spend £1K.....any of those three is a good option, but the RR 8.1 is the go to value for money option.

The Cube is an XC bike, by nature they are quite quick responding, but I wouldn't call them twitchy.

felix.london

If you don't mind buying direct. This comes in at under £850...

http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=3008#tab-reiter2

cubic 808

Cheers fella's, i bought my lad a Rockrider and thought about getting one myself, i know it shouldn't really come into it but i prefer the look of the Cube over the others and was leaning towards that.

The Canyon looks great and will certainly consider it, although with postage added on nearly comes to £900 and for that price i could get a 2012 Cube Ltd SL which i really like the look of. But like i say i don't know if such an expensive bike would be wasted on a beginner or not?

Cheers again

ElliesDad

Have a look at the Boardman Comp as well, £649 from Halfords. Its a great bike and the one I started on as a beginner last year. Light, fast and very well specified.

felix.london

I don't think a kinda lower-mid-range, nice lightweight bike with a decent fork and brakes will be wasted at all...if anything it should make you want to ride more!

cubic 808

I had a look at the boardman comp only this morning abd thing there is £60 off bringing it to £590

options, options........


I know it wouldn't be a waste as such as i will definately get the use out of it but just thought it might be a bit daunting not knowing how everything works etc and maybe a bit overkill for a beginner.

Im seriously considering the Ltd Sl or the Canyon are they pretty similar spec wise as i don't know the differance between XT, Deore etc etc!!

MyNameIsEarl

I bought a Boardman Comp HT last year (based on advice on this board) and am still loving it. I also managed to get it with a discount, so was win-win for me. I'm also a beginner and didn't feel that I'd know the difference between a £650 and £1k bike, so thankfully trusted the advice on here.

atomic fox

i recently bought the boardman pro with 10% discount,cracking bike and worth the upgrade over the comp if you can stretch to a 1k budget.excellent components,lightweight for xc and capable trail bike too.no brainer for me .canyon great value too.

felix.london

cubic 808 wrote:

Im seriously considering the Ltd Sl or the Canyon are they pretty similar spec wise as i don't know the differance between XT, Deore etc etc!!

Deore is a great groupset, cheap, reliable and pretty much bombproof in my experience. XT - same but lighter basically. SLX in between the two.

SRAM X5 is like their version of Deore but not as good X7 like SLX and X9 like XT. People have there favorites obviously but there's no doubting that the Deore and SLX groupsets are spot on in every department (especially brakes)

..that's not saying the SRAM kit is bad - it's also spot on and works well IME

cubic 808

Many thanks for all the advice, really appreciated!

And Felix thanks for the explanation of Deore, XT, SRAM etc, all makes sense now

cubic 808

Just had a look at the Canyon again and used their size measuring system which said i needed an XS frame size (15") now i'm not the biggest person (5ft 8") but this seems really small, has anybody any first hand experience on the frame measurements from Canyon?

cubic 808

well in the end i went for the Cube Ltd SL as the Canyon was sold out in the colour/size i wanted and ended up getting a fantastic deal on the Cube, just took it out and very impressed, can't wait to take out for a "proper" ride

Thanks guys for all the input

The Rookie

Enjoy.....and that size is about right, after all 5'11" is about average height so would be expected to ride a medium, I'm 5'9" and ride a small.