Voodoo Bantu?

dss

I've read a lot of the threads on the forum about which mountain bike to go for in the sub-£500 category including "Got £300-500 to spend? Want a new bike? READ THIS!" and "What Bike 2012"

i'm still getting over that it seems Halfords are the best place to get a bike without steadily increasing the budget more and more: I've read a lot of comments about the fact that it seems to go down to the components you get for the price vs paying for the brand name on other bikes and getting poorer components. I guess it's just strange that Halfords end up offering a decent price as they are not particularly well known for great prices (google 'Halfrauds' and you easily find a lot of unhappy customers)

but for a 'newbie' its all pretty daunting trying to work out what's what.

so relatively speaking - how much better is the Voodoo Bantu compared to other similarly priced bikes such as:

• Specialized Hardrock Disc 26 2013 Mountain Bike @ £400
• Trek 3700 D 2013 Mountain Bike @ £400
• Mongoose Tyax Sport 2013 Mountain Bike @ £399.99 or £354.99
• Kona Lana'I 2013 Mountain Bike @ £399.99
• GT Avalanche 4.0 2013 Mountain Bike @ £369.99
• or even the Carrera Vulcan Mountain Bike 2011/2012 which is now £359.99 at Halfords and appeared to be rated highly here last year when it was costing £480

I'm not asking anyone to compare them all - but is there a massive difference and the Bantu completely superior or is it marginal improvements in the components?

Also - I've read that the Bantu's tyres are particularly heavy; is it worth changing these immediately? And what would be recommended?

And are there any other 'essentials' - such as helmet, lights, mud guards, bottle holder, car rack, etc?

thanks in advance

cooldad

The Voodoo has decent damped forks, the others do not, so it is superior.
Most OE tyres are rubbish and worth replacing asap.
Have a hunt around the forum for bits to buy, but IMO a helmet, multitool, pump (mini, track and fork if you get air forks), tubes and a Camelbak type thing. And some chain lube - Squirt is good.
A car rack is obviously useful if you have a car.