£800 commute and trail hardtail

pinion_

Thanks for looking, I need some help deciding on an MTB used to commute to work (10 miles per day) and want to get into proper trailing as there are many areas around where I live, West Central Scotland, Glasgow.
I hit a local shop and was presented with a Saracen Kili Pro, 29er which looked and felt stunning, granted I didn't take it out (as yet). I saw one thread on here that advised against the Kili so I went looking for alternatives.

So I've been following guides and posts on here and I'm still a bit undecided as I want to sit on the bike before buying it which is ruling out Cube, Voodoo and Rockrider, so it has to be local, those three bikes are not local to me and I'm thinking Evans is about the biggest range I can play with, so I'm looking for advice please? Something at Evans that you could recommend?
I want something that has a decent aluminium frame, hydraulic discs and decent enough parts for a time and can look to upgrade it as I go but the frame being the part I don't want to replace.

These are contenders at the moment:
Cannondale SL3: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/can ... e-ec042884
Cannondale 29er: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/can ... e-ec042868

Kili 29er: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/sar ... e-ec043446


This is a link with the base filters set:
http://www.evanscycles.com/categories/b ... lic%20Disc


Any help or advice you could add is appreciated. Thank you.

foy

Have a look on pauls cycles.co.uk website as you can get a cannondale sl 1 in the sale for £700 and the spec is far better than the sl3 at evans and is £50 cheaper as well.

The Rookie

Don't forget to budget for some road tyres if you will be doing much road riding and possibly some off road tyres that arebetter than the OE which can be pants!