4 sub £500 options, limited to finance bikes

Alan...

Hello everyone, just signed up to get some advice and hopefully i'll be sticking around for a while, My name is Alan and i'm from Rainham in Kent.

So I've been out of the bike game for a while now (what's a 29er? ) but i've been on the look out for a bike ready for the summer, however I crashed my van the other morning so the bike money I had is now van money. I'll need to get about until it's fixed so a finance bike it is. (bye bye rock rider)

Been searching and searching reviews and forums, and all it's done is added more bikes into the equation, i'm 6"0 and 32 inside leg (jean size), thinking medium/large frame, for XC and light trails, so here goes...

I know my budget is low, and forks will be wafty but these can be changed at a later date. These are the bikes I've whittled it down to, anything I should definitely avoid or definitely go for...

Merida Big Nine £410 (a 29er, should I, shouldn't I?)
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _2013_Bike

Merida Matts 100D £400
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _2013_Bike

Scott Aspect 620 £490 (Huge savings here, any good?)
http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Scott-Aspect-62 ... _56873.htm

Whyte 801 £500
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _2013_Bike

Voodoo, Boardman and b'twin rock rider out of the question due to no finance option.

Or is there a better bike that stands out to you that I've missed?

Thanks in advance, Alan.

mcnultycop

Get a 0% credit card.

rockmonkeysc

Get a 0% credit card or use cycle to work.
At this price Halfords and Decathlon are the best places to buy but neither do finance.

miceden

Wouldnt travel for any of those, have a look at the genesis core - http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/produ ... _2014_Bike

Alan...

Thanks for replies.
Credit card is an option I suppose although I'd rather not.
Self employed so cant use cycle to work.
Genesis is over budget.

Alan.

97th choice

0% credit card is better than 15% shop finance and you end up with a better bike - boardman/rockrider

Otherwise, the Scott

kajjal

Go to your local bike shop and do sone test rides. How the bike looks and rides is important. Spec and price give you an idea of how good the deal is.

Found this which seems to get good reviews :-

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/tre ... RRWidgetID

Possibly other riders could comment.

The Rookie

Alan... wrote:

Self employed so cant use cycle to work.

Yes you can......although in this case it may not help as the schemes may not accept a single employee business, you can run the scheme through your company yourself but the company would be buying the bike up front.

Alan...

Thanks again for replies. So I've ruled out the cycle to work & credit card option, that Trek does have some good reviews so could be the one to choose. Shame I can't find more reviews on the Whyte.

supersonic

Which trek is that?

Alan...

The 4700 that kajjal suggested (link currently not working)

kajjal

Trek 4700d 2013, reduced down to £500.