£500 First time MTB advice!

Pizzer

Me and my girlfriend are looking to purchase our first mountain bikes for around £500-£600, we are complete novices but I've managed to narrow it down to these two:

http://www.saracen.co.uk/bikes/2014/kili-trail

and

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/ ... p-29#specs

My girlfriends down to these two:

http://www.specialized.com/gb/gb/bikes/ ... sport-650b

and

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bik ... 256/77404/

If you could offer us any guidance that woud be amazing. We know Decathlon is widely recommended here but we don't have a local shop to test out the bikes.

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Pizzer

PS I found the Saracen for £599 from Ms

kajjal

Voodoo bizango is the best bike in that price range checkout the reviews online.

For the Mrs , from my experience best to take her to a bigger bike shop and let her see and test ride some bikes, she may prefer mens mountain bikes.

supersonic

Avoid specialized at this price, tey are woefully specced, awful forks. The Saracen is a nice bike. Voodoo, carrera will serve you well.

The Rookie

The Giant is OK, but specced about the same as a £350 Carrera so why would you.....

Consider also the Rockrider 8.1 (name changed yet?) for circa £550, excellent value.

BLW

Voodoo Hoodoo or the Bizango, both super bikes for the prices.

Pizzer

Thanks for the advice guys!

The Rookie wrote:

The Giant is OK, but specced about the same as a £350 Carrera so why would you.....

Consider also the Rockrider 8.1 (name changed yet?) for circa £550, excellent value.

Took the misses to have a look at a Carrera Vulcan today (http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... -2015#tab1) and she really liked the feel of it - any opinion on that model here?

Cheers again everyone

The Rookie

The Vulcan contains the minimum you need to ride off-road, hydraulically damped forks and hydraulic brakes, it's a competent bike but the Decathlon offerings are better at the same price point.