£1000 - £1200 ish buying advice

lostScot

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy a new bike as an upgrade from my Cube Acid. I'm looking for something that can handle some more aggressive riding.

I've got around £1000 to £1200 ish to spend. My main question is for that budget should I buy another hardtail or should I start looking at full sus bikes? Is it possible to get a decent full sus bike in that budget?

Thanks

joebristol

It probably depends what you mean by more aggressive riding - jumps / downhilling / trail centres etc?

I had a £1000 budget for a bike recently but firmly wanted full suss. Not many options at that price:

Giant Stance 27.5 - I ruled it out as the gears were very low budget, it had a slightly flexy fork, and i didn't like the idea that the alloy rear triangle had to flex a bit with the suspension travel.

Boardman team fs 650b - this was the bike I ordered. Good rear suspension system and for the money it has good spec. Downside could be Halfords service, although so far for me they've been good. Wright wide it's a bit heavy I suppose. Got 2 x 10 gearing and a rs sektor forks with volt through maxle

Voodoo Zobop. Haven't found any reviews on this as it's so new.

If you stretched to the top of your budget and looked for sales / last years bikes you'd probably have a lot more choice. When I was looking someone suggested Paul bikes often had deals on Giant full suss bikes. Their trance range might be worth a look - their maestro system on that range is meant to be pretty good

John Wh

If you can wait till August, the Calibre Bossnut is looking very promising. Great levels of kit for the money.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-bossnut-full-sus-mountain-bike-p347143

joebristol

Calibre Bossnut - the spec looks promising. Similar level to the Boardman team fs - although perhaps the Shimano brakes on the calibre would be preferred over the avids on the Boardman. You've got Shimano vs Sram on the gearing - to be honest I don't know which is better. I like my SRAM stuff (although I ended up with the Boardman Pro fs - which is a bit more expensive and has higher spec gearing), but equally I'd have been happy with Shimano too.

The main difference is going to be in the frame - and until it's been ridden / tested against the competition it's hard to say which is best. The frame maybe where they've saved some money vs the Boardman - it's listed as a single pivot 130mm travel - where the Boardman is a 4 bar linkage frame with a number of pivots. The calibre maybe easier to maintain on this basis, but it might not be as plus / good when pedalling perhaps.

I'm sure the 2 bikes will get tested against each other when the Calibre becomes available - interesting to see what the result is.

John Wh

Just in case you want to have a look, the Bossnut was tested alongside the Boardman Teams FS, Giant Stance 27.5 2, Mongoose Salvo Comp and Norco Fluid 7.3 in last months MBR (Summer 2015). The Bossnut came out on top with a score of 10.

The only thing they didn't like was the name

lostScot

Thanks for the responses

I'm mainly looking at something for trail centre riding, I spend a fair amount of my time around a few of the 7 stanes sites.

The Calibre Bossnut definitely looks like it'll be worth a look when they are finally launched.

Anyone have any suggestions for hardtails to look at?

Thanks again