New bike purchase, hardtail with a £1000 - £1500 budget help wanted.

necromonger1965

Hello everyone,

I've been back into riding around 3 months now after a 20 year break, enjoying it immensely ☺
Would like some ideas for ugrading to a better spec bike than my current ride, a 2nd hand Konami Firemountain. I do most of my riding on cycle paths but really enjoy the trails in local woods and ideally need it to be comfortable on long distances ie 50+ miles. I'm only interested in a hardtail as I see no need for a full suspension, but really need the adaptability of being able to ride local trails in woods rtc as I really enjoy the fast and twisty downhill stuff. I've viewed the Scott Scale, Whyte 901/905 in my LBS, looked at the Cotic Soul on line and seen others but can't make up my mind, anyone got any ideas what would be the best choice?

The Rookie

For a slightly more XC biased ride, this is great value
http://www.decathlon.co.uk/rafal-720-lt ... nformation

The Cotic is a great bike, a little heavier due to the steel frame, but very well sorted.

The 13 is well worth a look, more trail bike than XC a dn 1x11 gearing
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... -bike-2015

Or mid way between XC and trail with an excellent carbon frame and SID forks, although the spec suffers a little to pay for it
http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/m ... dtail-650b

You need to provide links to the exact models you are looking at, for example there are 34 bikes in the Scott Scale range!

muttley_109

How about a Bird Zero TR?

necromonger1965

Thanks for your reply guys, I never thought about Halfords but that carbon Boardman looks interesting, I'll pop down to my local one and have a look. As an older rider I can remember the first time around when the best frames were made from Reynolds tubing, think this is the reason why I'm leaning towards a steel frame like the cotic, that Bird Zero Tr has definitely got me excited.

muttley_109

necromonger1965 wrote:

that Bird Zero Tr has definitely got me excited.

Your excited! I've ordered one and now i'm waiting for it to be ready, I've barely got any work done for the last couple of weeks!

The Rookie

The Cotic is worth considering, although heavier than a higher end allow frame, it's only as heavy as some lower end ones, at about 2.1Kg it's only about 400g heavier than a mid range alloy frame like the Bird, but about 1Kg heavier than a decent carbon frame.