All mountain bike advise £1000 - £1400

masuka

Hello all,

So after not touching mountain biking for years this past weekend on a whim I borrowed somebodies old kona stinky and did a couple of red runs in whinlatter forest and it was a blast!

So much so that I think i've persuaded myself I want to start up again.

Therefore I need advice on a tough all mountain full sus bike for £1000-1400

I can't see myself needing anything as bomb proof as the stinky so want to save a little weight to get up the hills, but my goal is to get my proficiency and confidence back up to a level where I can bomb some tough descents.

I have found a few bikes that I can get on interest free finance in the chain reaction clearance, they are both bergamonts which I have never heard of and can't find reviews for:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/berg ... prod146613

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/berg ... prod146618

If anyone has any opinions on these bikes or any alternatives then the advise would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Luke

masuka

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s183p5 ... -27-5-2015

Stumbled across this on Pauls Cycles, not sure if 160mm of travel on the forks is overkill or not though.

rockmonkeysc

160mm is total overkill for Whinlatter and most lakes riding.
I'd suggest the Giant Trance would be the best choice. It climbs great, descends great, has a bombproof frame. They're decent value, especially if you get last year's model from Pauls Cycles.

masuka

My future cycling won't just be limited to Whinlatter, that just happens to be where the friendly fella who invited me along was going.

I was hoping with further practise to start doing things more challenging than the red routes I did there, steeper sections, bigger drops/jumps etc, although maybe i've being watching too many free-ride videos and am getting ahead of myself.

However I can get the 2015 trance 1 for 1.7k which is a tad more than I wanted to pay, but does warrant thought thanks.

rockmonkeysc

You don't need a big bike to ride more challenging trails.
My bike is roughly equivalent to a Trance and that's easily up to doing black trails, big jumps and drops and enduro races. I've even done a couple 4X races on it.
The Canondale is OK but the pull shocks aren't the most reliable and there's no option to upgrade it if you don't like it, no other shock will work in that frame. Canondale are starting to drop the pull shock on new models.