Aggressive Hardtail For Under £1000

CharlieV453

Hi there,
I'm looking to purchase a new bike. My budget is £1000 with possibly and extra £100 (ish) if I can find the money so I'm not really looking at a full sus. I had a Ragley Marley 1.0 (2017) and had so many problems with it I returned it to the shop and got it refunded. So now I'm looking for an aggressive all mountain/enduro hardtail. I have a hard riding style so am looking for a strong and robust mountain bike and nothing of an xc nature. I ride local trails, enduro/rough trail centres, small dirt jumps and the odd trip to DH tracks (although that isn't what my bike is designed for) so I really want something I can fully rely on and not have to constantly worry about parts breaking. I have a budget of £1000 but may be able to scrape a little more together but I would rather spend less money than more although I would like good value from the money I have.

The best value bike for this price range I have seen so far is the Vitus Sentier VRS for £890
Does anyone no any other reasonable bikes for between about £800 and £1100? (or anything cheaper with good upgrade potential?)

I would not like to buy second hand as I have so far been very unlucky with part failures and would really appreciate being able to get a refund and have a warranty on the bike.
I'm open to things like plus tyres but haven't yet tried them out

What features I would like on the bike:
A 1x11/10 (1x11 and Sram preferred)
Wide bars and a short stem
130mm upwards of reasonable quality travel
Through axels (at least the front)
27.5 inch wheels with 2.3 inch tyres (roughly)

(A dropper would be an added bonus!)


Thank you very much for your help

mark_fogel

Consider this:
https://www.planetx.co.uk/c/q/bikes/mou ... =MASDeeDar

Nukeproof Scout 275 or 290

These are about £1100 though, there are cheaper Scout models but not as well specced...

I have not ridden or owned the bikes above though so cant comment on reliability.

Perhaps a Bird Zero? costs a little more though

cooldad

Parts are generally common to many bikes, so if you keep breaking them and others don't it suggests either user error or maintenance.

CharlieV453

Hi, I don't think it's either of those. I have friends who I will admit are better than me but have cheaper bikes. They do harder jumps, runs and gaps than me and their bikes hold up fine. I also take very good care of my bike, I wash/clean, regrease, disassemble and check my bike regularly and make sure it is in full working order.

Uber_Pod

Just out of curiosity, which parts are failing?

CharlieV453

So far I have had 2 free hub faliures (one down to replacement with faulty parts from the shop), the chainring was bent from the start, the csu has broken twice now as well and the rear brake is misting without any crash or similar situation happening.

The Rookie

Argh yor mythical 'misting'...

CSU failure is just a shit landing style I'd suggest.

I'm with CD, if you break the generic parts on one frame you'll break them on another.

CharlieV453

As I have said, I'm sorry about my "misting Brakes" repeat. Please drop it now. My friends have a similar style to me and their bikes are cheaper and are much more reliable. My old giant xc bike held up with no problems whatsoever. And that was second hand for 200. Parts didn't brake on that. I also said I do hard riding which is true but 95% of the time is local trails or commuting.

CharlieV453

The bird zero tr looks exactly what I need. But I also need a little more money too. I think I can afford to spend that on such good value. Thanks

CharlieV453

Do you know how long it will stay at its lowered price for?

cooldad

Phone them and ask. It's a small company, you'll be talking to the owner most likely.

CharlieV453

Ok thanks very much for your help!

CharlieV453

Sorry to be irritating, but the bird zero tm in the cheapest option in my frame size/colour is over £1200 which I really don't have the funds for. Any other bikes out there?

The Rookie

For the usage you seem to be putting it to, you I doubt you'll find something new for under £1K.

On-one Deedar would come closest at £1100 with the beefier Yari fork and SRAM NX 1x11.

CharlieV453

Like I said, the vast majority of my riding is commuting and local trails. I ride real DH 1 or 2 times a year (slowly though as I'm not great) and things like llandegla every 2 months or so. The rest is filled in with general single track. That's why am bikes would be ok (I think). Its really hard to justify pushing the budget past 1000 and the deedar (in my opinion) has quality spec but is really rather ugly and I don't want to spend extra money on something I don't particularly like. If I can find the money and justify something like the bird I will but I can't do that with the deedar. Any suggestions of a more am or trail bike under 1000.

cooldad

Get a FS instead for the price.

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-bos ... ke-p403001

Old one got great reviews.

http://www.mbr.co.uk/reviews/full-suspe ... 015-review

New one gets even better.

http://www.mbr.co.uk/news/cheap-bike-vs ... ike-365291

The Rookie

But if he was breaking the forks on his Ragley, he'll do it on those. He may also manage to make the brakes misty as well!

CharlieV453

Cool dad, thanks but no thanks, I'm really not interested in a fs at the moment, I would rather have the reliability and better spec list of a hard tail instead. The Rookie, my fork broke after the first month of riding. That was when I was doing virtually nothing but commuting and local trails. I wasn't confident enough to hit any jumps or technical terrain like a DH track or trail centre whatsoever. It wasn't until later in the year that I started upping my game. How can the forks break on a road within a month? Also can we get back to the question in hand please.

The Rookie

It depends what actually happened to them, as with any relatively complex item, removing all errors from manufacturing is pretty much impossible, so likely a manufacturing fault and how the forks then needed up with a rider (various OEMs or aftermarket) would be pot luck, they are bought in my Ragley from reputable manufacturers so not their fault really. Say you had two fail, and that's either very unlucky, a faulty batch and you were unlucky enough to get a second as a replacement or user error such as slamming up kerbs.

kemp_ad

My Bird Zero frame will be for sale in a week or so.

Got a new 2018 Foxy carbon coming

CharlieV453

Think I'm just very unlucky however my bike was one of the first 2017 produced so may have had first batch issues. Ragley have been fine but the lbs have been the problem and tried to con me out of a replacement telling me it was working correctly. I'm quite careful with my bike as well and never slam it up kerbs instead favouring a small bunny hop or lifting the wheels individually. I am quite unlucky in general anyway!

CharlieV453

Not really interested in the frame I'm afraid. I could build a bike myself but I don't really have the tools, time or money to do so. Sorry!

The Rookie

CharlieV453 wrote:

Ragley have been fine but the lbs have been the problem and tried to con me out of a replacement telling me it was working correctly.

You still haven't told us what actually went wrong, it is relevant to any advice on a new bike after all.

mark_fogel

May be a Marin Nail trail? not as aggressive as the Dee Dar or Zero but much cheaper and should still work very well on the trails + comes with a dropper and wide rims wide bar and short stem:

https://www.rutlandcycling.com/bikes/mo ... ZhEALw_wcB


I have the 29er lower spec version and its fun well balanced bike, ordered mine from here:
https://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/prod ... HaEALw_wcB

Its been solid so far, no reliability issues apart from punctures (-:

tallpaul_s

Commencal Meta HT AM 2018 origin.

https://www.commencal-store.co.uk/PBSCProduct.asp?ItmID=22592102

They should be available from CRC so with the 10% discount from the British cycling club that leaves enough budget for a dropper post.

https://youtu.be/QKcOR4vIpWg

CharlieV453

Sorry about not going into detail. What had happened was the crown and steerer cracked and came loose (but didn't fall apart).

CharlieV453

I like the spec on the marin but am not a fan of the shimano gearing, frame or the 120mm forks. I'm quite a large rider and like running my suspension soft so would like a little bit more travel I think. Sorry

CharlieV453

I have mixed opinions on the commencial. It has a fairly good kit but I'm not sure about the fork. If I remember correctly, Recons have 30mm stantions and that would be very flimsy with 150mm of travel. Or is it different in the 2018 versions? After some research I am also unsure about plus tyres. As I said I commute a lot and as I live in the UK it is very muddy. Neither of those work particularly well with plus tires I don't think.

The Rookie

CharlieV453 wrote:

Sorry about not going into detail. What had happened was the crown and steerer cracked and came loose (but didn't fall apart).

Did both crack or just one, or did the press fit steerer come loose in the crown (which isnt totally unheard of), whatever the cause was it could have happened to any bike fitted with the same level of fork, so you need to decide if it was a manufacturing issue and you are happy with similar again, or a user issue and go bigger/tougher such as the Yari on the Deedar.

CharlieV453

Yes of course I would like a yari or similarly beefy fork but cant justify it with the DeeDar. As I said my bike shop weren't particularly helpful and just said it was a csu failure. The other bike shop I asked in the second time said it had come loose after a check over and that that was the problem. The two sounds I got after each failure were different so I would guess it was a different problem each time but the shop I got it from just said it was a csu failure and nothing else so I cant really help you on that. Sorry.

JayX2A

The Bird TR is 1150 if you keep the spec as it is - could be worth saving the extra to get one?!