Thoughts on these mountain bikes for 14year old

converse2020

As per subject, my 14 year old is keen to buy a mountain bike with his savings!.

He's got a budget of about £400....and has narrowed it down to a Voodoo hoodoo 2018 bike. He's not particularly tall (yet) so we are not looking at 29ers.

The 2018 Hoodoo bike spec seems ok, air fork, 1 x 10speed deore gears, and we can get it from Cycle Republic for about £380 (is listed at £495 down from £550, but if we spend another £5 then they have a £75 off code to take down to £425. We can then use Halfords vouchers that save another 10%...
The alternatives we spotted were the Boardman Comp 650b but was voted as a little boring in comparison to the Voodoo, or the Carrera Kraken (but varied reports on if this does have an air fork or not)

All 3 come out between £360 - £400 after discounts etc. At that price is there anything we should be considering, and is there anything to aware of on the Voodoo ?

Thanks in advance

converse2020

Thanks - the Fury is out of our budget, but you raise a fair point on the gearing of the Hoodoo 1 x 10 vs 2 x 10 on the boardman. Sheldon Brown gearing shows the Hoodoo has top gear of 6.5 and low of 1.7, vs 7.3 and 1.4 for the Boardman.

Obviously the range of gears will be limited on the Hoodoo, but is that such a problem ?

mattyfez

If doing lots of flat ish trails or canal path stuff, a 2x10 might be better.

With the kraken, it's has suntour Xcr forks which used to be coil forks, you'd need to go up to Raidon in the suntour range for an air fork, but the new model Xcr are airforks. So it depends what year it is.
Looks like the kraken is 3x9 gearing, old fashioned, possibly, but loads of range compared to 1x10, and cheaper chains and cassettes when they wear out.

The hoodoo its also listed as having the same Xcr fork, but for both you'd need to check the bike to ensure its the new Xcr air fork and not the older coil version.

Assuming that's all correct then there's really nothing in it, the boardman has Raidon forks but that's trickled down to the Xcr range.
They all have hydraulic brakes.
It would come down to overall weight and cost to me, so the kraken would be a serious contender.

converse2020

Thanks - right now its really between the Hoodoo (which does have an air fork) and the Boardman. After discount the boardman is £400 dead, and the Hoodoo £382....so little in it on price but the boardman is lighter and does have the better fork, plus 2x 10...so maybe some more flexibility there.

Decisions decisions !..

mattyfez

If your certain you're ruling out the kraken, then on paper the boardman is better, assuming it's fork is a new model Raidon.

Ideally you can get the lad to try out all 3, or at least view and sit on them, and he'll almost certainly gel with one or the other.

Edit. An old model Raidon fork is not nessesarily any better than a new model Xcr air fork.

converse2020

thanks - he's sat on both the hoodoo and boardman, but not in the right sizes as finding them in the right size was a test - we tried 4 halfords and 1 cycle republic and the best we got was an 18inch hoodoo 2017 model and and a 16inch voodoo lower spec.

The boardman is a 2017 model, so if the difference in Raidon 2017 to xcR 2018 fork is borderline and unlikely to be noticeable to the average rider (and he's 14 after all) I think we will stick with the Hoodoo.