Cube Aim MTB's how are they?

Looking at the Cannondale trail 6 and this Cube, there doesn't seem to be much different if that's what you are looking for. I bought my Cube Acid 8 years ago and still love it, but this Aim doesn't seem to be any advance on it. Old style gearing, poor fork (I put a Reba on mine after a while), tyres only fit for hardpack ground (so you'll need to change these out for most of the year). I mostly use mine for cross country, not much choice in Essex, but have been to various trail centres, and downhill in France on it, which is is adequate for, but not ideal!

Also the carrera kraken is worth a look at £450 as it has the newer XCR air fork, which is a good bonus if you don't mind a bike from Halfords

There's always a better bike...

You seem to be set on a 29er, and budget appears to be £425 or less. If those are your constraints, broadly it's a case of finding the best fork on a 29er in that category as that is the one component which will be disproportionately expensive to upgrade in relation to the overall cost of the bike and is less likely to simply need swapping out at some point because of damage.

XCT is lowest Suntour fork range, then XCM then XCR. XCR comes in spring and air formats, with air being "better". Alongside the XCR spring you could put I guess the RS XC30 or XC32 as being equivalent or better.

The 2018 Aim SL looks better specced on that front, and is also x9 at the back and has Shimano hydraulics which in my head top the x8 2019 model with Tektro hydros.

Beyond that, you're at a price point that is easy to get confused at, and broadly they'll often be much of a muchness. But rather than upsell yourself a few hundred quid to get an objectively "better" bike (broadly that would be a 1x groupset and an air fork, either a XCR air or Raidon), you've picked out perfectly acceptable options.

OTOH, if you weren't constrained by it being a 29er, Halfords range of 27.5 bikes is good as is Decathlon and GoOutdoors. I don't think Mattyfez is correct that the Kraken comes with the air version of the XCR fork, but I might be wrong (the spec simply says it is XCR, and they come in both flavours). But the Kraken is 1kg lighter than the identically priced Bantu, and you can take £45 off the price of both bikes with a £21.60 British Cycling discount.

larkim wrote:

There's always a better bike...

You seem to be set on a 29er, and budget appears to be £425 or less. If those are your constraints, broadly it's a case of finding the best fork on a 29er in that category as that is the one component which will be disproportionately expensive to upgrade in relation to the overall cost of the bike and is less likely to simply need swapping out at some point because of damage.

XCT is lowest Suntour fork range, then XCM then XCR. XCR comes in spring and air formats, with air being "better". Alongside the XCR spring you could put I guess the RS XC30 or XC32 as being equivalent or better.

The 2018 Aim SL looks better specced on that front, and is also x9 at the back and has Shimano hydraulics which in my head top the x8 2019 model with Tektro hydros.

Beyond that, you're at a price point that is easy to get confused at, and broadly they'll often be much of a muchness. But rather than upsell yourself a few hundred quid to get an objectively "better" bike (broadly that would be a 1x groupset and an air fork, either a XCR air or Raidon), you've picked out perfectly acceptable options.

OTOH, if you weren't constrained by it being a 29er, Halfords range of 27.5 bikes is good as is Decathlon and GoOutdoors. I don't think Mattyfez is correct that the Kraken comes with the air version of the XCR fork, but I might be wrong (the spec simply says it is XCR, and they come in both flavours). But the Kraken is 1kg lighter than the identically priced Bantu, and you can take £45 off the price of both bikes with a £21.60 British Cycling discount.

I agree with pretty much this whole post except for the bit about XCT being Suntour's lowest fork range, sadly it isn't there are models below with even thinner stanchions that are seen on some so called mountain bikes often paired with a tourney freewheel based drivetrain. XCT is what Suntour call their entry level cross country fork and it is ok for light duty in that class or for lighter riders. Some bikes have low weight limits like Decathlon with their total load not exceeding 100kg and its fine for those that keep within the stated weight limits. Many of the German brands have a total load of about 115-120kg and again probably passable. Many of the US brands, Halfords brands, Giant and a few others follow the recommendation of the bicycle standard and allow the full 136kg/300lb weight limit for the rider alone with a total load of 160kg. Halfords only rate the rider up to 120kg but a total load of 160kg. I think where you have a rated total load of 160kg an XCT fork definitely isn't fit for purpose with 28mm stanchions unless you are very careful. I would say XCM is the minimum for such bikes. Also worth pointing out that is structural strength. You can still have a XCT fork with non-adjustable damping and hydraulic lockout that might perform better than an XCM fork that is just the minimum with a spring on one side and no damping and no lockout not even mechanical.

There are 2 big deciding factors for mountain bikes in my opinion one is the overall strength of the bike and how much abuse it can take and the other is overall performance. Sometimes you can have both in a bike and sometimes you compromise more of one to get more in the other especially at lower price points. If I was 65kg I would probably look at bikes differently to someone who is 105kg. At 105kg I'm not going to be considering a Btwin rockrider 520 bike as I'd be about 25kg over their rider weight limit, the wheels look fairly basic with only 28 spokes and I'd have no expectation that the bike would be safe for me over the long term.

Interestingly my old XCM had a yellow warning sticker saying leisure/Cross country only, my newer epixons say cross county /all mountain.
Both labels said no freeride/DH.
The epixon is a much better fork, in every aspect but I'd be interested to see what benchmarks they use to differentiate, maybe its simply down to structural strength.

mattyfez wrote:

Interestingly my old XCM had a yellow warning sticker saying leisure/Cross country only, my newer epixons say cross county /all mountain.
Both labels said no freeride/DH.
The epixon is a much better fork, in every aspect but I'd be interested to see what benchmarks they use to differentiate, maybe its simply down to structural strength.

Suntour actually make many of the forks for other brands or used to. If you see 'Made in Taiwan' or 'Made in China' or even 'Assembled in USA' could well be manufactured by Suntour even the assembled in USA model as it could actually be assembled from Suntour parts. Suntour makes millions of forks per year both for their own brand and they are a huge OEM manufacturer. I think pretty much structurally strength is down to stanchion diameter so you can assume as a generalisation that a 30mm stanchion is stronger than 28mm and weaker than 32mm especially as the tubing may actually be identical even across different brands. Obviously there are many other parts to the fork but I think stanchion diameter is the most critical. Also bear in mind Suntour keep improving their forks, I think you can get XCM forks with 28, 30 and 32mm stanchions it can vary by year and the model of XCM and the variation of fork. I have some XCR's that are 30mm but I think they are 32mm now.

Looking at the suntour site the only downhill/freeride forks they do are the Rux which are close to a £1,000 and have 38mm stanchions.

http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/compon ... 22DH,FR%22