Another one of those bike spec me threads!

Caseh · 6 Sep 2011 at 23:44

Hey! Basically, I am able to join in on a Cycle to work kind of scheme, run by my Hospital, but the main shop I can use is Je James, no Halfrauds or Evans or anything like that.

So basically, what would you say is the best bike I'm going to get for £1000 from Je James? I can move a little either way (£100) but I'd rather not if it can be helped.

I am actually after a MTB, since quite a portion of my commute is woods, and it also means that It's useful to me on my days off.

Thanks for any advice.

Caseh · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:35

Come on? 31 views but no replies? No one got any ideas?

Jonny ///M · 7 Sep 2011 at 23:45

Cube LTD team, kona kula, felt Q920, Specialized rockhopper and the orange P7 stand out to me.

Really you need to try them all. The Kula will have a long top tube(reach) as it's got quite an xc race geometry. The rockhopper and Felt may feel a bit more all round and chuckable. The P7 is a lovely steel frame bike what I quite like the look of. Cubes have amazing spec for the price point compared to the competition.

Just double check what price the shop can do on cyclescheme as cyclescheme take 10% of th voucher value so it may end up being full RRP or the discount +11% added back on. Selling bikes at 20% off and then losing another 10% is just stupid so most shops won't do that.

We've just started selling marins so I don't really have an opinion on them and I dont see enough Giants to care about them.

Do you really have to commute via the woods? If you can do it all on road I'd get a road bike depending on how far a commute you have.

Caseh · 8 Sep 2011 at 00:52

Thanks for your reply. The cube keeps grabbing my attention, so it's good that is one of your recommendations. I'll be going to the shop, but I can't get until Monday, so I'm really just trying to get an idea of what to look at when I go.
Also, the scheme our hospital uses is called iChoose: Bicycle, and I can't find anything on whether I will get the store discount or the scheme discount, so I'm just going to find that out when I go there on Monday.

Lastly, I only have a short commute, about 3.5 miles and I'd say about 2 miles of it is wood/general dirt track areas. But a large part of this bike is going to be for my days off.

Jonny ///M · 8 Sep 2011 at 00:58

Fair enough with a commute of that length. I used to do that on a specialized bighit which was quite fun dropping stairsets on the way to work.

Most schemes take a percentage from the shop but I'm not familiar with that one. Some companies do it in house and just buy the bike off the shop and deal with it themselves.

Sit on as many bikes as possible to make sure you like the riding position, have a feel of the brakes as they can feel very different and obviously try and get a test ride on one for a bit.

Caseh · 8 Sep 2011 at 01:03

Yeah, there are a fair amount of fun stuff for me on my way to work as well!

I plan on being a pain in the butt and sitting on every reasonable ht they have in the price range. I'd really like an orange crush, but it would cost more that I want to spend, and by all accounts it wouldn't be worth the extra money.