Beginners mountain bike

Mickcas

Mickcas

Mickcas

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Evening all.

In an aim to get a little fitter I'm looking at picking up a mountain bike.
Running is boring, exercise bike just as boring.
I'm looking at a mix of road and some offroad tracks, between the fields etc, nothing crazy.

I have very little info on this subject but would like to keep between £300-£500 max.
From what I've read I'm probably looking at something with a hard tail and disc brakes, but my knowledge stops there.
Any suggestions would be great
 

mattyfez

mattyfez

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Hydraulic disk brakes (rather than cable operated disk brakes) are well worth having, mandatory, I would say. And at a max budget of £500 you might (if your very lucky) be able to find a hard tail with an air fork rather than a coil fork which will perform much better (cheap coil spring forks are heavy and not that good TBH). Although with prices like thay are, even £700+ bikes are comming with cheap coil forks these days.

This would fit the bill, but it's £100 over budget.
https://vitusbikes.com/collections/mountain-bikes/products/vitus-nucleus-27-vr-mountain-bike-grey
 

mattyfez

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Regardless of brand, there are 3 basic things to look for in a budget hard tail.
1.preferbably less than 14kg in weight but a lot are 14.x kg. But anything 15kg+ is too heavy.
2. Hydraulic (not cable operated) disk brakes.. More than likely clarks or tektro at this budget.
3. An air fork... Budget air forks perform better and are lighter than budget coil sprung forks which can easily knock a kilogram off the overall weight of the bike.
 
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mattyfez

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radderfire said:
Brands to consider: Trek, Marin, Cube, Carrera (Halfords), Voodoo (Halfords)

Trek Marlin 5, £495:

https://www.trekbikes.com/gb/en_GB/...arlin/marlin-5/p/33136/?colorCode=orange_grey
Click to expand...
That trek has an XCE fork, which quite frankly is total garbage, you may as well have a rigid fork rather than suspension. It belongs on a shopping bike, not a mountain bike.
That's the thing with the bigger brands like trek and specialized at the budget end... You're paying for a branded trendy badge on the frame, with crappy components.

Edit.. And I bet its a 15kg+ tank
Edit 2: and it's got trendy internal cables which will have you pulling you hair out when you come to replace them which should be a 10min job turned into a 3 hour nightmare.
 
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C64

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which is the best cheap one that that has the same parts as the rip off brand ones around £500
is there a bike as good as with the same parts for £200-£300 as good as a marlin 5 for example
 

radderfire

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C64 said:
which is the best cheap one that that has the same parts as the rip off brand ones around £500
is there a bike as good as with the same parts for £200-£300 as good as a marlin 5 for example
Click to expand...

No there isn't, because mountain bikes are built to tight budgets, so as soon as you go down in price, the manufacturer has to switch to lower priced components that are not as good (weight, durability).

In terms of good value, I would look at the Carrera and Voodoo ranges from Halfords.
 

dave28

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Halfords bikes when on sale are very good value.

they used to have different versions of boardman mountain bikes but it seems they dont have as much choice now and start at 700 odd
 

mattyfez

mattyfez

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Really you want something with an air fork, that's probably the most important thing with a cheaper mountain bike.
Vitus or some of the more expensive carreras or voodoo from Halfords.
The voodoo bizango used to be a a really good deal but I think they've cheaped out on the forks with the new models
 

dacads

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Going to struggle to find something with air fork for £500

Coil fork with have to do for now and you can always upgrade later. Air fork will cost around £200 though and obviously stock shortages ATM.

Or save up some more , around £850 will get you a bike with an air fork. Some of the other components will probably be better too
 
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turbot1984

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Mickcas said:
Evening all.

In an aim to get a little fitter I'm looking at picking up a mountain bike.
Running is boring, exercise bike just as boring.
I'm looking at a mix of road and some offroad tracks, between the fields etc, nothing crazy.

I have very little info on this subject but would like to keep between £300-£500 max.
From what I've read I'm probably looking at something with a hard tail and disc brakes, but my knowledge stops there.
Any suggestions would be great
Click to expand...
I would go hybrid to shave off some weight and make it all the more enjoyable. Those 14kg+ hardtails are a pain in the a*se on the road. Boardman SLR 8.6 Hybrid at £550?
 

turbot1984

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Macky said:
Going to jump on this thread. What are people's thoughts on the these two bikes - can get a discount on them with cycle to work scheme:

Budget ~£3-400 mark. Can I get any better than these for that price?

https://www.bikeproracing.net/bikes...r-expert/?Page_ID=3610&refpid=40954&id=823680
https://www.bikeproracing.net/bikes...n-4-2021/?Page_ID=3610&refpid=40954&id=874742
Click to expand...
I would go Talon, but both have nasty Suntour coil forks and assume they are both heavy (funny how you get detailed specs but no bike weights, eh?). At this price point you get what you pay for, its a shame 'end of season' sales are not still with us where you could pick up an MTB with much better shocks and groupset below £500.
 
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