Mountain Bike Help Please - Urgent(ish)

meths · 14 May 2013 at 11:23

For those who haven't seen my posts in the big bike thread I have a Kona Fire Mountain 2011 hardtail and have fitted the 9 speed Deore groupset to it. I'm quite happy with the bike for trail riding shenanigans but I really fancy a full suspension bike to take on more challenging rides.

The only way I could afford this is by paying a bike in instalments and yesterday my work launched their cycle to work scheme and are using Halfords as the supplier who in turn can source bikes from various independent bike shops.

The most I can spend is £1000 on this scheme so am looking for a decent bike in that price range. I had thought about one of the Boardman Team FS bikes as they seem like a decent spec for the cash but as they are about to be superseded this year there are hardly any large frames left and the Pro model with the X9 components isn't even available.

So are there any half decent full sus bikes out there for a grand?

meths · 15 May 2013 at 00:15

Can't get the FS Pro as there only seems to be one large frame left in Britain and it's £1260 or something like that. They won't let me put money to the voucher either so I cheekily suggested that they process the sale on the FS Team and let me return it and pay the difference to get the Pro but no luck.

There's a four month expiry on the voucher and they said it could be extended if needed so I'm going to go round the local independent bike shops that Halfords source bikes from and see if any are trying to shift last year's models of other brands at heavily discounted prices.

The Boardman FS Team spec is the comparison though and Halfords were selling it for £899 during the May bank holiday.

Wish me luck.

meths · 17 May 2013 at 15:50

Well, that's my Letter of Collection through for a grand.

Does anyone know how built up these bikes come if I tell Halfords not to build it e.g. are the brakes attached to the frame and bled out of the box or would I need to get a bleeding kit and do it myself?

meths · 17 May 2013 at 19:43

Cool. Think I'll get a shock pump and do it myself then.