Mountain Bike purchase - Budget £500 Voodoo?

airrunner

airrunner

airrunner

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Hi all, I would be grateful for some guidance. I am looking to buy a mountain bike imminently, and have been suggested to go for the Voodoo Hoodoo £499. Curious for another perspective, would you choose that bike? And if not what alternative would you recommend. My budget is £500 max.

Thank you!
 
At a strict limit of £500, I'd choose the 13 Incline Alpha over the Voodoo Hoodoo from Halfords, but then consider upgrading the brakes if the Clarks Evo don't work out (never had them, no idea what they are like) with the £50 savings.

Don't forget 10% discount at Halfords if you have British Cyling membership.

Don't forget to check Topcashback/Quidco for further discount.

Your employer might offer benefits such as buying Halfords vouchers with 10% discount.

You've just missed a Halfords "spend and save promo" that gave 10% discount, but they do other promos, such as flash sales on Thursday lunchtimes etc.
 
UTmaniac said:
At a strict limit of £500, I'd choose the 13 Incline Alpha over the Voodoo Hoodoo from Halfords, but then consider upgrading the brakes if the Clarks Evo don't work out (never had them, no idea what they are like) with the £50 savings.

Don't forget 10% discount at Halfords if you have British Cyling membership.

Don't forget to check Topcashback/Quidco for further discount.

Your employer might offer benefits such as buying Halfords vouchers with 10% discount.

You've just missed a Halfords "spend and save promo" that gave 10% discount, but they do other promos, such as flash sales on Thursday lunchtimes etc.
Click to expand...

Appreciate the advice, not looked at the 13 alpha. Aesthetically it looks more appealing, but I noticed it has air driven forks. I assume that's your reasons over the Hoodoo?
 
Big.Wayne said:
Hello airrunner,

Are you going to be using the bike for climbing mountains only or are you also going downhill?

Are you looking to use it for other terrains too or for strictly climbing mountains?
Click to expand...

Hi Big Wayne - Not a great deal of down hill action, definitely more focused towards easy off road, forestry, some Road travel and the odd mountain here and there. :)
 
And you thinking mountainbike and not a flat bar Cyclo-cross?

£500 pound is a good starting point if your prepared to do a lot of window shopping? . . . do you have any pieces of hardware floating around that you could chuck in or are you starting from scratch?

Give us a bit more detail, what sort of off road are we talking about? . . .

Something like this?

off_planet.jpg
 
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-mesh-deore-2016/

Could be worth considering too. 29s are probably a bit better suited to your uses, and that's a very well specced bike for the price.

I'd also say that for most of what you describe, you could probably consider a cyclocross bike. Almost as fast on the road as an actual road bike, drop bars so more comfortable on the wrists for several hour long rides, and surprisingly capable on off road terrain. Can turn their hands to pretty much anything.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/verenti-substance-sora-2016/

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/79787/Ridgeback_Advanced_70_2015_Bike

http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/67194/Ridgeback_Advance_70_2014_Bike

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/revolution-cross-sport-disc-15

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/13-innate-alpha-cyclocross-bike-2015

http://www.ukbikesdepot.com/m117b185s862p15217/GENESIS_Cda_10_Adventure_Cross_Bike_2015/

https://www.evanscycles.com/fuji-tread-1-7-2016-adventure-road-bike-EV249109

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/road-bikes/voodoo-limba-cyclocross-road-bike
 
airrunner said:
Appreciate the advice, not looked at the 13 alpha. Aesthetically it looks more appealing, but I noticed it has air driven forks. I assume that's your reasons over the Hoodoo?
Click to expand...

Advantage of air forks is that you can fine tune them to your weight and preference for the cost of a shock pump (quite cheap if you look around). Coil has its advantages too though, unless you are particularly heavy/light I wouldn't let it be a deciding factor.

I had a similar budget and was almost sold on a Calibre 2.2 from Go Outdoors until Halford knocked a wedge off the end of season Boardmans.
 
Big.Wayne said:
And you thinking mountainbike and not a flat bar Cyclo-cross?

£500 pound is a good starting point if your prepared to do a lot of window shopping? . . . do you have any pieces of hardware floating around that you could chuck in or are you starting from scratch?

Give us a bit more detail, what sort of off road are we talking about? . . .

Something like this?

off_planet.jpg
Click to expand...

Originally i had not really had a clear definition of what i wanted the bike for. But having had time to ponder, i definitely feel i need a bike better suited to off road, hilly mountainous terrain. As that will be the majority of it's use.
 
Hi airrunner,

it's good to ponder, now all you need to do is think about the hardware, like firstly how much of a suspension system do you think you will need, if your intending to "hop" from boulder to boulder then you're going to need some dedicated shocks but if your intending to tackle just gravely paths and terrain like the photo above you may be fine with a fat-bike with massive low psi tyres, the tyres themselves provide suspension so you can have regular forks.

So apart from suspension what about gearing? do you know much about gears or?
 
airrunner said:
Appreciate the advice, not looked at the 13 alpha. Aesthetically it looks more appealing, but I noticed it has air driven forks. I assume that's your reasons over the Hoodoo?
Click to expand...

As well as the fork advantage talked about by others last night, the 13's frame is highly rated and worthy of long term upgrades, plus it does internal cabling.

But looking at Halfords again in the last few minutes, your choice has become more interesting, as the Voodoo Bizango has been reduced in a promo to £530.

Topcashback currently has a 4.2% cashback and a voucher code that reduces all bikes except old Boardmans by a further 10%!:eek::D

Until I saw this Bizango update, I was going to say from the links given last night, the Aventi Mesh Deore was my pick of best bang for the buck (albeit I've just this second seen that only the 14" is in stock).

So that makes it either the 13 Incline Alpha or the Voodoo Bizango for me, if a hardtail meets your requirements.
 
UTmaniac said:
Until I saw this Bizango update, I was going to say from the links given last night, the Verenti Mesh Deore was my pick of best bang for the buck (albeit I've just this second seen that only the 14" is in stock).
Click to expand...

Ah yeah, didn't notice that. The 18 and 20" sizes say expected late May, although you'd have to shoot them an email to ask if you'd still be able to get them at the discount price.

The gearing on the Bazingo seems incredibly low for road riding. Other than that, the main difference seems to be the wheel size and the brakes?
 
UTmaniac said:
As well as the fork advantage talked about by others last night, the 13's frame is highly rated and worthy of long term upgrades, plus it does internal cabling.

But looking at Halfords again in the last few minutes, your choice has become more interesting, as the Voodoo Bizango has been reduced in a promo to £530.

Topcashback currently has a 4.2% cashback and a voucher code that reduces all bikes except old Boardmans by a further 10%!:eek::D

Until I saw this Bizango update, I was going to say from the links given last night, the Aventi Mesh Deore was my pick of best bang for the buck (albeit I've just this second seen that only the 14" is in stock).

So that makes it either the 13 Incline Alpha or the Voodoo Bizango for me, if a hardtail meets your requirements.
Click to expand...

I'm really thinking of biting the bullet and going for the 13 incline alpha, after everything said. Your points have swayed my view, grateful!

I guess the next thing to do is apply for the cycling club to gain the other 10% off.

:)
 
I guess you saw alpha now 450 .
when i looked through spec do not get spd pedals ... but i am not up to date with current market.
 
UTmaniac said:
At a strict limit of £500, I'd choose the 13 Incline Alpha over the Voodoo Hoodoo from Halfords, but then consider upgrading the brakes if the Clarks Evo don't work out (never had them, no idea what they are like) with the £50 savings
Click to expand...

The Clarks Exo brakes are actually pretty good.
 
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