Mountain Biking

Skillmister said:
The very opposite end to you :p

Mate that I ride with a bit has recommended a Voodoo Bizango 29er. I see it won MBR best hardtail for under £750 this year.

The On One is out of stock at the moment, can anyone point out the main differences between the Voodoo and ones like the On One/Bird Zero? I know the Voodoo costs considerably less but what's the areas that this would show?
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Weight, geometry mostly. Not sure on specs, but I'd assume lesser components too.

By all accounts the Bizango is a good bike. I know I'd personally spend the extra having being on one whilst I had my zero. Just felt all sorts of wrong, but I'm sure it was a 100mm/120mm whilst I was sat with 140mm, lighter rims, carbon bars etc.
 
Fairy nough.

What about the Ragley Marley that won best under £1k?

I hate this kind of thing, it's like speccing a PC without being an expert it's just impossible :o. Every website has a different recommendation, for instance none of the bikes suggested above were even on the comparisons on MBR.

I have no idea what components are better than others but the last thing I want to do is spend £500+ on a bike only to think 'this is barely any difference to my old one' when I ride it, but at the same time I don't want to spend more just because it should be better.
 
It's a hard choice, theres just too many bikes out there to make a decison.

The commencal is also worthy of a look, though maybe not so much now the pound has bombed.
 
Go on throw another into the mix :p

I feel like I might have just missed the boat on getting good deals on 2016 models, most seem to be out of stock :( There's 1 Ragley Marley in stock on Chain Reaction Cycles, tempted to bite the bullet and just go for it to stop faffing around!

e: Bugger, it's a size Small :(
 
There's a Commencal Meta 650b with dropper post (dont know if this is stock? ) for sale near me for £750. Apparently only ridden twice. Size large which should be Right for me at 6'?

Reading reviews it doesn't sound great on the climbs.. Not sure.
 
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Skillmister said:
There's a Commencal Meta 650b with dropper post (dont know if this is stock? ) for sale near me for £750. Apparently only ridden twice. Size large which should be Right for me at 6'?

Reading reviews it doesn't sound great on the climbs.. Not sure.
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It's an all mountain hardtail, it won't climb as good as a XC HT. But it will descend like mad. If your goal is XC, look at something more XC. If you're doing more trail centre stuff. off piste and your goal is getting down with the most amount of fun possible. THe Commencal will do the job nicely.

I think it's quite heavy compared to others though?
 
I want to be able to climb with as much ease as possible and descend with confidence and speed but won't be going mental. I don't think I'll ever be a full on downhiller.

I'll pass on the Commencal then, you're right it does look heavy from a quick scout online.

I'm annoyed i've missed deals on 2016 models but ah well. Don't need to rush and there will probably be some deals to be had nearer Christmas
 
If it's driving you mad, just choose the one that looks nicest. You can forgive the things you won't know about without a direct comparison (minor improvements on climbing ability, things like that) but an ugly bike is an ugly bike.
No* hardtail is really a "full on downhiller" so I wouldn't worry too much about that, but if you're not interested in going faster down the bumpy stuff it's probably worth avoiding anything that talks about "hardcore" or "hooligan" in the reviews. But what all that really means to me is that it'll be more forgiving on the tricky stuff and I can just try a bit harder/get a bit fitter for the climbs, so I prefer them.
 
I can't decide if I'm gonna camp this year. Didn't last year and that's not necessarily a bad thing. If not I'll just get up early on the day and drive over from home. Got a spare bed or two if anyone needs a place to crash.
 
Ended up buying the Voodoo Bizango. I know it's not the best bike I could have got if I'd kept to my budget but I got it for 2 reasons:

1) the reviews for it really do sing its praises for the price;
2) Halfords have 20% off on it this weekend, PLUS when I asked how long the turnaround time for an order would be they said if I took the display model (which had only just been built) I could take £40 worth of accessories thrown in :eek:

So I've come home with the bike, a track pump, a camelback reservoir, few spare tubes and tyre levers for £480. Absolute bargain imo and means i can spend the extra money on gear and put it towards a more expensive full sus in the future.

New light also arrived today so I'll be heading out this afternoon to try it all out :p
 
You got a decent deal with the bits thrown in, but if you had your finger on the pulse, you could have used Halfords flash sales yesterday to buy a Bizango for £432 when they had 10% off everything in-house 1900-2100.;)

It's a great bike for £600 if you need a hardtail, enjoy!:)
 
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