New MTB - Thoughts?

[kae2]

Hey Everyone,

I want to venture back into mountain biking after having only a road bike for the last five years.

I'm on a limited budget, no more than £400 and after spending the weekend trawling local bike shops, the only bike that really caught my eye was at Halfrauds (I'm afraid to say! ).

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/...uctId_786839_langId_-1_categoryId_165499#dtab

I'm really liking the look of that, and seems to have a great spec for the money.

Anyone got any thoughts on this? Is there a better bike for £400?

Edit: Under no circumstances will Halfrauds be assembling the bike, I'll collect it in the transport boxes and I'll assemble it myself, properly!

It's for cross country/trails type riding.

Cheers!

 

[Clum]

That's a second hand sort of budget really. You'll get somethign much, much better for your money. keep en eye on bikeradar.com/pinkbike as well as ebay and gumtree.

 

[hux]

If you have to buy from there id suggest a boardman

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/..._productId_561399_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

 

[kae2]

The Voodoo's seem to get a very good write up, bikeradar had it joint first for hard tails, seems hard to beat for the money?

Edit: I'm not disagreeing with anyone, just trying to get my head around so many different bikes as I'm used to a tourer!

Also, can anyone suggest a good mountain biking forum?

Cheers,

Andy.

 

[kae2]

That's a second hand sort of budget really. You'll get somethign much, much better for your money. keep en eye on bikeradar.com/pinkbike as well as ebay and gumtree.

So which models should I be looking at second hand? I'm looking for a medium/large frame.

Thanks,

Andy.

 

[ScottehBotteh]

You might be lucky and find one of the last few 2010 Carrera Vengeance Ultimate ltd editions in a Halfords. They were selling them off for 280-320 until recently ( down from a 670rrp - though normally around 450 )

http://www.thebikelist.co.uk/carrera/vengeance-ultimate-2010

One of the best bikes around for the discounted price, if you can find one.

 

[matt_fsr]

Good plan on not letting Halfrauds assemble anything! They're lucky to be able to fit pedals on the correct way some days...

Just be prepared that if you hit faults with it, they can be monumentally useless in fixing anything / replacing defective parts.

Seems to vary hugely between stores though, annoyingly.

 

[Indigo]

Personally I'd either be looking at second hand for that price or if you want new then you could always just try finding a bike with a decent frame and then upgrade things as they break.

You don't need to start off with an expensive bike to be honest.

I started on a GT Avalanche which came with V-Brakes and standard wheels. I had an accident though and completely messed up my front wheel so I took the opportunity to change the wheels to disc rims and upgraded to disc brakes at the same time.

Things like controls (stem, handlebars etc) and saddle are personal choices as well and can depend on riding style so these will most likely be changed at some point as well.

 

[robotSocks]

Decathlon Rockrider?