[Closed] £1200 for a hard tail, hive consensus. Vitus/Parkwood

I have a Bird. If you start customising you can take it over budget.

It is great though. Not ridden the others but I would think the Bird would be worth the wait. Or a different colour.

I own a Parkwood. I built it myself (rebas, hope/stans wheels, SLX) so not directly comparable to the current spec. I find it very capable and confident ride even compared to the 140mm stumpy full suss it replaced.

Done everything from big rides in the lakes, long rides over the moors, trail centers and got 28th in the national marathon champs on it last year.

All three look like good bikes. Which one do you like the colour of? It may be worth going into detail to see which offers you the best spec. I don't know if you would get further discount from CRC if you were a member of British cycling. Might be worth looking at as Joining and getting the 10% would still save you money.

I don't really know what else is available but having bought a Rose road bike and seen plenty of Canyons around me I would suggest looking at both of them.

The Parkwood is rather short in the frame. I would go for the Vitus personally. Or maybe the Bird TR.

I do like the bird, but I have a Duke of Edinburgh hike to shadow on a bike at the start of May and am worried Bird wouldn't have stick at that point. Jonny is yours a 29"?

Or a custom build on one of these?
[img] [/img]
http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain/frames/latitude-frame

A handsome beast IMO.

At £1200 I would go for something a bit custom rather than off the shelf. See what you can do with a Cotic.

Parkwood reach is 636 isnt it? Not that short, but not Bird length long.

I built up a parkwood for a lot cheaper than that with nearly comparable spec. Frames are down to £130 I think (ending today) in the Planet X sale I would go down that route.

It's 401mm on the medium and 419mm on the large.

Should be more like 440-450mm and 460-470mm respectively, IMO.

But some people like a shorter bike of course, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Parkwood reach is 636 isnt it?

That would be truly spectacular!

I have a parkwood and think it's great, it's short by current standards but is quite chuckable for a 29er. Bearing in mind the price of the frame is pretty low so might be worth considering the value of the full build compared to what you could do with some cunning home building

I was tempted for the Crush but went with a Pace RC127, might be worth a look if you have some bits to build it up with as full builds are quite pricey I think.

Have you looked at Ragley?

I bought a vitus alloy road frame last year .. To be honest for the money I never expected such a well finished and light frame 😯

I'd go vitus and chain reaction are good to deal with imo

Yeah I have my numbers mixed up. 😆

Agreed it isn't long so not bang on trend, but any longer and it would lose something I would suggest. I've a 60mm stem on it and it feels about right but horses for courses.

Nukeproof Scout 290 Comp- £1450 (after BC discount)

I have the original Bird Zero. I took it to the local up-lift centre last weekend and at no point did I feel like I needed more bike.

+1 for Ragley. I have a blue pig (cost slightly >1000 in total) which is just immense fun.

I like the new Ragleys...but...its CRC,who are also selling Vitus bikes,that are cheaper and lighter. I am after Alu as last two hardtails have been a Solaris and MCR. I fancy a bit of a change.

I've also got a Parkwood I built up myself. As everyone says, it's not long by current trends, but it does ride really nicely and is versatile. I find it playful, fast and very capable for trail riding, but also good for longer xc rides or whatever I fancy. Certainly very good value, and for £1200 you could make it reasonably light - mine's a large and it wasn't too much trouble to come in under 27lbs and I spent less than £1k.

I would post a pic but I repainted it an unfashionable colour with no stickers and (gasp) non-matching tyres, so wouldn't want to offend anyone again 😉

Just noticed they are doing the Tomac Lone Mesa for a K with SRAM x5.

I've been riding a Parkwood for over a year. I'm not a fan of some On One products but I can't fault this one.

I too have a Parkwood - bought just the frame and have built it up with decent components for not far off £1200. I use it for everything - from trail centres (7 stanes) to long XC rides, and also use it for multi-day bikepacking duties. I like the more upright rather than stretched-out riding position it gives me.

dartmoor and bird offer good base frames with modern geo if you wanted to go down the custom route.

[i]I have the original Bird Zero. I took it to the local up-lift centre last weekend and at no point did I feel like I needed more bike. [/i]

I also have a Bird Zero and I'm really happy with it. I was a bit worried that it might be a bit too hardcore for me but it's great. I was going away for a weekend last summer and was taking the bike, my wife was picking me up from work so I rode to work on the Bird, I normally ride to work on a road bike and I thought the Bird would be hard work as it's a 20 mile ride. But I pumped the tyres up, locked out the forks and it was fine, wouldn't do it every day but I quite enjoyed it and I was only a couple of minutes slower than an average ride in.