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I've had my eye on one of these lovely looking, well-specced 29er hardtails for a couple of years now and the finances are looking good at present to justify another bike.
A penny shy of £900 gets you a Reba fork and Deore / XT / SLX mix drivetrain.
Is there any other model / manufacturer I should be considering for a racey XC big-wheeler? I've heard that the mud clearance on the rear tyre / seat tube isn't great but this bike will be used over in Italy where I'll be working from July so dry dusty single track use only.
I thought them pretty good value and preferred the £899 Reba equipped one of the manitou £999 version. Recommended it to a m8 with a cycle to work voucher, and it seems quite good.. admittedly he's coming back to cycling, and with the bad weather over the last few months hasn't used it a lot, so can't comment on durability. One thing I wasn't happy with, was a weird top out clunk on the Reba, shop convinced him it was fine...
The obvious cheaper alternative is the Voodoo Bizango, but may I suggest also checking out the Pinnacle Ramin Four (UK designed, & geo sound good)