[Closed] Full Suspension

The Norco is excellent value for money. That would be my starting point for a grand.

Had a look at the Norco yesterday in evans, looks a good bike for the money, but would be ripe for a few upgrades.

Bossnut is ace to ride, but I'd wait for the new one, had no end of issues with mine.

Giant I don't think is something you'd want to keep long term, Scott is ancient, I'd leave that.

My thoughts after a few months of FS on a tight budget is to really consider how much money you've got for ongoing maintenance and upgrades. I bought my Bossnut on a 0% credit card which left me with nothing really for ongoing costs, and when the shock started playing up a decided it was time to get rid.

Got myself a nice hardtail for the same money. No upgrades required, and less maintenance

Why doesn't 2nd hand seem to be an option?

@funkweasel - it's just the cash with the cycle to work it gives me the monthly payment option rather than having £1000 in cash spare, and then every few months I can spend bits on upgrades,

Why doesn't 2nd hand seem to be an option?

e.g. someone was selling a few-rides-old Boardman FS in the classifieds a few days ago at pretty much half price (£600 ISTR).

I love my boardman team FS but if I was buying now it would be the fluid, looks lovely in the 'flesh'

Norco does look a lot better IRL than on the Evans website.

Bossnut is a fair bit slacker, with burlier forks and better brakes.

Neither have stealth dropper routing if that's an issue.

Go second hand... giant anthem can be found for £800ish then you own your bike that day. Cycle to work schemes are not that good.

Cycle to work schemes are not that good.

Really?? ...interest free loan with tax relief. What's not to like

its a good way to get a bike without money upfront my company ask for £1 to transfer at the end so its not a bad deal,

I am going to test a Norco this weekend - the Boardman looks good as well they just don't take the cycle scheme I am with

What upgrades would you start with on that particular bike ( this will be the first bike I have upgraded so some tips would be great )

thanks for all the comments as well it really helps I've been going round in circles for weeks - reviews are great but sometimes it seems like some are driven by cash.

Bookmarked for later

Don't upgrade til something breaks - from experience, get the bars, stem n saddle right for you , then the tyres

You'll soon see if the suspension is ok or needs work. And by this stage you'll need a new drivetrain

If the frame fork n wheels are ok then the rest just comes with time

I'd go for the Boardman Team FS at that price I think (although I maybe slightly biased as I have a pro fs).

The Norco fluid mentioned looks ok, but I'd rather have the forks that are on the Boardman with the extra travel they have got. Think the Sektor is stiffer than the Recon too.

The Giant Stance has almost 4 bar rear suspension, but to save money its missing a link - it relies on the alloy to flex in the rear triangle instead. Wouldn't fancy that long term and it isn't as plush.

Bossnut has had great reviews, but as per several threads on here they've had quality issues with some of their frames and maybe some mid-specced shocks.

My Boardman Pro fs has been pretty good - only downsides I've had are a creaky crank - easily solved with some cooped anti slip grease and I've also changed 2 pairs of bearings (as a 4 bar suspension system it has lots of pairs of bearings) in the rear suspension as they'd got gritty. It too bad a job and the bearings were pretty cheap.

Norco obviously needs a dropper 😉 then brakes, I had tektro's on an old bike and the levers are stupidly long and the brakes themselves weren't great. Shimano Deores are good.

Other than that it's largely OK, unless you want burly forks, but then I'd question if you'd bought the right bike in the first place.

Cycle to work is not really very good if you dig deep. You pay full rrp. Buy separately and you could haggle 10 to 15% off. Your tied to certain shops eg halfords or evans. Lots of paperwork, only certain times of the year, complicates any self assessment.. they own the bike etc.. lots of hassle to save £100 to £150 ish. Quicker opening a new bank account and getting the £100 offer.

Paul's Cycles usually do some great deals
https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s183p7284/MERIDA-ONE-TWENTY-500-2016
Worth a look.

I personally think b2w is a great scheme.

Now on my 4th bike through it over a number of years. Yes it's a full price rrp purchase most of the time, bit you get an interest free loan and the amount per month is debited pre NI and PAYE (at least it was with my last employer). Worked out pretty cheap overall.

You'll soon see if the suspension is ok or needs work. And by this stage you'll need a new drivetrain

By this time you probably will want/need a new bike 😆

If you have BC membership then you get 10% off at Halfords even with c2w. Plus they frequently have sales as well. You can easily get a £1k bike for £750. Take off c2w savings and it's around £500. The paperwork took about 5mins.

It does depend a bit on the scheme operated by the employer and the shop you want to buy the bike in.

Some shops will add a 10% handling fee for the admin they have to do.

If your employer is on 'cyclescheme' it's worth trying todo the electronic voucher rather than the actual certificate - then so long as the shop youre going to is in Cyclescheme's B2B scheme they can access the voucher and allocate funds direct with no messing about to lead to the scenario that causes shops to want to add a fee (which is basically sending in paperwork by post and waiting ages for the cash after they let you take the bike).

Following on from this is why most shops won't want to let you use the scheme on 'sale' bikes or with other discounts - they are potentially taking a hit on overheads by selling through the scheme so the last thing they want to do is cut the margin as far as possible before that - which is reasonable I think.

Halfords operate their own scheme and obviously have a large stock of their own bikes and big business clout so may have more flexiblity in this respect if your employer uses their scheme?

Personally, I've had two c2w CX bikes now, and in the real world a 1k bike ends up costing about £640. There are a number of pitfalls - biggest of which is that you don't own the bike for three years at least so shouldn't legally be selling it, and shoud be keeping anything you take off it to upgrade in case you do need to give it back for some reason. The other really big point is that the scheme is intended to provide trasport bikes for going to work - and usually 1k is plenty for that, but once you start looking at MTB's becomes a tight budget really fast. Officially, you can only spend the money on a full rideable bike or safety equipment, locks etc so it shouldn't be possible to buy a frame and pile of parts amounting to an incomplete bike to finish off with some wheels and other things you already have, although this does happen in some places it seems...

thanks for all the answers great help, I have had a look at the Norco fluid and it is a really nice bike, just a question to the more experienced,

the Fluid
Rockshox Recon Silver RL solo air 120x15mm fork
120 mm travel

Boardman Team Fs
RockShox Sektor Silver 130mm suspension fork
140mm travel

Like I said the fluid is nice but is the Boardman the better bike with more travel and a better fork ?

like I said at the start I am looking to keep this for a while with a good mix of riding, local runs trips to the alps at least once a year.

thanks

I'd have the Boardman.

the Norco is over your limit so unless they are in the business of taking cash under the table then it's out.

Not sure either would be up to the alps TBH, depending on what you were planning on doing in said Alps.

I'd trust the Bossnut more than the Boardman, from the comments on local facebook groups, the rear is quite flexy on the Team apparently. If you could stretch to the Pro it would be a different story.

I'd trust the Bossnut more

Really? based on yours and others experience I would have expected you to say the complete opposite.

jonnyboi - Member
I'd trust the Bossnut more
Really? based on yours and others experience I would have expected you to say the complete opposite

I pressed the wrong button 😆 more full explanation above.

But ultimately yeah, it was a couple of minor issues on the Bossnut that took too long to fix and gave me a chance to weigh up the costs of HT v FS and realised I wasn't in a position to run a FS at the moment financially.

I still kind of wish I'd kept it, I was really looking forward to riding it in Scotland this year, and when I think about riding it on a HT again (albeit a better one) I get a little pang of regret.

@prawny, I took a B'TWIN ROCKRIDER 700 S last year and it didn't miss a beat, nothing to mental but it definitely I kept up with other bikes, I should of kept it but I thought I wanted a hard tail!

Ha, I had a a Rockrider 9.1 which I sold because I thought I wanted a hardtail, then realised I should have kept it and bought the Bossnut, but ended up with a hardtail again.

Decent bikes them Rockriders were.

I think if you were happy with that then either the Boardman or the Norco.

Ignoring the funding choices, at ~£1k the fluid 7.2 or 7.3 currently going at Evans look 'better' on specs than most alternatives.

I would take the frame and the Recons over sektors, But thats just me.

Drive/brakes at that price point will always have some compromises but the SLX/Deore/GX/Suntour mix looks OK and will probably get you through the first year of riding it before you actually need to replace anything...

Drive/brakes at that price point will always have some compromises but the SLX/Deore/GX/Suntour mix looks OK and will probably get you through the first year of riding it before you actually need to replace anything...

This is a point that's often missed when people start with a budget and plan upgrades - Unless anything is cringingly bad (possibly the Suntour after a while depending on model and maintenance, rest is good solid kit) then it doesn't make sense to swap these sorts of parts before they break/wear out. It can be worth stripping a new bike for XT/XTR/X01 kit etc and selling it as removed items but much less so the cheaper the original components are.

Hi Just an update on this, I now have about £1000 for a bike and I have been looking on eBay, I have been looking at Orange 5's, a Specialized pitch or a Specialized Demo 8,

I only go to the alps once a year ( Les Arcs and the rest of my riding is local trails Macc forest, and trail centers Coed Llandegla and some others in wales.

I need something that will not break in Les Arcs but be able to ride a good mix in the UK some of my mates have hardtails that I ride with so I don't want to be playing catchup all the time on the ups - I don't have the funds for a HT and FS any tips 🙂

thanks

There's a huge gulf between a Pitch and a Demo 8 - one is a trail bike, the other a focussed no compromise downhill bike. The latter will feel as though you're pedalling a seven ton sofa around your local woods, but it'll descend like a Stuka.

The Pitch is getting on a bit now, but they were deservedly popular. I'd be looking at a more modern bike, perhaps something leftfield like a Cube, Canyon or similar.

Save for another month and look here

https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s183p0/Mountain-Bikes/Full-Suspension-27-5

Sack off the full suss idea and get a good hardtail is now my standard response to the £1000 question.

That said, there have been a few decent looking FS bikes on facebook recently, saw a Trance 4 the other day with a reverb for £600. Could have needed any number of bits replacing though.

I usually have the second hand Vs new debate

SH = no warranty
NEW = warranty

New I just pick from Pauls cycles ,though Pedal on sometimes have good deals.

an HT is going to ruin me in the Alps last year I had a full sus and I was still suffering I'm no spring chicken, surely I can get a half-decent second-hand FS bike with that kind of money, ill take a look at the canyon and cubes

For £1000 you should be able to get a reasonably decent full suss. I'm probably it going to be selling my Boardman Pro Fs in about 4-6 months time and it'll prob go on about £600-£700. It's a 4 bar bike a couple of years old with 1x10 GX, Revelations, Mavic wheels etc. Must be better stuff than that for your budget of £1000 if you bide your time and see what comes up. I'd buy locally so you can inspect a bike before bidding on it if it's on eBay. Otherwise you've got no idea about wear on the drivetrain / non straight wheels etc.

Get on the Pinkbike classifieds and I'm sure you'll find something - Nukeproof Mega would be a good shout and you might be able to get a 650b model for that budget.

Thanks I'll take look

I think Orange 4/5 and Santa Cruz Heckler/Bantam would be a very good second hand choices. My Heckler frame(3.5 year old) has been a bombroof and maintenance is very cheap. So i can totally recommend it if you are going to buy used bike.

Would the be good in the alps ? Have you had to replace the bearings much

If you're going to ride it much you should be budgeting for yearly bearing and shock services unless you view it as a disposable bike... Santa Cruz bikes have greaseports that make it simple to keep the bearings well packed with clean grease.

TBH, Heckler or Nuke Mega would be my choices from the above for a mix of UK and Alps.

If SH purchases are now on your radar I'd have a think about whether you're OK with a well sorted 26er before you do anything else. You can probably pike up a good SH 26er that woud be safe in the Alps from around £500. £1000-£1200 and slightly older 2015 650b Megas with 1x11 drivetrains should be available - possibly even with a set of Pikes if you're really lucky!

Thanks I'm taking a look at them now, I think the 26er will be ok plus it will make it more affordable 650b would be great but prices are defiantly higher, do you own a mega ?

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-escarpe-vr-suspension-bike-ex-demo-2015/rp-prod141226