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Hello,
I know there will be alot of these topics, I'm to trail riding and have a £750 budget
Ideally the use for this is for trails and for the bike to handle some jumps when I learn how to do them efficiently
I've seen Voodoo Bizango mentioned a few times, although VERY hard to get ahold of!
What suggestions do you have for this budget?
Thanks
Danny
If I had that budget I’d be looking for a used hardtail.
Just helped a guy from work buy a bike and we were seeing a few nice orange hardtails for not a lot more.
As above. This is one of the first bikes that came up on PB searching for a hardtail between £600-800. I'd have that
If you know what you’re looking at then secondhand will get you a better spec obviously.
If you don’t you’re safer buying new - whatever you get try to make sure it has an air suspension fork, tubeless compatible wheels / tyres and a decent range of gears. A few ideas:
Vitus Sentier
Canyon Stoic
Voodoo Bizango
Boardman - if they’ve got one in budget they normally lever good kit onto them for the Roxie
Not sure if the Planet X Scandal ever gets that cheap?
The Calibre Line10 or whatever the similar 29er were well reviewed - not sure if they’re still going or not as a bike producer
Saw a newish Kona FireMountain outside the gym yesterday, thought it looked a really nice bike, not sure of the spec though. Always had a soft spot for Kona since my much beloved 1994 Fire Mountain.
No idea what the new ones ride like though.
Plenty of mint hardtails on ebay. Also check out the classifieds.
Don't get hung up on frame material. Focus more on fit, geometry and spec.
Things I'd look for are:
- 29er
- Decent fork with at least 120mm of suspension
- 1 x gears with a wide range cassette (10 or eleven speed is fine)
- Hydraulic brakes (pretty standard these days)
- Dropper post, these are pretty essential these days.
Trek Roscoe's are good.
This one's nice but 27.5" wheels (I think).
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394054469417
That Nukeproof looks nice.
I’ve always been put off by second hand just in case anything ever goes wrong with the bike shortly after I purchase it, comes down trusting other people :/
If I went second hand what should I look in terms of specs?
Start basically with 'condition'
Then maybe Forks, then maybe go from there.
Something like that Nukeproof, with a few hundred miles tops.... you'll get them all day for decent money now.
Really like my Bizango (except the hubs which are absolute garbage) which I got cos its under the £1k limit for my work's C2W scheme and was at an affordable price point monthly for the payments. However, for the money, I'd also go 2nd hand as suggested above as there is far better value especially if starting out. The other suggestions are all valid if new or C2W is required. I wanted a Boardman originally but the model I could afford was never in stock.
I’ve always been put off by second hand just in case anything ever goes wrong with the bike shortly after I purchase it, comes down trusting other people :/
Unless the frame is cracked everything else is consumable anyway. Yeah forks and wheels might cost you a bob or 2 to fix/replace but nothing else has to really. Low end kit is so good nowadays.
That Nukeproof up there ^^ is great, buy that if its the right size.
If you want new, maybe this -
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Boardman-MHT-8-6-Mountain-Bike-2021-Hardtail-MTB_230127.htm
And a dropper -
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-ascend-dropper-seatpost-100-125-150-/rp-prod149024
Slightly over budget, but that Nukeproof is much better value if you don't mind buying used.
I think buying new I’d be tempted to buy this - albeit it’s £789 with the clearance code. I had a Sentier previously and it was a really nicely balanced trail bike. Looks like they’ve even out decent tyres on it at a glance.
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/mobile/vitus-sentier-29-mountain-bike-2021/rp-prod195612
+1 for the classifieds you can have a sweet stooge dirtbomb for £900
If I was getting another bike within your budget, it would be a used Calibre bossnut or triple B. Awesome bikes that will do most things well 🙂 you should get the latest design on your budget and probably with some upgrades too!
For reference, I had the old BBB, which was epic and have the Sentry Pro now. Ridiculous value for money.
Edit to add, I’ve also had a voodoo bizango, good but I much preferred a FS Calibre!
These look good,new with warranty for £650
Vitus Nucleus
Well worth spending the bit extra for the Sentier I posted a couple of posts above. The nucleus is lacking in gear range vs the sentier - a mate bought one and found the box drivetrain quite agricultural and hard work uphill. The cranks aren’t easy to get a smaller chainring for so he ended up buying a complete new drivetrain. The deore on the Sentier at least has 11-46 rather than 11-42.
Sentier is also all boost and bolt through and has better geometry.
^ +1 joebristol
@bikerevivesheffield they are polygon frames so there should be stuff available. I’ve generally got hangers etc from other places anyway, I’m guessing the only bit that would be a real challenge is a complete rear triangle for a FS Calibre or is there other stuff that’s unusual / impossible to source?
Ok so after deep thought, I have decided to just get a new bike. There isn't much available in my area after looking on a few websites and there always seems to be something that might need replacing etc..
What should I get for around a £500-£750 budget for a new bike?
I went into local bike store today and they had Trek Marlins, but only 110mm fork and Tektro brakes.
Do I wait for a Bizango to come into stock? Then upgrade later with a dropper post?
Vitus seem to be suggested alot, but heard not great things about the Tektro brakes?
That second hand Nukeproof does look good but they are about 7-8 hour drive from where I am and ideally would like to see the bike before I pay for it
I definitely wouldn’t worry about the brakes on the Sentier. In fact I let a (used) bike deal go once because of brake issues and regretted it ever since. Brakes - just one of those first things on a bike that most of us usually tweak/upgrade anyway?
PS I read on the CRC description: Tektro…or Clarks M2 ?
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/clarks-m2-m3-any-experiences/
I’m not suggesting you should or shouldn’t buy the bike (I would for the money, fwiw) - just saying be cautious of looking for moon on stick
I’d just buy the Vitus - I wouldn’t worry about reviews on the brakes. It says in the spec it’ll either be Tektro or Clark’s M2 - either are ok basic brakes that’ll stop you. As you get faster you might want to upgrade those - the same as you might want to add a dropper post in too (brand X are the best value option - followed by Oneup).
Some 4 pot deores or guides / g2’s won’t cost that much down the line and you can use the same rotors that are on the bike.
What size bike are you looking for? If you're not sure, how tall are you?
Yeah I’d say so - I’m 5’9 and had a medium. The large has a big jump in seat tube length which limits the dropper you can fit on. I could run a 150mm brand x dropper on the Sentier with loads of post still out the seat tube. Probably could have got a 180mm in I reckon.