[Dolly]

OK someone at work wants to spend up to £600 on a new hardtail.
Doesn't need to do anything other than local trails, no big jumps, no future proofing, no 8" front forks or anything.
Your bog standard hardtail. If it was 6 years ago I would have said get a Spesh Rockhopper disc, but I've completely lost touch with what is out there, so...
what's good/new/recommended please.

He's OK with buying on line as well.

[fatdoc]

decathlon rockrider, model 8.2 i think.. its £550 ish..

won best hardtail for that cost in MBR etc... awesome bike, X7, juicy 5s, extrenal bottom bracket, rockshox fork.

great geo, nice decals.

basically it would be £900 if it had spesh / giant etc... written on it.

My son has the model below... i'm hoping it will become my winter hack bike, when i can prise him off it..

[Dolly]

Cheers FD
Thats £749 tho.
8.1 has the same frame and seems to have good reviews

[Slide]

The 8.1 won the What Mountain Bike best Value. £500.  The Boardman bikes are suppose to be the dogs to for the price.

But as fatdoc says: £900 spec on a bigger name bike.  I was just recommending the same bike to a mate who had her Orande evo nicked last night.  Thieving bastards

[BB]

Check out the focus bikes available from www.wiggle.co.uk. They always get great reviews and are stupendous value.

[Dolly]

He's just bought the 8.1 this lunchtime cheers.
I guess I'm heading for the "first time over Houndkirk/Blacka ?" ride sometime over the weekend then 

[Slide]

Nice one. 

You'll have to let me know his verdict.  My friend's still hummin and ha'ing.  Mother of a all procrastinator and bike snob

[adam p]

Hi all,

I've no idea about bikes but got knocked off my old Decathlon £100 job while on the way to work on Friday. Concensus at Cyclesurgery is that its a write-off, with new chain, gears, rear wheel, cables etc all required. I can salvalge the bell I think.

One option is to take advantage of the Cycle to Work scheme and for about £30 a month it looks like I can get a Specialised Crosstrail Comp, which looks pretty in the catalogue http://www.cyclesurgery.com/1028004/Specialized-Crosstrail-Comp.html

As I said, I know nothing about bikes but just want something that'll get me to work and back (10m round trip) and potter along the Thames towpath and around Richmond Park etc on weekends.

Any thoughts/opinions welcome.

thanks, Adam

ps. I don't know if Decathlon does Cycle to Work

[joel]

Hi Adam,

Sorry you were knocked off your bike, you OK? (i presume you are  - as you were apparantly on sunny peak limestone yesterday like me...)

I'm amazed that crappy Decathlon bike lasted as long as it did!

For that kind of money and bike the Specialized looks good, but the cheaper one seems OK? All the bikes in that range share the same frame, you're just paying more money for nicer/lighter parts with the more expensive ones. I've always liked Giant, seem to offer slightly better value for money. Cycle Surgery are pretty biased towards selling Specialized bikes, I don't know if they stock anything similar by Giant in their shops?

[slackline]

You can get your bike anywhere really as long as the shop is willing to participate in the scheme  .

Check www.cyclescheme.co.uk for your nearest participating shops.

[adam p]

Thanks for those -

Slackers - I've got cyclescheme at work so will use that. Seems to be far better than the Halfords branded 'cycle to work' option as at least you get to talk to a bike specialist. Cyclesurgery is handy cos there's a store near my office and another near the flat.

Joel - am ok ta apart from the inevitable grazes on arms and legs, and shoulder blade where i rolled across the tarmac in a Hollywood fashion. fortunately the lid took the brunt of the bonce bounce! Yeah, had a look at the catalogue in a bit more detail and saw the same thing about the components. I reckon for my use the cheaper option will be more than sufficient.

Must have a doppelganger as was not in Peak yesterday sadly, though had a decent sesh at the WW. Hope you had a good day?

cheers

[slackline]

Halfords will actually order you any bike.  If they don't stock it they go to the local specialist who will order it in for them (in Sheffield thats JE James), so you may as well go straight to them anyway.

[Dolly]

You'll have to let me know his verdict

He loved it.
Went for a first ride at the weekend and despite cuts, bruises and one near miss its great.
TBH he didn't really have anything to compare it to as it is his first MTB, but as far as I could tell it seemed to perform pretty well