mountain bike....

[hyperman]

ok, i've decided to recapture my youth by buying a mountain bike so i went into halfords to look at bikes, i spent about half an hour in there looking at bikes around £500-£600 and decided that since not one member of staff asked if i needed any help to walk out. at one point i was even riding round the bike section on one and was the only customer in there and still didn't even manage to get a "hello".

so i then went to evans cycles, and well, i was recommended to buy a bike for...£800!!!!

now i'm not the smallest chap in the world (17st) and the guy said if i wanted a good strong bike then this is the kind of money i would need to spend!!

so my question is, is this true? i really didn't want to spend more than £500-£600, if not does anybody have any recommendations?

i want to use the bike for on road and off road.

halfords are doing a gt aggressor xc1 for £549 and this seemed like a decent bike to me?

any thoughts would be greatly appreciated..

[rushy]

I have a GT mate, £400, I'm 16st and its plenty solid. Unless your really going to go for it off road I would just stick with a hard tail as rear suspension really puts the price up. I can highly recommend Ellis Briggs in Shiply if you ever come this way.

[jimbob78]

got a giant xtc 4.5 £500 great bike and use it hard when am not being lazy i aint small try the bike shed its in denby dale and small family run very good service i only went in for tyres and got new bike

[bigknill]

GTs are renowned for the strength of their frames (I am well over 17 stone and ride a 12 year old GT Pantera).

As far as cost goes - well, like most things in life, you get what you pay for. If you're going to be doing hard-core off roading, extra money may well be a good idea. If it's mostly going to be forest tracks, then I'd have thought £500 would be plenty. A lot of the time, you're getting the same frame and it's the components which change.

One thing to be aware of is that the GT models that Halfords sell seem to be made exclusively for them. If you can find a good local independent, you're much more likely to get good advice and good back up service.

Good luck with your search.

[snowball1]

Forget halfords, I bought mine from this company.
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Fo...09/5360037563/

[mark_647]

I used to work in Halfords lol Long time ago, in a much more professional career now of course !! But when I was there, the GT agressor was a great bike. By no means the best, Push bikes can sell for more money that cars ! lol But it was a good bike and far exceeds the requirement for average use !

[hyperman]

thanks for all the replies guys, gives me plenty to think about..i'm definately gonna stick to my £500-£600 budget now, one other option i have is a diamond back apex bike which seems to have good spec on paper and retails for £849, however i can get this bike at cost but would like to see one first, does anyone know any diamond back stockists?

[rushy]

Dealer Locator HERE mate.

[hyperman]

Dealer Locator HERE mate.

cheers mate

if possible could someone just have a quick look on line at the diamond back apex and tell me if that seems like a decent spec bike?

[neilrj]

cheers mate

if possible could someone just have a quick look on line at the diamond back apex and tell me if that seems like a decent spec bike?

Hi hyperman

You aren't spending enough money for a good bike, a decent hardtail would probably be £800-£1000, but for something around your budget then this really isn't too bad http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwP...c003155c002909 this may be good enough to encourage you to use it rather than be awful to ride and then rot in the shed like most cheap bikes usually do.
You really should go along to Edinburgh Bicycle Coop in Leeds and have a chat with them and let them guide you and as its a workers cooperative they aren't madly sales driven and aren't greedy on mark-up so usually cheaper than the big shops like Evans and Halfrauds.

If you buy cheap it will be awful to ride and you wont use it, but if it fits and is 'nice' to ride then you may get to enjoy it.

EBC do some cheap bikes if you want one for the shed , some have good names on them too (just poorer bits).

The Apex has naff cable operated discs, and it looks like the forks don't have lockout (it'd be mentioned if it did) so you'll just pogo everywhere.

neil