What XC MTB? £650

[grenpayne]

Interesting and timely thread, as I'm in the market for an MTB with exactly the same budget. As seriously tempted as I was with the Go Outdoors Calibre (which has now gone up to £360 since yesterday's £340!) a 29er would suit me better so top choice so far is a Voodoo Bizango which has been getting really good reviews. I'll reserve judgement until I can go and see it in the flesh but it looks a great spec for the money. Would be even better if Halfords decide to have a sale in the near future too!

[badgerade]

grenpayne said:

Would be even better if Halfords decide to have a sale in the near future too!

Just found the post which showed how to get a discount:

Gizmoish said:

Needs a little bit of fancy footwork, but...

1. Sign up to Quidco. Register your credit/debit cards with them and you'll get cashback on your purchases. (Might as well do this anyway). Link your bank account to it so cashback is paid automatically.

2. Sign up to British Cycling "Ride" membership. http://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/articl... - sometimes there are discounts on this (try code 'COUNCIL2'), but it's worthwhile anyway and costs £24/year at full price, and it gets you 10% of everything you buy in store at Halfords.

3. Sign up to Halfords Business Services here: http://select.halfordsbusinessservices.co.uk/ Order the face value of vouchers that you'll need to pay for the bike in-store. Apply the discount code 'ELGHAL13' which takes 10% off that face value. Pay with the card you registered with Quidco and you'll get cashback on that number.

4. Order bike from Halfords - click through from the Quidco website to Halfords' website and order online for in-store collection.

5. Take a printed BC discount voucher and your Halfords vouchers to pay for the bike on collection. Win

e.g.
Bike price: £650
Shop will give 10% off for BC (£65) = £585 to pay in store
10% off £585 of vouchers (£58.50) = cost of vouchers £526.50

Quidco cashback on £526.50 is 3% = £15.80

£526.50 less £15.80 cashback = £510.70

[grenpayne]

^ Top stuff, cheers

[Panclan]

Saracen Mantra Trail http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/58251/Sa... £499

Bikeradar review

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/bikes/m...

[Barry Ashcroft]

I've just bought a VooDoo Bizango from Halfords using the exact route as detailed above, for £480 it's excellent value but be warned it's now discontinued and stock is very low.

[grenpayne]

Well this afternoon I picked up my 18" Voodoo Bizango from Halfords in Swindon (who were excellent btw). Big thanks to Badgerade as using the described method, I paid the grand total of £426

On top of the discounts above, there was an extra 10% off bikes voucher on the Quidco website plus £25 cashback so pretty much 30% off after the membership for British Cycling is taken in to account. Haven't had a chance to ride it yet, but it feels nice and light and for the money an absolute steal

[Gizmoish]

Whether Boardman/Voodoo bikes are the best at RRP is open to debate (pretty damn good, IMO) but at 20/30% off you'd have to go some to beat them...