A Which Bike Thread

[MrRee145]

PH Cycling massive,

I have a Maximum of £370 to spend on a new hardtail mountain bike and have narrowed it down to either the Specialized Hardrock sport Disc 2011 or the GT Avalanche 3.0 Disc.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the two bikes? Own them have any real life experience with them? Or can you suggest an alternative?

Thanks

JC

[RRS_Staffs]

TBH nothing from any of the big names will be rubbish for no reason other than they have massive buying power with the components people so arguably get better value for money

If you want something more constructive then Id advise waiting a few weeks
The 2012 bikes are allegedly out in September so deals should be there if youre patient
I bought my missus "last years" Giant MTB at a 30% discount in October a few years ago at your price point

Good luck

[curlie467]

I prefer Specialized bikes but that could be just me, i also think the frame is nicer, i just dont like the GT frames.

Agree though with the last post, nothing will be poop and are excellent bikes to get going on, just enjoy.

[Animal101]

I have the 2011 Hardrock Sport Disc and I am really happy with it. I had to change out the grips for locking ones though. I didn't find them comfortable and they kept twisting round the handlebars. Swapped the plastic pedals for some DMR V8's.

The brakes are probably the best cable operated discs you can get once they have bedded in.

I just ride XC at Thetford Forrest and round Grafham Water so nothing to crazy but the bike has been spot on.

[Sheets Tabuer]

They have a 20" kraken in guildford halfords for £350, hard to get a better spec this side of £550

[MrRee145]

Sheets Tabuer said:

They have a 20" kraken in guildford halfords for £350, hard to get a better spec this side of £550

Thanks for the advice i did notice that. I have just popped in and they didn't have it....

[MrRee145]

What are peoples thoughts about the carrera bikes? Unfortunately it lools like moat of the 2011 sale atock has already been sold by most of the major suppliers.

[Sheets Tabuer]

This years ones seem to have slightly worse parts than last years sale stock but I genuinely have no idea why people have such hate when they are mentioned.

As I said the kraken has better parts than most of the bikes people are shelling out 5-600 quid on here for and you can get them for £300 with online discount vouchers.

Personally I don't think there is anything wrong with them (the frames seem particularly good) and every few months Halfords knock about £150 off them in a sale.

[anonymous-user]

carrera are about the same as anything else for the price. they suffer from being sold in halfords and their sales staff do their higher end products no justice. the boardman and carrera ranges would sell in their hundreds if they were stocked at other bike shops and the snobbery towards them would end instantly. their road bikes are particularly good value for money. i;m not as well up on mtb stuff to be honest.

so the bikes are good, they work well, they have the same branded components as other manufacturers, i know nothing about the frames but they cant be from many places other than taiwan like the rest so although the qulaity of the material might not be great, it wont be that bad that you will have it fail on you, also you will be hard to tell the difference between a £500 carrera and a £500 giant.

[MrRee145]

Thanks for the info.. sadly the 2011 Kraken is out of my price range and they don't have any 09 (£345) ones left so it looks like the vengeance.

[Gumstabber]

I had a GT Avalanche 3.0 2010 model (until I gave it to my other half as a bike to learn on). It was fine. Hydraulic discs too. I bought last years model because it was cheaper £100 off is not to be sniffed at. On the minus side I did find the forks to be rather softly sprung for my taste even with preload wound on (weight = 14st) but as they are fairly generic Suntour forks they're probably used on most bikes around this price point. I think you can get stiffer coils for them if you want. It was a decent bike all said.

Just to throw a spanner in the works have you thought about buying an Ex-demo bike or a display model perhaps? The Oneplanet shop in LLandegla where I was last week had some good deals on Ghost demo bikes. There's more out there but for example:

http://www.leisurelakesbikes.com/article/secondhan...

[MrRee145]

I hadn't considered second hand bikes however a local shop has 20% all Specialized Bikes which puts the Hardrock Sport Disc right into my price range so I will probably be going for that.

thanks for all your advice

[Gibby78]

I've just got a Decathlon Rockrider 8.1 as my new hardtail, obviously more than you want to spend at £499 but for the money I've not found a spec like it (2011 Model).

also at 12 kg it's pretty light for a cheap (ish) bike, if you can get over the badge snobbery they have some good bikes in for the money, just don't go the cheapest they do.