Mountain bike for beginner - £750ish

[jonindorset]

Taking out my new Vitus Sentier 27 VR for its first 'shred' , I was blown away by how good it was. Yes, they are not £750 and yes unfortunately, the price has gone up by £100 since I bought it only about a week ago but for me, there are no apparent compromises and it flatters the rider over every kind of ground and jumps. With £140 of dropper post, Very plush 140mm Marzocchi Bomber Z2 forks, 2.6" very capable tubeless Schwalbe tyres, 1 x 11 Shimano gears with proper sealed hollowtech bottom bracket, its a thing of beauty with lovely components throughout. It still seems like a bit of a bargain.

Having also bought a couple of secondhand bikes recently for other members of the family, being good at spotting the faults and haggling down prices, you still need to factor in: 1) Parts costs soon mount up, especially if the used bike has quite high end components (Deore+ bits are rarely cheap), 2) Many parts are hugely short supply or made of unobtainium - either be prepared to wait months, trawl through hundreds of websites and even secondhand parts or alternatively convert bikes to different chainsets etc just to get parts (at great expense!), 3) If you can't do the work yourself, bike mechanic bills can soon rack up.

Nearly new bikes may make most sense but finding them at not close to new prices (where new ones are unavailable) will become increasingly difficult as it gets lighter and warmer.

[Wildfire]

If you believe a lot of people, if you don't have mega travel, top of the range kit and the biggest tyres going, you will hate your riding, crash, be laughed at, bike will break or combination thereof.

Pre-owned will get you more, but if you're not that competent a mechanic you could have issues, and I say could just because I know what I have put my hard tail through in 7 months.

I set my budget of what I would be happy leaving in the garage if I didn't get on with it, but would also get me out there. That's what I would go with. Especially if you can actually get a bike.

A couple of mate's bought bikes from one retailer last year, 9 months and they are still waiting... and they have both gotten bored and lost interest now and will probably pass them on if they turn up. I guess it depends on how much we ride this year and when the bikes turn up.

[blippo1984]

I think £750 hard tails are pretty decent to be honest. You get a suspension fork that moves, decent frame and drive chain and hydraulic disks.

Compare that to when I started riding in 2000 and a £750 hardtail would have gotten you - at best - a low end bomber or Judy, v-brakes and kit that was probably lighter but definitely less robust than what we have now.

It’s all fine to start on. We all know if the cycling bug hits then a new bike will come and the hardtail becomes a singlespeed or is moved on.

[ChrisDT]

I did this in the first lockdown and got myself a 2020 Vitus Nucleus 29er (XL) after coming out of, off of? a 2012 Rockhopper and since than i've got back in to it properly. This was after changing the drivetrain to a 1 x 10, tubeless, new rear wheel, new rear tyre, oval chainring and a few other bits.
I've just upgraded to a Stumpjumper and have just listed the Nucleus on Pink Bike and Market Place (For roughly the same as a standard bike).

Very addictive, and I can see me spending more money on the Stumpjumper just to make some tweeks.

[emicen]

blippo1984 said:

I think £750 hard tails are pretty decent to be honest. You get a suspension fork that moves, decent frame and drive chain and hydraulic disks.

Compare that to when I started riding in 2000 and a £750 hardtail would have gotten you - at best - a low end bomber or Judy, v-brakes and kit that was probably lighter but definitely less robust than what we have now.

It’s all fine to start on. We all know if the cycling bug hits then a new bike will come and the hardtail becomes a singlespeed or is moved on.

This was my conclusion last year when I got my used Bizango for £400.

Even brand new, it would be £675. Which is what my first ‘proper’ Mountainbike cost back in 1996.

Back then, that was a Specialized Rockhopper A1 FS Comp with cantilever brakes, 3x8 gears and a Rockshox Quadra 5 (if Hugo really wants to delve in to the history of utterly crap suspension forks )

Now the same money gets 120mm air sprung forks that actually work, hydraulic discs with better power than my first set of Hopes and 1x11 gears with way better shifting and just as useable a range.

[heisthegaffer]

emicen said:

blippo1984 said:

I think £750 hard tails are pretty decent to be honest. You get a suspension fork that moves, decent frame and drive chain and hydraulic disks.

Compare that to when I started riding in 2000 and a £750 hardtail would have gotten you - at best - a low end bomber or Judy, v-brakes and kit that was probably lighter but definitely less robust than what we have now.

It’s all fine to start on. We all know if the cycling bug hits then a new bike will come and the hardtail becomes a singlespeed or is moved on.

This was my conclusion last year when I got my used Bizango for £400.

Even brand new, it would be £675. Which is what my first ‘proper’ Mountainbike cost back in 1996.

Back then, that was a Specialized Rockhopper A1 FS Comp with cantilever brakes, 3x8 gears and a Rockshox Quadra 5 (if Hugo really wants to delve in to the history of utterly crap suspension forks )

Now the same money gets 120mm air sprung forks that actually work, hydraulic discs with better power than my first set of Hopes and 1x11 gears with way better shifting and just as useable a range.

I cant wait to get my Bizango. A shame it won't be until mid March but I'm sure it'll be worth the wait.

[abucd4]

Got my bizango carbon last week and it’s incredible. Absolutely love it and would recommend to anyone.

They really are decent: https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/bikes/mountain-b...

The trouble is actually finding any for sale. I was lucky to buy one 2nd hand but never actually used beyond the first ride (from my dad), but one did sell on eBay this week so they are about.

[heisthegaffer]

abucd4 said:

Got my bizango carbon last week and it’s incredible. Absolutely love it and would recommend to anyone.

They really are decent: https://www.bikeradar.com/reviews/bikes/mountain-b...

The trouble is actually finding any for sale. I was lucky to buy one 2nd hand but never actually used beyond the first ride (from my dad), but one did sell on eBay this week so they are about.

Looking at Halford Web site, it doesn't look like you can buy the carbon anymore sadly

[Hugo Stiglitz]

Gin and Ultrasonic said:

Hugo Stiglitz said:

OP what did you hire at Peebles and what did you like and dislike about it?

Good question. It was a few years ago, but both times I'd just hired a basic hardtail which had internal hub gears (8 speed I think) rather than a derailleur setup. At the time it would have had 27.5 wheels I guess.

I liked the simplicity of only shifting in one place (i.e. no front chainring), and the whole experience of riding the trails was good fun - although having only watched MTB online, I didn't realise you had to cycle to the top I don't think I had any issues with the forks - not being used to suspension I basically had them either locked going up, or unlocked going down, which seemed to work for me. The level of suspension seemed fine for the speed I was going down the trails at.

It was really heavy though, and I felt it when pedalling up bumpy trails in the lowest gear when my friends with derailleurs seemed to be able to spin a much higher cadence. I lost momentum a few times and had to get off and push over rocky uphill bits that they seemed able to spin / roll over - probably a lot due to my lack of skills, but maybe a 29er would be better?

On the plus side, no-one mocked me for my full road gear

Bikes can be like cars. Once you've steered a good car you feel its loss stepping into others. Bikes can have the same angles on paper yet ride very differently. Plus how tyre choice effects the ride and feel. I've bought and ridden frames based on reviews and found that mbr/mbuk in particular don't seem to fit the actual experience. Bikes can be very subjective. Plus what was good a few years ago might not be now. Its hard to do but as you can't test ride bikes and places like Evans cycles having very long waits I feel a plunge into the secondhand market would be the best. Buy something with modern geometry and half decent forks if you want to enjoy somewhere like Glentress to the max.

[Gin and Ultrasonic]

OP update. After a frustrating few weeks trawling the second hand market, and various new bikes I've looked at online selling out, I've gone for this one brand new:

https://www.cyclelane.co.uk/m1b154s370p22003/MERID...

Slight budget creep, but seems to have the spec I'm looking for (1x, dropper post, decent fork travel, TL ready), so happy with it compared to a lot of the bikes slightly cheaper which were mostly missing a dropper and/or being TL ready.

Picking it up on Saturday, should have my first off(s) this weekend

[Hugo Stiglitz]

I've had my eye on this for a while. More XC focus but carbon, good groupset

https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBOOWHSX/on-one-whip...

[Dan_1981]

I'll jump on this thread rather than start a new one....

I have a gravel bike that I can use for longer rides alone & with friends but I need something I can jump on with my little boy & toottle round the parks & lakes with.

A bit of research would suggest any of the following would be pretty capable of that and I needn't spend anymore?

I'm more than happy to buy 2nd hand and their seem to be a couple on the preowned sites.

Voodoo Bizango
Vitus Nucleus
or a Calibre Two Cubed

Anything else to consider or would any of the above do the trick?