Cycle novice - Bike Advice

[Stutorious PID]

Hi all,

Really been wanting to get a bike for a while now but haven't cycled since I was a child. I'm looking for a decent off road bike for country tracks and gravel paths. My budget is a modest £200-£300. New or Used is fine.

Just wondering what sort of things I should be looking out for. I don't want to end up buying a cheap 'non-brand' that falls apart after a short time.

Thanks all!!!

[CaptainSlow]

With that budget ebay is your friend

[anonymous-user]

Ebay is hit or miss, some good stuff, some junk, its everyones first point of call so end prices can be inflated beyond the true value of the bike as peopel get caught up in the fever. a lot of stolen bikes are shifted through ebay too but you can often spot these through the poor description, spec sheet copied off a shop website, and bad photos, to hide the identity

Bikeradar is probably a better bet, at least with classifieds you know what the asking price is up front but beware that the cheap stuff that is worth buying goes very quickly so there is no point finding something then posting a thread along the lines of "what do you think about this?..." because it will be gone before people respond...

you could keep an eye out for things like the specialised hardrock or the giant talon etc, good solid bikes but really its a case of whats out there at a given time rather than waiting for a particualr brand/model