Mountain bike advice (£800)

Born_2_Kill_83 · 25 Jul 2020 at 19:22

As a teenger I'd be out on my bike 11 hours a day, I had a Tim Gloud Peugeot and thought the world of it, spent all my pennies on it. Fast forward 20+ years, I've recently lost 8 stone and got fit again I'm finding myself wanting to get back into it again.

I'll be needing a medium size frame and I'm open to options on 27.5/29", I have a £800 budget.

I'd nearly settled on the Gaint Talon 2 27.5" (£600), but there's no stock of the 2020 version in the UK and would mean waiting till Sept for the 2021 stuff.

Now I'm wanting a Trek X Cal 7 in gold 29", 2021 version comes in stock in 2 weeks.

Is there anything else I need to know, anything I'm missing, any better bikes? Been away from the scene for a long time, help much appreciated.

EddScott · 25 Jul 2020 at 20:38

Hope you don't mind me jumping in but I'm also in a similar position. Budget of £800 ish.

Local bike shop has Ideal Bikes. Never heard of the brand before. They have a Hillmaster for £750 (white and red) think it was a medium (44cm?)

I had assumed being under 6ft at 5'8 27.5 would be a better fit.

Born_2_Kill_83 · 25 Jul 2020 at 20:44

I'm 5'9 without shoes I was told medium, as for 29" after lots of time on Google it's only not advised to go this way if your short, other than that if preference between high speed (29") and acceleration and tight cornering (27.5 "), smaller sized bikes only come in 27.5" anyway

EddScott · 26 Jul 2020 at 09:56

I'm looking for a medium. Talking to the guy in the local bike shop he said you can make a small bike bigger but you can't make a big bike smaller. Obvious I guess.

Stock is non existent. I've had a look at slightly more expensive stuff from Whyte and Nukeproof but impossible to find anywhere with stock.

Tempted to just roll with this Ideal Bike for now and change up if I decide to go further.

Malevolence · 2 Aug 2020 at 22:02

Have been looking to buy a mountain bike for around £750-£900 for months now, I narrowed the list down to four or five but nowhere has any stock whatsoever. Everywhere keeps saying to wait for the 2021 models, but what use is that if they'll just be sold out instantly too?

UTmaniac · 2 Aug 2020 at 23:23

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/moun...bike---16in-18in-20in-22in-frames-445737.html

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/moun...in-bike-2020---red---s-m-l-frames-340550.html

Are both showing available stock without Halfords building the bike up out of the box from next weekend, Fury looks a decent spec for £600, considering the Voodoo Bizango hasn't been readily available for months.

Malevolence · 2 Aug 2020 at 23:43

UTmaniac said:
https://www.halfords.com/bikes/moun...bike---16in-18in-20in-22in-frames-445737.html

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/moun...in-bike-2020---red---s-m-l-frames-340550.html

Are both showing available stock without Halfords building the bike up out of the box from next weekend, Fury looks a decent spec for £600, considering the Voodoo Bizango hasn't been readily available for months.

Yeah, the Voodoo Bizango was one of the bikes on the list, but it's been like this for months.

The carbon Bizango is the same too, and if you enquire at any store as to when they'll be in stock again they all say "two weeks" and then they get all funny with you if you tell them that they've been saying "two weeks" for the past four or five months.