HI ALL, im sure most of you will have heard of the cycle to work scheme.... well im getting a voucher for a grand and any reviews, ideas or preferences on which FS MTB to buy with my lolly would be greatly appreciated. I think i have to go to halfords as part of the conditions although they say if they dont stock your dream bike they do their damndest to get there hands on it for you. been looking at a few, Kona, specialized etc. not too impressed with halfords choice though.
currently riding a marin hawk hill roadbike, quick and ultralight but prob about 6 or more years old now, but still good for zipping around, just would like to get more into the trail/downhill scene with the half price bike incentive

thanks in advance for any suggestions folks!

well thanks to the cycle to work scheme, i now own a specialized FSR XC comp, my work were only dealing with halfords for our scheme, but if you know exactly what you want, they can order it in for you.

i really like my bike, it was my first full sus bike too (previously i had a hardtail kona) seems pretty good with everything ive thrown at it so far, red routes at glentress and laggan. a few local bits a pieces and a good loop out at north third resevoir (stirling way) so far been pretty impressed with the suspension seems to soak up most things, only down side is the rear bobs a bit under pedalling, but you can lock it out for up hill. the brakes seem pretty strong not had any issues with them at all.

Depends on what you want the bike for - xc, trails or downhill. Amount of travel,frame geometry, weight, robustness and quality of components will decide on price and type of riding. Get yourself a copy of What Mountain Bike or any of the other mags out there. Bikeradar is a decent website but lots of other independent reviews available on the web.
Finally - don't splash out on a bike until you've ridden it. Go to evans or any other bike shop with a good stock and TRY THEM OUT. Even a short ride around a car park can tell you whether it's suitable for your riding position.
Paul

Where abouts are you based, as that has an impact on what's appropriate, along with what you really intend to do with it..?

At this early stage it's hard to know what you'll find you want to do with your first "proper" mtb.
Wise old hands say that it's best to learn your skills on a hardtail before getting a first full sus, in which case an Orange (made in uk!!!) P7 would be a superb place to begin. You can do just about anything on it, right up to a day out in the Gorms. Genesis and On-One hardtails are also fantastic value. You get a lot of bang for your buck with these compared to a full sus, where a big chunk of the budget gets spent on the rear shock unit, complex frame and its pivots.
Serve an apprenticeship on one of those and in a year or two you'll have a much better idea of which direction your riding is going:
woodland singletrack, big days out in the hills, hooning around at trail centres on purpose built trails, dirt jumping, downhill racing... Then you can get the right tool for the job while you still also own a great all rounder.

If you really must have a full sus first time, mainstream products from Speshy & Kona are extremely good, capable machines. Fit is important and Kona sell more sizes than anyone else, so an exact fit is more likely. Frame geometry defines how a bike will handle, more so than flash components. Speshys tend to be very neutral, well sorted and suit a wide range of riders. Kona is a little more "trail" oriented, if that makes any sense, generally a bit sharper handling, especially the new 120s. Last year's Kikapus were a bit more laid back. A little more of the budget in a Kona goes into the quality of the frame.

Oh aye, and if you think the Orange will be hard going because it's a hardtail, it isn't; the well designed steel frame has a spring and resilience in it that's easily equal to an inch or more of rear wheel travel.
Don't forget to budget for a lid, gloves and spd shoes.

a very slick looking machine thanks malks good to know for sure then that im not limited to halfords own stock, out playing at the coe yesterday so not gonna get a chance to go window shopping till next week, im not sure exactly of the different terminology for terrain,but i do stay in the southside of glasgow so dont have easy access to any extreme trails, mainly woodland courses me thinks, although this is something im going to be taking seriously and putting alot of effort into. i can handle a bike failry well and have a good level of fitness although im purely non technical at this stage and can honestly say ive done no proper MTBing whatsover, although im already looking at joining a club and have all but got the nod from the good lady to get roof carriers for the car, and i would be pretty much dedicated to driving for some more demanding trails prob twice a month, i'll do some homework with the mag as i dont get the voucher till 1st may anyway (missing some good days out already!) how much should i expect to pay for shoes and is there a helmet which is suited for boardin and bikin? as i really should get a lid for the snow aswell

Cracking bike mate, I got the Spec FSR Pro 08 last july and its the business. I have put a good number of miles on it already and has been ripped up in the pentlamds and also in tress. Planning the trips to Laggan Wolftrax for a few weeksn time

malks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> well thanks to the cycle to work scheme, i now own
> a specialized FSR XC comp, my work were only
> dealing with halfords for our scheme, but if you
> know exactly what you want, they can order it in
> for you.
>
> i really like my bike, it was my first full sus
> bike too (previously i had a hardtail kona) seems
> pretty good with everything ive thrown at it so
> far, red routes at glentress and laggan. a few
> local bits a pieces and a good loop out at north
> third resevoir (stirling way) so far been pretty
> impressed with the suspension seems to soak up
> most things, only down side is the rear bobs a bit
> under pedalling, but you can lock it out for up
> hill. the brakes seem pretty strong not had any
> issues with them at all.

I've just got my FSR XC Comp as well through the cyclescheme.

Wasn't limited to Halfords though.

Do know how it rides as i've been out the country since I collected it, but it got a very good write up in the mags, and more importantly, it looks damn sexy.

Been out at evans, behind bars in shawlands and finally dales and got to try the FSR in the flesh, which is by far the most aesthetically pleasing of the lot although they were touting me the specialized pitch with pike front shocks that would take more of a pounding with the bolt trhu thingy and more travel, this being a more all mountain bike with no lock out option, was wondering about negatives here as both bikes same price and spec although he said that the pitch had come down in price when most other things had gone up?, was also considering the marin rocky ridge which comes in at £1100 as an alternative to the P7 you recommended hustler which is £300-400 more with the same spec. was at pollok park on sunday leathering it round on one of my dads scout halls biikes lol, got quite a bit to learn! I know id be getting my kicks from trails but is there a good chance i'd bury the FSR xc comp if I really wanted to thrash it down somewhere? also the kona five-0 hardtail was mentioned to me because of the slacker head angle if a bit more of downhill was my cup-o-tee, thanks for the input already guuys but anymore good or bad points on the above would be duly considered!

If you want a bike to take out into genuine mountains, the Pitch is a better proposition than the FSR. Yes, it's a wee bit heavier but is quite a bit more durable and capable of dealing with tough trails. The 20mm axle on the front wheel stiffens up the whole front end and among 'trail' forks, there's nothing to match the Pike.
I'd heard that there are only basic Pitch Comps left in Scotland, not Pros so the spec is pretty cheap but functional.

The Marin Rocky Ridge is an alloy hardtail and is built quite strong. That's all very well at trail centres on relatively smooth surfaces but out in the real world of tree roots and particularly here in Scotland, boulders, it's going to be a very harsh ride compared to the Orange. The price difference will mean compromises elsewhere in the spec too; Marin will have had to cut corners on wheels, brakes, cassette, BB etc to get the bike down to that price, just as Speshy have done with the Pitch.

If you ride either the FSR or the Pitch hard, you'll soon learn the skills associated with punching out and replacing their pivot bearings. Of the bikes mentioned so far, the P7 will outlast all others easily and will help make you a better rider in the long run as you acquire real skills.
The Kona Five-0 is a great idea, similar in purpose to the Dialled Alpine (steel) hardtail I've got; just that the Kona is made of aluminium again, meaning that the back end will be quite harsh. A long forked hardtail like these, with good angles, makes for a tremendous fun bike; mine was a real blast descending the Capel Mounth trail into Clova at the weekend, 450m vertical of techy, rocky steep singletrack. The P7 too would be quite at home on this terrain.

Excuse me butting in. - Capel Mounth is such a great run off the hill, mixed with the forest section lower down, and wider open slopes above.

My first descent was in 1980's when MTB's were all solid framed. - What a difference it makes with suspension, of any sort.

Shops:- I know private bike shops in Dundee area that participate in the scheme, so you may be able ot find a local bike shop who can supply your bike, other than Halfords.

Helmets:- Important to get a bike helmet that is light, comfortable & well ventilated. - Example, I used my ski helmet last week on a ski-tour with bike for hill access. BUT, the ski helmet doesn't enough field-of-view for your position on a bike. - I guess board helmets might be the same, so maybe don't compromise.

saw an email at work recently that our company is bailing on the cyclescheme as there have been some tax changes making it to costly or whatever for employers to continue with it, so you'd wanna check it out that it's still going with your lot.

I've got the marin rocky ridge (via cyclescheme a couple of years ago) and love it, though i do stick to pretty good trails / "easier" single-track and dont go onto the rough stuff very often, my impression is it's plenty strong enough, though as said above might be a bit harsh

Barry

Our work sent an email around us all asking for interest in the bike to work scheme to gauge interest, Once they got a favourable response they decided not to go ahead with it!! Bampots

Actually they have sent another email around suggesting it may go ahead after all will find out next month! Fingers crossed. I have enjoyed the 6 or so months on my haro flightline but have a hankering for something better! As I feel some of the stuff I have done could of done with better suspension! The only thing that worries me is the final payment thing about selling it to you for market value. If I went for it am I liable to know what that payment would be in advance. I got a high spec PC in a salary sacrifice scheme 3 years ago and the final payment was more than double what they estimated at the start. So the calculated savings were not quite as good as it appeared.
There are plenty adverts in the MTB mags for sale bikes on 0% payment schemes and I am wondering if a highly discounted sales bike on 0% finance would be a better option than a full price bike on the cycle to work scheme. I do however like the idea of paying less tax to our robbing b@stard politicians!!

Yep, there are simple 0%APR deals available in bike shops if you want to control the deal yourself. - I bought a nice carbon road bike last year. The bike shop had a deal going with Loyds-Black Horse. I am sure similar deals are about, especially as interest rates have fallen since last August when I got the Bianchi.

Equally, I guess a wad of folding might get some discount in bike shops these days! - You could always try to tap somebody off the Glencoe thread!

Just be very careful that the nasty tax man doesn't find out about all this cash washing about in the shadow economy...

Or for an even more genius idea why the hell dont they just tax us all less so we have more money to spend in the first place. Oh thats right we have politicians expense accounts to fund and benefit frauds and illegal immigrants to keep in widescreen TVs

Back onto a more serious point what sort of machine should I be looking at to tackle the golspie trails assuming my work come through with the cyclescheme. Obviously a grand is the limit!

Remember that a grand isn't your limit, you can contribute more and will get a better balanced package as a result.
Both MBR & What Mountain Bike have recently looked at £1k bouncers with quite mixed results.
The price increases on components from the far east is beginning to bite on bike prices so value is slipping compared with six months ago.
Good bikes for a trail centre are usually reckoned to be around 120mm travel at both ends with reasonably robust components; much the same sort of bike that is good all day in the Scottish mountains too.

At a strict £1k limit, I'd still recommend going steel hardtail.

Afraid a grand will be my limit! The wife wants to refit the bathroom so all spare cash is going that way! She has a strange sense of priorities if you ask me. If it comes off my pay packet before it reaches the bank its ideal.
I am not desperately wanting a full suspender just something a bit more capable than what I have.

I suggest you have a good look at what mountain bike mag. There's a decent buying guide at the back each month. Should give you some ideas of what you can get for your money. As Hustler says for 1k you probably need to stick to a hardtail to ensure quality and sturdiness.