How Many £'s For A 'Entry Level' MTB ?

[WD Pro]

A couple of questions ...

A) How much does a entry level (hard tail) MTB cost nowadays ?
B) Any recomendations ?
C) What do you get for £350 to £400 ish ?
D) Any recomendations ?
E) Is there a big void in spec between A and C ... ?

Cheers,

WD

 

[dbmtb]

Who's entering and where do they want to use it?

Something that will be OK for sunny towpath use is not the same as for someone who might quickly progress to more technical stuff.

£400 will get you something that will keep you going for a bit. But spend £600 if you think you need something a bit better.

 

[JeRkY]

I always view deore as the entry level real functionally sound quality groupset. And I think it's pretty tough to find anything specced with it for under £550 new... Which is quite sad. Indeed my recently sold specialized epic came with deore cranks despite costing me £1750. Also the epic ( my only ever brand new complete bike) was the worst single bike purchase I have ever made. Great bike but I can't afford too many bike that depreciate by £1200 in 3.5 years.

 

[brocklanders023]

Still don't think you can beat the boardman's for value WD. From what I can gather £600 is what £300 was bitd.

 

[highlandsflyer]

I would look for the low end of a higher end range, the good frame with components that could be swapped up as they break.

For the best value buying a whole bike, I always look at sales from the large retailers, so it is not always a case of settling on a particular bike, more a case of deciding what to pay and trying to get the best bike for the money.

Paul's Cycles have been a good place previously, I notice they have one or two tasty deals right now.

I am guessing this is for someone else who has asked, and not your immediate friends or family, hence you won't be putting them together a high spec bike for the money?

 

[dyna-ti]

In 1995 or 6,my entry level cannondale m200 was £500ish with stx bits and cromo forks.
But i think as many are now just generic mass produced frames then this figure should be revised to about £350 for mostly deore level spec[main drive train]

Check the mags for shops doing 2010 or below bikes,you can see prices reduced by 1/2

 

[cyfa2809]

What do you mean by e?

 

[greenstiles]

Try and pick up a good con 2nd hand modern mtb.........cos to be honest there's a lot of modern entry level stuff that's not very good. Quite a few Voodoo's on ebay in good condition recently

 

[legrandefromage]

£600 was the minimum where I worked, the lower end stuff was just cack and often wore out quite quickly.

 

[WD Pro]

To reply to some questions / suggestions :

• 2nd hand is not an option - its a birthday present for my dad
• He won't be doing anything daft - he's 71 !
• It will be mostly towpath / park riding (with grand kids)
• He's a keen roadie (Ti framed / campag bike) - so long as he has a half reasonable major bits he will be happy - he will enjoy upgrading minor bits - seat, bars, mechs etc

I might go and check out halfords / Boardman ...

WD