spent yesterday hunting thru glasgow for a good value 'fun xc' £800 mtb for my 6'3" friend. god it was hard work. seems we are too late for sale stuff and too early for 2010 stuff which is expensive and has dropped down componentry wise as well. i thought £800 would be were bikes started to get fun but pretty much all the offerings from the major manufacturers are supremely dull, quite old fashioned (long stems etc) and nothing really had a spark.
alpine bikes in tiso:
low end bikes, nothing for us
dales:
all sale stuff gone, sales assistant (possibly manager) apologetic about not having much to offer us, had a ride on a scott which was VERY xc
alpine bikes , st georges cross:
pretty much no sales stuff, young lad hesitant at first but got into his stride and had him on a gary fisher which he really liked, but it was a 2010 and we thought we could do better.
halfords:
god those boardman bikes are fantastically specced for the money. unfortunately the size on show had a flat tire which we couldnt get blown up and we werent allowed a test ride. but my word, the best value we have seen yet. sales lad was uninterested.
evans braehead:
very helpful sales guy, keen to stress we could get in any bike we wanted, made sure the bike we test rode was fully adjusted before we took it out. just generally helpful and good and most likely to find us a bike once we decide what we need.
just thought i would share. if anyone has any suggestions i would greatly appreciate it. needs to be about 21" and good for 'fun xc!'
