The first one

and this one

Getting a bike to commute on (weather permitting), lucky for me the commute involves a bit of cannel toe path and small bit of road and a 5 mile cross country ride across a pretty rocking section, soft moors and a nice 2 mile down hill section. I also need to consider weekends in Gisburn and Dolby forests.

I don’t have masses of cash and I will be using the cycle to work scheme at Halfords but still want to keep costs down as much as possible.Up grate parts as and when.

I am new to MTB and got my first bike from Halfords Carrera Vulcan in Febuary and have changed a few things on bike after riding it to death on the commute and at Gisburn. A new FSA Headsett, BB, x9 shifters, X7 mechs, Rockshox Tora and a set of conti verticals. All the original bits I broke with the exception of the 3 speed changer.

Need some help with the hard tail vs. full sus on these two bikes as well? A now have a half decent hard tail so leaning towards the full sus at the moment.

So what do you think of these? Pros and cons

Thanks

Brian.

cannel toe path

:o)

If you are definitely set on getting a second bike, I would convert the hardtail to solely commuting duties & perhaps get some semi-slicks for it & then go for a full sus for all the other off-road stuff you are doing.

I take it you are linking to Halfords, because of the bike to work scheme? Have you not considered the full sus Boardman that Halfords do – it always seems to get good reviews.

Brian did you need 140mm of travel?

If not, it might be worth checking out this one as well:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=30535

And if you are using the Halfords scheme be aware that you do not have to stick to just the bikes that they have in their "show rooms". The Halfords scheme allows you to get pretty much any bike so you could widen your search net a bit further than Carrera and GT.

Also might be worth looking at the Boardman range including the full sus ones. A mate of mine rides one and is very happy with it for the money.

cannel toe path
:o)

I just skim read that and thought it said camel toe!!!

stumpy01, the commute is cross country mate, so slicks aren’t going to do me any good.

ski, I think I’m after some where between 120 and 140mm of travel, I have 100mm on my current bike and it not really up to it.

Bikingcatastrophe, I didn’t know that, nice one, any you would recommend?

I will have a look at the Boardman full sus again.

Dose any one have any experience of ordering a none Halfords bike on this scheme? Can I just ring up and say I want the Marin B17 09 from cycles R us at £600? Or is there a list of suppliers that will deal with Halfords?

Thanks for the help.

Brian.

Halfords will source directly from distributors and if they can get the model you're after it will just be at full rrp so you won't have any joy getting them to price match other retailers.

I'd second looking at the Boardman stuff but the full suss they do is over the £1k limit most cycle2work schemes are limited to.