Hi All,
A guy that works for me is looking to spend £1k on an shortish travel bike – it has to be new but can be in the sale somewhere.

Any suggestions? He likes the look of the Boardman FS and I have suggested a Canyon Nerve XC 6.0 but any other ideas on what to consider?

Cheers

It will need to be reduced as for RRP £1000 FS bike there are far too many comprimises. I would by always by a hardtail at this price range, less comprises need to be made.

Have you looked at Pauls Cycles?

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s1p3709%5D

I like this, another 400 gets 10 speed & Fox forks though…

From the vast majority of internet posts about both those, then ‘the guy’ is likely to be happy with either.

A recent MBUK or WMB did a group test of £850 full sussers. I only read it two weeks ago but can’t remember which ones they were – although I have a niggle that they were the top two.

Paul’s Cycles has always got hefty discounts on new bikes that are a few years old.

ETA Tinsey beat me to it.

Hard Tail 29er may overcome some of the sting of a hardtail…

For £1000, why buy new?

I got a 2010 Trance x2 with full XT, elixirs, and sektor air forks for £750 on eBay and that wasn’t even an especially amazing deal.

Some of those Paul’s Cycles deals look mega. He currently rides a battered old Hard Rock and is just after an FS to give his back a rest, so anything is going to be a big improvement for him! The Cannondale RZ120 and Giant Anthem X4 looking like great choices.

And it has to be new as we will run it as a cycle2work thingy, but as it’s my company I can choose to buy from anywhere!

Nice review of the Ghost 120mm at Pinkbike this morning, and there’s bargains on those at CRC

I can thoroughly recommend the Anthem X4. I have an upgraded X3 and, after riding my X3 a few times, my wife replaced her bike with an X4. Giant’s Maestro suspension system really seems to suit the short travel of the bike, and the geometry is excellent – quick and precise handling, but not twitchy. Given that it’s race derived geometry, it’s an incredibly capable bike. Obviously, you can’t straight line the sort of terrain that you might on a long travel trail monster, but it’s brilliant for UK trail centres – I’ve also taken my Anthem X to France a couple of times, and if you have a modicum of skill, it’s amazing what the bike can do.

It’s really easy to dump a load of excess weight from the X4 by upgrading the wheels – this also perks up the handing and acceleration no end.

HTH

p.s. I bought mine after demoing one at a XC race. Top tip from the Giant team mechanic was to go for the smaller size bike if you are on the borderline between sizes – ‘cos on some, like Med-Large, the jump in frame size is huge. I’m 6’ and after trying both Large and Med, I went for a medium and have been v.pleased with it.

+ 1 a Giant x4 from Pauls for a grand.

I have the x3 and its an awesome bike. Brilliant on the ups, and more than capable on the downs on most of the stuff I come across on trail centres or out in the wilds. Agree about the wheels, first upgrade should be some better ones, I picked up some cheep 355s from merlin for under 150 quid and it made the bike even better.

Don’t think you’d find a better bike new for the money, however a quick google tells me you can get a trance x4 for 1070 quid, if you fancy a bit more travel