Ive been asked by a friend to find the best bike for £500.
Hard tails mtb bike.

Any ideas?

Been quite a few threads on this. I believe the general consensus is one of these

Halfords have got some good reductions on a lot of their bikes currently. Paulscycles often have some reasonable deals on old models.

Other than that – 2nd hand from the stw classifieds?

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p3029

Scott scale £529 ?

classifieds
last week I got a mate a 2010 Rock Lobster Tig team SL with full XT groupset and rockshox Reba sl forks all in A1 condition for £500 and it was reasonably local.

Voodoo Hoodoo is 499 at moment at Halfords – even for the 29er which was more like 600. Cheaply nichetastic and good choice if it’s mainly a bridlepath type bike for first timer?

Voodoo Hoodoo from Halfords, bought my lad one at Easter and it is well specced for the money and has since just been given 5 stars by MBR.