As per title, are there many (any?) sub-£1000 hardtails with Boost frames/forks? ideally 29er but 27.5 would be OK.

The only one I’ve found so far is the Nukeproof Scout 275/290 sport 2018, the spec on it isn’t the greatest. Hopefully there’ll be some other 2018 bikes with boost coming out soon…

Why do I want boost? I think that’s the way bikes are going (see rockshox going boost only for 2018 for a large number of their forks) and I want any future bikes I buy to be able to hand parts down when I upgrade.

If you could stretch your budget a bit…..

901 v2

Sonder Transmitter:-

Sonder Transmitter

Genesis tarn? Although the <£1k model has a rigid fork, at least you’re not paying for a cheap one that you’d rather upgrade anyway.

Although is boost really an issue? Annoying if stuff isn’t transferable but OTOH it’s just a hub, unlikely to be more than £100 to swap at some point in the future, and odds are in however many years there’ll be new standards anyway.

TBH the plan is to buy a cheap (but semi decent) hardtail in the next couple of months to get me back into mountain biking (last did it about 15 years ago) and then in 8-12 months time I’d probably be looking to to get a FS 130-150mm travel trail bike (Vitus Escarpe VRX, Focus Jam C-Lite and Whyte S-150S are on the list) once I’ve moved on to riding stuff a bit more serious in the UK and possibly trips to the alps.

I can pick up a 2016/17 Vitus Sentier 29 for under £700, or the newer 2018 model should be £765 with discount so that would do me fine as a starter bike.

I’ve priced up a Nukeproof Scout custom build and it comes in around £1300 with a decent spec, the limitation is finding a 29er Boost fork for under £300.

Edit: The transmitter is nice, might be an option.

And boost isn’t a must but would make life a lot easier – if I went for the Focus Jam C-lite in 12 months from now, I could see me wanting to upgrade the wheels not that long after having it, being able to pass them straight down to the hardtail would be a very decent option to have.

I picked up a second hand Whyte 901 for significantly less than your budget last week – on that basis I would highly, highly recommend trying to get hold of one of the newer ones with boost. I think the newer ones are a bit longer, 1x only, and boost, but other than that very similar.
It’s an absolute riot. Never thought I’d have this much fun on a hardtail. Even tame trails are fun, but techy stuff makes it come alive.
Forks are a bit twangy (don’t know what the new ones come with, mine has Sektor Golds) but other than that the chassis is just bloody marvellous. Can’t be arsed to ride the expensive enduro bike at the moment, thinking of taking the Whyte to the places I usually go with it instead…

In stw style I’ll recommend what I own

Diamondback Heist 3.0

Boost sizing, stealth dropper, 1*11

I think you may as well just jump straight in and buy the FS. Seems like a waste of a lot of money when you plan on moving on to a different bike in a year.

OP – what are you reasons for wanting a hardtail if you think you’ll end up on FS? A way to spread the cost or because you’re not sure you’ll get back into it?

Joemmo – 90% the first bit and 10% the second.

The budget doesn’t stretch to a FS at the moment, I’m going to hire a few times at bedgebury/swinley forest to start but would like to be able to do some local riding over winter rather than having to rely on hiring at £30 a time for the next 6 months…

Get a secondhand HT for now and sell it on when the time comes?

I think you’re right BTW, boost will be compulsory within a year or so. But we’re in the transitional period on lower end stuff still.

Yeah I’m keeping an eye out for a used bike, I’m 6ft 3in though so need an XL/20″ frame so there’s not many about at that size.

Joemmo – 90% the first bit and 10% the second.

The budget doesn’t stretch to a FS at the moment, I’m going to hire a few times at bedgebury/swinley forest to start but would like to be able to do some local riding over winter rather than having to rely on hiring at £30 a time for the next 6 months…

OK, makes sense as long as you don’t mind losing a bit of money on the HT frame purchase and the inevitable extra bits you’ll need to do the swap-over of parts – bottom brackets, headsets, some cable and hose and if you’re unlucky, dropper post.

I think you’re wise to aim for boost and 1x and my advice would be to target potential FS frame only options, see what you might like in 12 months and if possible minimise upgrade hassle by trying to get your HT spec in line with that.

For the money you’re looking to spend I’d forget the FS upgrade path for now. The components Oma. Sub £1k hardtail are likely not what you’ll want on a more burly FS bike in a year or so’s time.

Appreciate what you say around sizing, but I’d try to find a lightly used hardtail now (unless you can find a 2nd hand FS under £1k now) and then flip it on when you have more funds (for hopefully not too much of a loss) and are looking to up the budget for FS.

I had a 27.5″ FS bike that was only a couple of years old and was looking for a longer travel / slacker FS frame and was going to swap bits over, but in the end I sold it complete and just bought a whole new bike. There are so many standards out there now it was just easier.

I think you’re right BTW, boost will be compulsory within a year or so. But we’re in the transitional period on lower end stuff still.

Depends on the bike/market I suppose.

You can still get 1.1/8 steel hardtails after all. But yea, most modern stuff will change just because there’s little downside.

I haven’t looked so I could be wrong but aren’t any of the Pinnacle Ramin’s boost ready?

For the money you’re looking to spend I’d forget the FS upgrade path for now. The components Oma. Sub £1k hardtail are likely not what you’ll want on a more burly FS bike in a year or so’s time.

I’m not actually looking to take the hardtail stuff onto the new FS bike, more the opposite – if I kept the hardtail I could upgrade bits of it with hand-me-down bits from the FS bike. Because N+1 right? I’ve got 2 motorbikes so 2 MTBs would go nicely!

For instance the 2018 Focus JAM c-lite has a KS e30i dropper post with short travel, I’d prefer a RS reverb so the other post would go on the hardtail. Same with the wheels, it’s got Mavic XA and would fancy a better wheelset at some point, the wheels could get donated to the 29er hardtail.

Ah I see, that makes more sense. I went on eBay and there were quite a lot of hardtails sub £1k even in a massive size. Not many boost though.

Hmm, the new Commencal Meta HT AM has just been added to the list, should be available through CRC so £880 with the british cycling discount.

Frame looks very nice and has boost, 27.5+ (29 compatible), Sram NX, 150mm Recon.

8)

https://www.pinkbike.com/buysell/2223640/

£950, boost all round, 1×11 NX, Lovely geo, i29s, clearance for 2.6s, and it’ll keep it’s value a lot better than a brand new bike (Whytes seem to hold value really well)