So our cycle to work scheme is going live next month and its the usual £1000 limit and going through Halfords and I’ll be getting a hardtail mountain bike.

I haven’t bought a mountain bike for a long time and have no real idea what my options are for that sort of money, apart from googling ‘best £1k hardtail’.

So far I have the following bikes on the possible list – Boardman HT Pro and Cube Ltd Race or Pro.

What else should I be looking at. I don’t do ‘gnar’ and fancy something fast and light.

And can you still top up the value through the halfords scheme? One bike I’ve looked at is £50 over budget.

Thanks.

Ours was through Halfords and I wanted a Salsa Fargo. Halfords wouldn’t deal with CTB 🙁 and I didn’t fancy them ballsing it up so I went through their list of approved LBS who who could get me one in. On the plus side my bike was put together by a proper bike shop and topping up was possible. On the downside I believe you get a 10% voucher for accessories if the bike is one of Halfords regular stock. That would cover a decent helmet, lock, etc.

Oh I didn’t know you could go through an approved bike shop rather than halfords. Is that list available online at all?

I got a list through with the paperwork of the LBS taking part within the county. You can ring up the Halfords Admin people who will go through the whole list to find a stockist of your particular brand.

Good stuff, thanks.

I still don’t know what I want though!

Any suggestions for bikes to look at? Anyone?

A mate of mine recently got the Cube LTD Pro on C2W scheme and I’ve just recently got a new Lapierre FS on finance. We went out for a bit of a play around town the other evening (steps, drop-offs, camber walls etc…) and we had a go on each others new bike.

I must say I’m massively impressed with the Cube, if my work offer C2W I’d probably get one just for cocking around on, jump parks, throwing around the town etc because it is SO light and easy to ride with. Great bike in my limited experience and fun to play around on (because that’s all I’ve done with it lol).

Sounds good then.

I like the look of this and you’d have a penny left over! 🙂

http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/bikes/mountain/high-latitude/high-latitude-1×10

im friendly with my lbs (i used to work in the cycle trade) and they were telling me they had sold over 600 cubes in about 2 years, they’ve had a (one) cracked frame out of that lot, which was replaced by cube without quibble.
i have a cube ams bike and my wife has a cube hardtail, they both have a good spec for the price and ride well.
thats my 2p worth.

Genesis are nice bikes, not sure I want a 29er though.

I persuaded my lbs to sign up to C2W so I could get a Cube from them rather than halfords approved Cube dealer.