Hi Folks

My mate contacted me today asking my thoughts on his potential first mountain bike purchase. It’s a Claud Butler Cape Wrath 29er:

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/claud-butler/cape-wrath-04-2015-mountain-bike-ec116486#features

I’m pretty out of the loop with mountain bikes now, riding almost exclusively road.

Wondering if anybody has come across any better deals out there at the moment? He’s a noob and so just wants a budget hard-tail for some trail riding.

The Claud Butler looks OK to me but I don’t hear about them very often anymore since…um the 90’s I don’t think- or maybe that’s just me!?

Better off with this for £699 – + £60 upgrade for Rockshox Revelations:

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOOPWX5/on-one-parkwood-sram-x5-mountain-bike

Have a look on Pauls Cycles, some cracking deals.

Buy something used. Much much better value.

Looks OK. Only concern is the fork which looks a bit pap.

I have ridden 3 Claude Butler bikes (including a Cape Wrath 26er) and I found all of them to be :-
A … Heavy
B … Lifeless
I reckon your Mate could do better with that sort of budget, especially as we are just entering the “discount season” when the dealers start marking down the 2015 bikes to make way for the new 2016 season stock.
Something else to consider is that if your Mate spends £700 on something from one of the volume manufacturers like Specialized/Cannondale/Giant/Boardman etc the bike will still be worth a few hundred quid in a couple of years time, whereas second hand Claud Butlers seem to be worth next to nowt !!

Voodoo Bizango from Halfords (I know). Won bike of the year under £600, is a good frame with good spec components, going for a steal. He need look no further

Review here – http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/bikes/mountain-bikes/29er/product/review-voodoo-bizango-13-47282/

I’ll appraise it then……

It’s not bad – it’s fairly standard lightish alloy frame, with dependable (but fairly heavy) Deore kit, with SLX highlights. the wheels and tyres will also be heavy and upgrading those will make an appreciable difference to handling – at a price. the forks will go up and down well (at least at first), but are also fairly heavy and won’t be well damped.
In summary, pretty good for the price, but it will be fairly heavy.

Alternatives:
if he/she can stand the colour and is the right size, This is a step up in almost every department
Another option here
or here

Owning a Cape Wrath 26er, I find it
A – amazing value (£320 for a NOS full SLX 3×10 equipped bike)
B – as good as some big brands
C – steeper than some angles

Trek X-caliber 9 has a better fork, looking at the 8 for a friend but also tempted by a Parkwood.

Trek: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/trek/x-caliber-9-2015-mountain-bike-ec070992

Just looked at that Parkwood and it seems On Ones website is screwed up.

£699.99 on offer yet when you select and go to the options page it says you have £89.99 of options. Add it to basket and that changes to £54 of options.

If he buys the Claud make sure it’s properly pdi’ed. the latest ones at work are badly screwed together. In particular all the cup & cone bearings (wheels& pedals ) were over tightened. Wheels out of true too. This was all out of the box.

Compare the spec:

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/radon-zr-team-29-8.0-237621/wg_id-117

Compare the spec with these:

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/radon-zr-team-29-8.0-237621/wg_id-117
http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/radon-zr-team-29-8.0-237645/wg_id-117

I don’t see why I’d buy the CB tbh, or the Bizango (sorry but it doesnt add up in comparison if you look at the spec/weight/price of the Radon 8.0)

Someone’s thoughts here: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=10002&t=13025034

*sorry for double edit post 😳