What would you chose and why?

Trek 8500 http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/mountain_hardtail/8_series/8500/

or P7 Pro
http://www.orangebikes.co.uk/2009bikes/bike.php?model_id=93

trek, better aftersale by a country mile.
or so i am told.

The Orange, as Trek and Scotts for that matter look minging in exactly the same way. And George Bush rode a Trek.

sodafaris…..already got a Scott Sportster so maybe I’m just a sucker for ugly bikes!

P7 hands down.

P7 – a steel orange, what other reason could you want??? Ride them both and then choose.

Trek – better specced in my opinion, by quite some way. Plus the backup of excellent customer service, a proliferation of dealers across the nation, and it looks nicer.

Trek looks nice but I’d want the longer travel design of the P7 as it suit my riding more but thats the thing as your comparing a fairly racy bike to a long travel hardtail…what sort of riding do you do?

Trek, their after sales and warranty is second to none, and yeh it looks a shedload better!

“sodafaris…..already got a Scott Sportster so maybe I’m just a sucker for ugly bikes! “

Whoops, sorry…but I suppose you know your own preferences, asthetically wise.

Are these two bikes not at opposite ends of the hardtail spectrum?

OK, maybe a slight exaggeration but the Trek is more race orientated: 100mm Air Fork, Aluminium frame etc. Whereas the P7 has 140mm Coil Forks, steel framed etc more everyday do it all style.

Shouldn’t the question be what suits your type of riding?

A 12 mile road commute 5 days a week is swaying me to the Trek…….but the desire to get out in the wilderness pushes me towards the P7, hence the opposing ends of hardtail spectrum!

Maybe the question should be which would be the better bike for the ‘central spectrum’ of riding?, ie no extreme off road and no endurance. Want something that will be a pleasure to ride daily on roads and make me want to get out and explore the unbeaten track………which would you chose??!! I’m annoying myself now not able to reach a decision, precious riding time wasted!

And another factor…..got a Scott Sportster p2 which is fine for commute and some off road stuff (quite limited though off road). .should this sway me towrds the harder P7?

Does anyone else have all these ‘problems’ deciding which bike??!

Scott for the road, P7 for the real riding 😉 Don’t agree the Trek looks better – slick in a corporate kinda way, but the Orange looks more fun.

Best of both…what about this http://www.genesisbikes.co.uk/series/alpitude ?

Genesis bikes have a good rep, nice 853 frame, u-turn Revs so you can dial in or out depending on terrain and same price as other bikes mentioned…Hell, I want one after writing that! 😉

Nukeproof….”best of both” is probably what I’m looking for, alpitude has taken my fancy in quest for finding ‘right’ bike. Is it not in the same ‘bracket’ as P7 ie, more P7 than trek8500(sorry, relatively new to all this!)? Why would you chose Alpitude over P7,or arent they too similar at all!?