I live in Wigan, work in Bolton
Btwin mtbs everywhere in Bolton , don’t see Any in Wigan .

Rickonwheels, amusing point about being told you need a grand’s worth to start out. Any of us who started on £150 raleighs in the late 80s know that MTB is fun on any bike to start with : ) it’s often just the group ride arms-race that escalates cost of bikes..

We get loads of kids in the shop asking if we do carrera

“Why do u want a carrera?”

“Coz they’re SICK man”

*sighs*

Just spent £100 on a Carrera Kraken for the Missus to commute on in town as her tope end Trek Madone or Capra would last about 30 Seconds in Bristol before it’s nicked.

Tell hydraulic brakess, SRAM X5 3×9, not too heavy and Matt dull grey. Perfect for around town as looks cheap and boring.

It would probably be fine around FOD (although the forks are cheap Suntors). I was hoping it would be invisible and too dull for thieves but now you’ve got me worried that the kids will nick it over some of the other stuff parked there (which is the opposite of the reason I bought it!).

Tom KP

The first mountain bike I got was late 80s/early 90s. It was a Raleigh Lizard, most of my mates had Raleigh Mustangs (the black and white one, then the nasty purple one). We didn’t really do a huge amount of mountain biking then, a few rides through the village woods and that was about it. Everyone wanted a Peugeot though, I think the distributor was local (Bedford) as there were loads round here and I remember going past an industrial unit as a kid quite a bit which had Peugeot Cycles signs up.

We used to ride up to Chicksands, but were so knackered by the time we got there we used to turn around and come home and never venture in to the woods (long before there would have been any trails in there).

That’s a bit like rejecting a pair of Vans or Reebok Classics for a pair of trainers from George. Kids these days…

I was driving through Luton earlier and I saw about 20 kids riding around on Carreras. Seems it’s not isolated to my neck of the woods! Saw a few pulling impressive wheelies too.

My Carrera(2008 BansheeX)has been a very reliable and enjoyable bike to own.£589.00 for Bomber forks,sram X7 gearing and mavic rims is unbelievable really.I,ve done thousands of miles on it and only had four punctures.When you consider all the problems on here with the posh bikes it makes you wonder who really is the mug?

Seems a bit marmite on the looks front however.The majority like it’s Kona Coilair impression.

Back in 1999/2000 I was the idiot for having an Orange Clockwork because it had rigid forks and the V-Brakes were backwards……

Unless your into biking Halfords is a one-stop-shop, and the price is attractive for parents, especially with some kids ability (or lack of) to look after their stuff….

I’m quite surprised we don’t see more Calibre out with the kids, Maybe not too many outlets as of yet? If I wanted to go FS I think I would look at a Bossnut as my 1st full suspension…. (I did have a Mr O but only rode it once and hated it…)

I know of a current xco world champion who owns a carrera…

Uses it to piss his club mates off mind.

Ancient bugaboo (the lrs one with 3 travel settings in fluorometallic green) built by merida bitd.

Lol