95% sold on a canyon nerve anyone else got any reccomendations?

29er Anthems are always on sale, and very very good. Maybe not quite as good value as the Nerve though.

There are still a few 2014 Whyte M109 around for that type of price.

you could probably get an Anthem SX (27.5) for that. I spent ages looking at options for light, able XC a few months ago and went with the Anthem. So far can’t fault it.

I have to add , I loved my M109 but wished I had bought the T129 instead , I think the 100mm travel was just not enough ,but with £1500 to hand there are a lot of second hand doors open , look hard enough and your in Five territory

Not really XC if you start heading over 100mm surely?

Yeah sorry I missed the XC part , My take on the whyte is it was more than capable of everything I could chuck at it but the t129 (trail bike of the year 2014 ) might be a good choice if your day points more downhill