The £849.99 Zen 1 has a RockShox Tora 289 U-Turn 85-130mm fork, Shimano Deore shifters with a Shadow Deore rear mech, Truvativ Blaze chainset, Quad Sting Pro hydraulic disc brakes, Mavic XM317 rims and Saracen bars, stem and grips.

Lets compare to what I got from halfrauds 6 years back

carrera fury frame (comparable)
RS pilot (probably worse, but only because all RS was bad at this point, same price point as the tora)
Deore everything
Ritchey finishing kit (better than own brand, was very light actualy)
v-brakes (deore ones, not disks, but back then nothing short of 1k had even cable disks)

All for the princely sum of……………………..
£275!!!

At this rate the sport will flounder on it's arse becasuse no one will take it up when even a bike i'd tentatively prod with a barge pole is over twice what was usualy considdered the point at which "propper" bikes started. I know the echange rate is bad, but 3X increace !!!!!!!!

Hence why 2009 has been so good for bike sales.

In 1996 I paid around £800 for a bike with rigid forks and an LX groupset with cantis. Bikes today are a bargain.

a few years ago you'd get a decent steel frame with XT kit and own brand finishing kit for that sort of money (£800)

In 1996 I paid around £800 for a bike with rigid forks and an LX groupset with cantis. Bikes today are a bargain.

I agree with this.

That Saracen might have been £650 a couple of years ago. As far as I'm aware it's the bottom model of their "good" range – so presumably has a nice frame in addition to that reasonable kit spec.

My Rockhoper cost me £400 in 1986. I reckon a £500 Decathlon bought today would leave it a long way behind.

Hang on a minute, were not talking '88, or even '98, my bike was an alminium hardtail designed for all round riding in 2003, the price of a comparable bike this year is going to be 3x that!

Hardly comparable, it was a worse frame, worse forks and V's instead of hydraulic discs!

And what is today's Deore worth comparison with? Six year old Deore, LX or what?

Mind you, having said that I wonder what the comparable £600 bike has.

todays deore is as good a xt and xtr was 6/7 years ago…

in 1994 i got a rigid p7 with full lx for about £1000 so that would compare with todays p7 with a basic sus fork for the same price.

ill restrain my self

basically your comparing saracen of olds reputation to new saracen … saracen run by madison – saracen that has new designers – new outlook and new business plan

You are comparing a 2010 full price bike to a bike you got in a sale …

and FWIW 500 quid is about the average spend on an entry level MTB in my area ….

bike prices have been artificially low for a couple of years … they will settle again but not as low as they have been….

In a perhaps more realistic comparison, you would probably have paid about £600 for that bike 2-3years ago, which is quite a jump but we all know the reasons why.

I like lightweight shiny things on my bike, but it's time we perhaps started buying what we need and not just what we want.

Steel hardtail with a deore/X5 groupset anyone?

Steel hardtail with a deore/X5 groupset anyone?

Uhh lookout! That's what I got 🙂