Had my bike stolen some time ago and I can’t afford to make another good bike, so I’m now looking at ride to work scheme budget hard tail I’ve narrowed it to the gt aggressor expert and the vitus nucleus vtr, or vitus nucleus 29er

My quandary is do I go for more gear selection and the gt or better forks and (what I assume has t be deer gears ) on vitus nucleus vtr, depending what site you look on the 29er could be an 18 or 27 speed it’s very unclear.

All help appreciated and any other suggestions I’m not keen on specialized in the price range (£400-£600 but pref£500 ish) and most bikes come with the Suntour forks in that range also which also puts me off should I consider the suntours? And maybe the cube aim etc?

Thanks. John..

If it’s between forks and gears go for forks. You’ll be replacing the gears eventually with wear and tear

Suntour forks can be ok, don’t dismiss them. I had a pair which where in a different league to the cheap RS I had.

Stock answer here but voodoo bizango? Halfords near everyone so you should be able to view, decent frame, suntour air forks and decent enough parts. It’s what I’d probably buy at that price point (under £500 if you time it right).

I have looked at the voodoo and not sure about them superficial I know but I don’t like the look of them up to now the gt is the front runner but I can’t really find anything about the forks on it I’m thinking their maybe gt’s own forks? I do live in a hilly area if that makes a difference lol and I’m not the fittest at the min..

Yeh suntour do a wide range of forks, some really bad ones and some rather good ones.

Basic one’s are

Xct
Xcm
Xcr

Then

Raidon
Epixon

Then some more specialised ones.
They seem to have a bad rep as a lot of thier crap forks are fitted as OEM to keep retail price low.

Have a look at their catalogue, it’s on thier website.
You might be surprised
http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/home/

Does anyone have one of the gt agressor experts? Or the vitus vtr and can tell me about the forks on the gt and gearing on the vitus..?

Annoyingly everything has the crappy end of the Suntour range fitted as standard it’s quite annoying and maybe just me being led like a crowd into the budgets not being that great, if the vitus just had a 3 chainring it would be a no brainier…

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-nucleus-275-vrs-hardtail-bike-rockshox-2017/rp-prod147647

I’m coming around to this one now tho

Are you higher or lower rate taxpayer?

At that price I wonder if a good second hand bike may offer more durability and better ride.
This would offset the £100/150odd you would save as a lower rate taxpayer.

Lower, but paying it off on the tick is appealing at the min also