Have lurked for a while but now crawling out the woodwork to pick your erudite brains.. 🙂
I ride an ancient Giant Boulder Shock over Cannock Chase most weekends, short road section to get there (not worried about that) so some fast(ish) tracks and some singletrack fun (ie nearly falling off mostly).
It’s time for a new bike and my work use cyclescheme so it would appear I’d be daft not to use it but I’m well out of the loop not having bought a bike for years. 🙁
Local shops have Giant and Spesh, but I’d like to keep it <£600 and these two have caught my eye.

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cube-Attention-Mountain-Bike-2012-Hardtail-Race-MTB_49357.htm

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Cannondale-Trail-SL-4-Mountain-Bike-2012-Hardtail-Race-MTB_48917.htm

Your opinion would be welcome (or alternative within the budget 😉 please)

Thanks!

PS I’m 6’1″ and 12.5 stone, if that makes any difference…

I like the Cube.

Between those I’d go with the cube too. But actually would likely go for the spesh hardrock pro – never ridden it but consistently good reviews

I actually had a bit of a ride on my mates spesh rockhopper sl something-or-other…. and it was great but….
Too much money and he’s got one, so I’m getting something else..

I am leaning toward the Cube, to be honest. 😉

Might pull the trigger tomorrow, any alternatives to the Cube…. 🙂
Ta.

Boardman HT comp ? Yeah I know a bit Halfordsy in some eyes, but I’ve watched a few going round Cannock on them quite happily. Decent spec for the cash too and rated in one of the “mainstream” mags .

You may want to have a look at paulscycles.co.uk there are some good deals to be had around the £650 mark. don’t know if you would be able to use Cyclescheme to get it through there but could end up with a beter bike for the money.

Would some feedback help from a day-long bike swap that I did with a mate of roughly the same size/weight at the weekend?
I rode his 22″ cube hardtail, he rode my 21″ rockhopper. Both had similar config/levels of kit fitted.
20 miles+, mainly moorland track/singletrack with a few techier downhills thrown in.
Climbing:
I found the Cube actually felt shorter and climbed poorly despite being a “larger” frame, having real problems keeping the front end down. Admittedly this might not be a problem with a stock stem but it really didn’t take well to the 50mm one he’d fitted. My Rockhopper has a 60mm stem and still climbs well enough with that, so it’s not an unfair comparrison.
He was quick up the hills on the Spesh and commented that it climbed much better than his Cube.
Descending:
The Cube has whacking great thick seat stays and this felt really harsh, pummelling your rear end when in the saddle and felt to be skipping around more or rocky saddle-down stuff. The Rockhopper felt more sure footted despite being shod with skinny little 2.0 mud-Xs compared with the Cube’s 2.3 HRs. Both had 100mm Reba dual-air forks fitted.
Flat/speed:
I couldn’t catch him and didn’t think I was going to get my bike back at the end of the ride!

The guy is now looking for a Rockhopper frame to transplant his Cube’s kit onto.
I have to admit that the Cubes do seem to come with a good standard of kit on them, but the overall package wasn’t to my liking.
Just my 2p worth.

I have a Cube Attention and really like it but it’s my first bike since I was about 14 so my input is useless really.

A couple of points that spring to mind anyway though:

The forks are pretty cheap and you’ll probably be advised to upgrade them as soon as you can. Mine lasted about a year and a half of riding around the Peak District before they threw the towel in which given that they are worth about £60 (I think) isn’t too bad and at least gives you time to save up for some proper ones if you want. Still, some would say that buying a bike with a decent set of forks in the first place would be wiser. I’ve just spent over £200 on a new set, so might be worth bearing in mind.

Having said that I have had hardly any other maintenance issues especially compared to my mates similar prices Scott bike which is seemingly forever in and out of the bike shop.

The only other maitenance I have had to do other than indexing the gears is have the hubs serviced- they are pretty wrecked after 18 months of riding and me never ever servicing them. Pretty sure this is my fault though more than anything but again, after they have been serviced once I think i might spend to upgrade.

No idea if that’s of any use to you but I think its a pretty decent budget hardtail if you are willing to swap the forks out. Plus it looks nice which lets face it is always a bonus.

Edit- just noticed that the forks on the 2012 model are different to the Suntour XCM’s on mine so you might want to ignore my comments about the forks

Also for the circa £600 mark it might be worth looking at the Genesis Core bikes too? They always seem to get very good reviews.

I had a Hardrock Pro fro a while before some scrote had away with it. Loved it to little mintballs.

Wow!
Thanks for all the replys and information.
The 2012 Attention has Rock Shox XC28 forks, are these an improvement over the Suntour XCM’s.
Halfords don’t do cyclescheme and I can’t see anything on Paul’s cycles that suggests the do either.

No opinions on the Cannondale….?

Update:
Well I went into leisure lakes and sat on some bikes, Cannondale, Spesh etc.
Chap was helpfull and didn’t try to push me one way or the other and….
I’ve ordered the 2012 Cube Attention in 20″ frame and white/grey.
Will take a few weeks to get the voucher sorted and then we’ll see if I’ve made the right choice…. 😯
Thanks again for the advice and I’ll let you know how I get on.

Why less than £600, when you can spend 1k?