Friend is looking to buy a £1500 hardtail, 27.5 or 29er, short travel (to be ridden mostly in Norfolk)

I’ve not bought a new complete bike for over a decade, always buy 2nd frames and build bikes myself, so wondered if anyone had seen any that where particularly good value or stood above the usual Giant/Merida/Cube offerings?

Starting from £1100
http://www.bird.bike/product-category/complete-bikes/zero-tr-hardtail/

Superb bikes.

I’d check out Whyte, whatever you can get for that money – my 29CS was also my first complete bike for a decade and the relaxed-ish (i.e. not crazy slack but not euro-bike) geo goes through the range, and they feel built for British conditions.

I had a Ti 456 before and it was great but over biked for my local trails (think South Downs ish) – but I’ve had a few On Ones and they’ve all been decent too.

Cant beat this for value:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/vitus-bikes-sentier-vrx-hardtail-bike-xt-1×11-2017/rp-prod146562

XT, Yari, WTB rims.

Get another 10% off with British Cycling membership.

Variflex – that looks a right bargain! Thanks all

My mate has just got one of these:

http://www.twelve50bikes.com/3665/products/2016-genesis-latitude-mountain-bike.aspx?

Original RRP was £1600 but now reduced to £999 – it looks like a real bargain for a steel hardtail, if you are tall enough. The frame finish is gorgeous.

How many of the above are actually ‘short travel’ though? Is 130mm short now?

In typical STW ‘recommend what you own’ fashion, I would suggest taking a look at the Trek Superfly range.

I’ve got the £1300 6 or 7 model (I forget which). 100mm Rebas, SRAM GX 2×11 (little ring seems mostly redundant) and Bontrager finishing kit.

It’s fast, feels light (I’m out of touch with what is actually considered light for a 29er hardtail) absolutely rips singletrack and doesn’t feel out of its depth on bigger natural terrain.

It even flies over trail centre pump tracks etc. although I did take a bit of a kicking on on of Comrie Croft’s steeper and gnarlier reds, relatively narrow tyres and no dropper probably didn’t help.

Anyway for fast and flat trails I’d bet he’d have more fun than on anything longer travel and slacker.

Boardman Pro 29er is worth a look – superb VFM and a very decent bike.

In fact, drop me a line if a 19in one would be of interest.