My wife’s mountain bike is due to be converted to a road touring machine (long story – kiddy cranks on our tandem for our daughter, so she needs a solo bike when we go touring, become a PITA converting it each time, shagged forks, seems like a good idea to get a new MTB and leave the old one in permanent road form with rigid forks).

Anyway, so we’re in the market for a replacement. Her old bike is an 18″ Kona Hahana aluminium frame, more than a decade old, mixture of bits from STX-RC to XT, Rock Shox Judy fork, you get the idea. Probably looking for another HT, for general trail riding (quite rocky but nothing too knarly, more xc style).

I’m a bit out of touch with the mountain bike market at the moment (I’ve been riding unicycles off-road for a few years), so what’s best value now around the £500 mark? That budget is fairly flexible – mostly picked it to avoid insurance hassle. Obvious big brands like Giant, Trek and Kona? I’m not against self-build or second-hand either.

Any opinions appreciated…

Rob

Carrera Fury is good value for money IMO. And you can pick them up from Halfords in a box.
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_518247_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

yup – nowt to touch it at that price

This looks like a decent deal

http://paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p1938

Thanks folks. They’re just the type of thing we’re after. Shame the Carrera is white – light coloured frames look a mess pretty quickly IME. Not had any experience of SRAM transmission – how does X5 compare with the Shimano stuff for function and durability? And the only Truvativ crankset I’ve had is absolute pants (unreliable BB and soft alloy so pedal threads are suffering) – but that doesn’t mean they’re all bad of course. The Kona looks aesthetically nicer – what do people think about the spec? Obviously XT mech is a bonus, what about the Reba fork vs the Suntour on the Carrera?

Any more?

Sorry – not Reba, they’re Tora…

Theres a Boardman Comp FS for sale in Classifieds at 500quid, thats a steal if its in good nick and seller says its as new….

Second hand is the way to go.

That Boardman does look tempting. Not sure if we really want the hassle of a FS frame though with all the maintenance it’ll presumably need in the wet and grit round these parts – it’ll be overkill really. Do FS frames still need nursing the way they used to so they don’t get all floppy and rattly? We’re not going to be racing this bike or riding DH on it.

Kona Blink, considering one myself:
Kona Blink