Just come back from my Stag Do, which involved a bit of riding at Dalby. Little brother borrowed my Scott Scale for the day and loved it, so much so, he now wants to get his own bike!
He reckoned on spending around £400, but I reckon could be pushed up to £450. So what's good at that money?
Having had a brief trawl of the internet I've come up with a few, but don't really know much about bikes at this level. So any thoughts on the following would be much appreciated (and all the others I've missed).

Spesh Hardrock Comp or Sport disk
C'dale trail Sl 6
Fisher Wahoo disk
Scott Aspect
Trek 4300 disk

I suspect that with the Cannondale, there is a lot of paying for the name. The Fisher, Scott and Trek could all be had from my LBS which would be ideal, and I personally would go for the Fisher for no good reason other than it looks good!

Paul's cycles usually have some great deals if you're the right size.

Eg

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b2s2p1492

or

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b4s2p1264

Ah, Mongoose, never thought of them. Are they any good?

Giant Talon 3 is great- it's a "proper" MTB. Short stem, wide 31.8mm bars, proper Kenda Nevagal tyres and Shimano disc brakes and WTB saddle. It's more up to serious MTBing than a 4300 or Wahoo.

I asked roughly the same question yesterday, except with a £300 budget, and did what I was told, which is to buy a Carrera Vengeance from Halfords, at £300 supposedly down from £525. Which I guess is better specced than a bike that retails at £400 normally (certainly looked good to my very untrained eyes).

Joe

By a hardrock from a good local shop. when the bug sets in proper he'll want something "better" the spesh will sell well s/h.

Thanks folks, a couple more to think about. Hadn't given much thought to re-sale value, but I'm assuming, based on how much crashing he did at the weekend, that it'll be completly trashed pretty quickly!

If your bruv needs a 20 inch bike, my mate is selling one of these:

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b4s2p1684

I reckon he'd drop to £450 (wanted 500). He bought it recently, rode it round in the street once, and never rode it again. Comes with warranty card etc.

He's asked me to sell for him…

rtedgeAThotmailDOTcom

I have a 2009 Giant XTC 4 which is FANTASTIC! 450 quid and u get SLX rear deralliour and deore shifters. Giant aluminium frame is top job.

Vdubber – I think that'd be too big, he's about 5'10", but thanks anyway.

What about a new funky 456 and a groupset. Merlin are doing a deore disk one for 180, with wheels for 250. You could get some bargain stem, post and bars on the classifieds. Same for some decent forks. The ones they sell on most £500 bikes are worth about £50 anyway.

Tinribz – I thought I'd try the bargain build up recently with my Cotic, ended up costing me a fortune! So, for the mo, I'll stick to looking for a complete bike for him. Tempting though the on one route is….