Aaaaand that makes every hardtail currently available in the thread now

OP, at the moment you’re like a kid in a sweetie shop, ‘ooh, that’s nice, that one too, oh and that one!! Oh but if I spend a few pounds more I can get that one, that’s reeeeally nice!!!’

Sit down, work out what type of riding you’ll be doing (blue trails/red trails/enduro racing?) – if you tell us where you’ll be riding no doubt other people will know it and will suggest a suitable style of bike for the local trails.

Then from that you’ll be able to work out whether you need an XC hardtail, slack/aggressive hardtail or a full suspension. Then work out a budget and stick to it (within reason, £100 on top is reasonable). Then look to see what sort of spec you want, is a good fork more important than a light frame? Do you want a SRAM or Shimano groupset? Etc etc.

All this will narrow down the choice of bike with the spec, geo, and price you want/need, and the final decision will probably go down to what colour you prefer 🙂

To give you an idea, I’ve decided on a £1200 budget hardtail:

General trail centre and local natural trail riding, nothing majorly extreme. Swinley, bedgebury, Surrey hills, QECP.
Reba fork, 120-130mm travel minimum
2.6 tyres minimum on 27.5 wheels
Light alloy frame
Preferably SRAM groupset
Dropper
Boost spacing front and rear
Plus points for an 800mm bar as I’m 6ft 3in.

My final choice is the sentier VRS plus 2018.

Spec:
Reasonably slack and long
Reba RL 140mm
2.6 maxxis tyres
12.5kg
SLX Groupset
Brand X dropper
Boost
800mm Nukeproof bar.
And finally the colour scheme (orange and blue) matches the FS bike I’m looking at buying as a second bike later this year so it’ll match when swapping wheels…

sentier VRS plus 2018.

Spec:
Reasonably slack and long
Reba RL 140mm
2.6 maxxis tyres
12.5kg
SLX Groupset
Brand X dropper
Boost
800mm Nukeproof bar.

sounds good!

.

Thank you so much for everyone that has given me advice over the last few days. There was a lot of toing and froing as I wasnt sure exactly what I wanted.
I have eventually settled upon the Giant and picked it up last night.
Many thanks to everyone for your help