Bling aside, off the shelf, just want to buy a relatively robust all day bike – £1999?

Spesh Camber-ish? Boardman FS? £1500-ish?

£1500-£2000

Good question, I reckon a good hard tail is around 800-900, so then say another 500 for the rear squish, maybe 1400??

My view – whatever the decent spec Boardman FS comes in at

My wife’s view – £1.99

loads of good bikes for far cheaper than 1500 quid

2013 Trance X4 rrp is around 1250, or a cheap canyon if you value components over being able to sit on the thing first for similar money.

I’m not sure I’d ever buy a ‘current model bike’ however, seems to me you can pick up something very similar from the year before for 40% off without looking to hard

Bottom of the range Canyon Nerve I reckon. £1139 at current exchange rate. Was £1039 last year I think.

Second hand everytime: you could buy this and have both shock serviced and a couple of new parts for that budget.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/orange-5-pro-very-good-condition

Second hand every time?

Is there any transferable warranty on that £1600 bike?

A friend of mine a bought a 3 month old Mondraker foxy RR. Saved a good bit of cash buying used rather than new.
Regretted it dearly when 6 months later it had 2 large cracks around the shock mount.
No warranty, no good will, no help in any way shape or form from manufacturer or importer.
You pays yer money…………

Robust all day bike……..£1352.61

http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/de/Bikes/Wicked150

I have another view on second hand. I bought my 2 year old Anthem for £750 almost a year ago. If it died tomorrow,I reckon I would have had 1 year of fun riding it and I`ve saved all that depreciation.

The new version would have been £1500 to £2000.

Back to the OP,I reckon £1500 if last year`s model,is the optimum for price v performance ,probably nearer £2k if current.

There`s some very conspicuous down speccing of components bleow £1500.

I paid under £1000 for a Camber 2 years ago in the October sales. Still a fair few decent bikes for £1500 area.

my view would be: find the cheapest available, then avoid it.
applies to items other than full suss bikes too.
im not a brand snob btw, i just reckon that the cheapest is rarely the best value.

If you want to get a great deal then some of the ex demo stock looks great if it’s what you want. Generally a higher spec bike 3 month use, serviced and sold with a warranty.

New somewhere between 1500-2000 gets you choice which is fairly important.

Also hanging on till the end of the year helps as I’ve seen plenty of run out bikes going at a good price. Don’t be afraid to ask whats still in stock near the start of the 2014 bikes coming out. They want shot of the stock and there maybe one or 2 left in your size back at the distributors.