I have a Cyclescheme voucher for £1000. The bike will be used for off road riding to work and home 5 days per week and the usual Wales, Peak etc natural mtb’ing with a bias to long XC. Definitely not hard tail hooligan type riding.
I’ve narrowed n=my selection dow to the following three but I can’t get past there post to a final decision (and the branding is bothering me a little, which I think is nonsense but it is).
BMC with the excess buying some Crossride wheels
Decathlon
and also [url=https://www.decathlon.co.uk/rockrider-540-womens-mountain-bike-275-white-id_8350455.html]this for my wife[/url] which is a little naughty but she will use if for work and she’s keep to get into cycling.
whoops. link didn’t work. last one is a £700 Decathlon bike and the women’s bike for my wife.

Can you demo some? I also wouldn’t bother with crossrides as an upgrade. Awful imo and propriety spokes make repairs a hassle. You could probably get something better for the same at superstar or similar with regular components.

Liking the BMC. Good spec for the money.

The last option was the ladies £350 Decathlon bike for my wife and this Cheaper Decathlon. Any thoughts and opinions on the B’twin bikes? I have a little bit of brand snobbery going on but other than that, I thought they looked great value.
No chance of upgrading the wheels at Superstar unfortunately as other than a very small cash top up (which is allowed by most retailers) if I go for the £699 and £350 Decathlon bikes, as it’s a Cyclescheme voucher, it needs to be redeemed at the same store.