new to the forum,so hi to all..state of confusion here.getting into mountain biking and got about £900 to spend on a hard tail been looking around and saw these.whyte 901 2011.. rockhopper pro 2011,,and a kona caldera 2011..tbh i just don`t know looking for some advice please….mike

Any of these would make a great trail bike. Find somewhere that’ll let you properly demo them and get the one that feels right to you. If it was me I’d be hoping the whyte feels good 🙂

Another Whyte fan here, although for 19’s. I dont know if your budget allows that. A really nicely thought out range of bikes, no major faults in hardtails (that I’ve heard of) and really good backup from what I’ve heard (never needed personally). I’m glad I own one.

The others mentioned in your price range will also be very good. Consider yourself lucky so have such good taste 😉

Bought the Rockhopper as a birthday present for my girlfriend and it feels a lot better quality than its price suggests. If it was a bigger sized frame id use it myself as my HT bike. Only bad thing I can say about it is the brakes arent as powerful as id expected (although they are far from bad), but then I am used to Hope V2’s with 203mm rotors. Couldn’t comment on the other bikes you mentioned though

ok thanks,,really its just between the rock hopper and the whyte

Whyte is cooler but Rockhopper is probably better value…

My bro in law owns a shop which deals Spec and I was considering a top level rockhopper at trade vs a whyte 905 from lbs with £300 off cos it was end of line 2010.

Tried both – went with the Whyte 905 ( same frame as 901 ) even though it was more and broinlaw wanted the sales volume.

I think they are different enough bikes that even an MTB novice like me can tell ( although I’ve ridden road bikes for yonks so understand geometry) – the Whyte is more laid back and can handle all the aggro I am going to put it through in Surrey Hills. I felt the Spec, while still a nice bike, just wasn’t as versatile in the rougher stuff.

And the Whyte was obviously cooler 🙂 it also had a much better fork – as far as I could tell – that is the bit I still dong quite understand as roady but for sure you can feel the difference between a £400 fork and one that is cheaper

Hope that helps – in time honoured forum tradition I recommend what I bought 🙂

Ok done it ..went for the white 901,,got a good deal gets here tuesday,,thanks all for advicc……..

Cool, you just need to post some photos now.