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new bike via the cycle to Work scheme, a colleague is after a hardcore hardtail, IRO £500 - £600
Any suggestions for him to consider?
His first MTB experience was Innerleithen XC plus a bit of the DH with me a few weeks ago, on a 10 year old V brake equipped Marin with 80mm travel forks. He loved it.
Anything new at that price is going to have a pretty basic spec, so if he's going to lob it down some proper rough and steep stuff parts may need upgrading fairly quickly. Decent frame and fork should probably be top of the list as they'll be dearest to replace.
What about a Merlin Malt 1. My first decent bike was a Merlin and I loved it.
[url= http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/rockrider-81-10-39599 ]One [/url] of these Is hard to beat but I'd Imagine you would struggle to get one on C2W. Maybe Aggressor xc1 or Carrera Kracken.
Hmmm. I guess it much depends on what you term 'hardcore'.
If it's really slack and long travel forks, that rules out many of the best value bikes at the moment (focus/boardman/voodoo/etc).
These are all 100mm but plenty sturdy and to be honest where I would put my money.
What you end up getting with the slack ones is lower quality frames and forks, but sometimes some nice detailing and some style. Some may still be 100mm, but usually with Dirt Jumper forks. I'm not sure it's a better way to go at this price. But I can see the appeal
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=45938
http://www.winstanleysbikes.co.uk/product/25374/Charge_Blender_Mid_Bike_2010
Some less 'hardcore' bike which might be worth a look:
http://www.merlincycles.co.uk/Bike+Shop/Bikes/Mountain+Bikes/Merlin+Bikes/Merlin+Malt+1+Bike_MERLIN-MALT1-BIKE.htm
http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbht/ht_comp.html
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Focus_Black_Forest_Expert_2010/5360045264/
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_515339_langId_-1_categoryId_165499
To get something a bit serious i'd be ditching the cycle to work scheme idea and going second hand instead. My old 456 with pikes, easton bits, e13 drs and xt/deore bits went for that price and was fully sorted.
Carrera Fury wins in a first round knockout tbh.
Costs £530 but won the "£750 bikes" test in one of the rags a while back, what does that tell you? Also hasn't lost a £500 bike test it's been in this year. The speclist's good, the build's well thought out, it really is damn fine for silly money. The cranks are cheap, but that's about the only major weakness. Oh and Juicy 3s, bleh, last year had Auriga Comps but Juicys apparently look better for speclist bingo despite being inferior. But still, that's pretty much what you're going to get on a £500 bike. Buy a £2500 Orange and you get the same rims 
And despite its respectably tough build and longer fork (frame is OK up to 130mm but it comes with 120mm and something like a 68.5 degree head angle) it weighs less than most of the 100mm competition.
Honestly, in my opinion it'd be stupid to buy anything else at this price unless it's on a huge discount, it doesn't really have a competitor. The Rockrider and Voodoo aer good value but they're more XC oriented.
It's obviously still not massively hardcore but I'd happily take one out of the box, build it and ride it round laggan black or down nevis red never mind innerleithen etc.
do you mean hardcore hardtail as in a 4x/DJ frame and around 100mm travel or the new interpretation of hardcore ie. basically a bog standard XC hardtail with huge travel forks on it?
[url= http://www.alpinebikes.com/shop/saracen/zen-1-1/ ]Saracen Zen[/url]
Shows 600 on website but was 55 in the shop today. Pretty good value for a 'hardcore' hardtail - big travel fork and mostly deore is pretty good for 550. Think it was 850rrp? Seriously considered it...
He's put his name on an Orange G2.