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Which is best? I know the Altitude is a bit lighter, but is it as well specced? Neither has the greatest forks in the world, but are they good enough for general XC stuff? And the brakes...I've heard the Shimano M525s can be dodgy in the wet, but on the other hand I've also heard the Juicy 3s can be very unreliable?
Oh, and if anyone has any other recommendations, I'm looking for a steel hardtail, and it absolutely has to be under £1,000 because it's through the Bike To Work scheme. It can't be just a frame either. Cheers.
Work set up a c2w scheme recently and these were the two bikes that I was uhming and ahhing about.
Eventually ruled out the P7 because of the forks (I would have tried to upgrade to the Fox forks) and also realising that the Altitude 20 is not much more expensive than the 10, but with a much better frame.
I've now had the Alt 20 for about a week, done 3 rides on it and I'm very impressed with it.
The Recon forks work very well so far - whether in full 130mm or 100mm. I haven't bothered dropping them to 85mm. It coped well with the DH tracks on my local hill at full travel. A 3 hr classic style xc ride around Gower didn't give any problems at all.
Similarly, the brakes. The 180mm rotor on the front is a bit bigger than I've got on my other bikes, but the M525s stop very well. I haven't had the bike out in really wet weather - maybe later this afternoon - but I've had no complaints so far.
Having said that, the Avid 3s and 5s I've got on my other bikes can't be described as unreliable. I haven't had a single problem with either set in 8 months and 3 years respectively.
So slightly different bike, short term test, but I'd recommend the Genesis.
This might be a daft question, but what is it about the frame on the 20 that makes it so much better than the 10?
The 20 gets the 853 tubeset.
I've just got an Altitude 30. I test rode a P7 Pro and found it a bit to heavy for the type of riding I do. The Altitude is a bit lighter and for the money it has a better spec.
What about a rock lobster from merlin? that's an 853 frame, and comparable spec to the altitude.
The scheme we're in has a pretty restricted choice of bikes, which is why I've narrowed it down to those two. There are probably plenty other good bikes out there, but we can't get them.