[Closed] Basic MTB

Id look at something from Boardman or Voodoo from Halfords (if they have any stock). Even basic MTB these days come with at least 9 or 10 gears. I’ve been using a Boardman MHT 8.9 as my main mountain bike for the past 3 years it was about a £1000. I can do black graded trails on it. My kids both used MHT 8.6 which are about £700 for red graded trails. This would easily deal with your useage.

Do you want basic for the sake of basic? In which case we are looking at rigid singlespeeds, and loads of choice at that price if you can build them up yourself.
Or do you want basic for the sake of cheap? In which case that budget could get you fancy but second hand

I wouldn’t buy new. There’s loads of cheap enough basic MTB’s on Marketplace.

If you really want to go new then i'd reiterate what @stainypants says, at that price point it's hard to ignore these two:

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/voodoo-bizango-pro-mountain-bike---s-m-l-xl-frames-453094.html

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/mountain-bikes/boardman-mht-8.6-mens-mountain-bike-2021---grey---s-m-l-frames-365918.html

Stock will be an issue though.

Or as @esselgruntfuttock says keep an eye on FB marketplace and Ebay, plenty of lockdown purchases and cyclescheme cast offs to be had, stick to the brands that you trust and view before buying.

Thanks all. Good suggestions.

If you can't find anything locally then Alpkit have the Sonder Frontier https://alpkit.com/collections/sonder-frontier in a number of specs below/around £1k and the burlier Transmitter for just over a grand.

Saracen Mantra +

just bought a second hand one as I wanted a 'bike' to go out with the kids after school. I think they're about a grand. Can't fault it, decent components and geometry and the unfashionable name means they're cheap as chips second hand.