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As per my previous topic, I'm soon to be buying my first full suss bike, but a question to the masses, do I buy brand new or go second hand for my first full suss bike ??
What's your budget?
Anything from £500 to £1500, obviously £500 upwards for second hand and top out at say £1500 - £1700ish
What sort of riding will you be doing? XC or DH, or somewhere in between?
Mainly xc, single track, but once my fitness improves deffo some good climbs for DH
Sales are coming up, I'd expect you could get a very decent bike new for £1k to £1.5k soon.
For example, Edinburgh Bike Co-Op was advertising the Commencal Meta 5.5.3 for £1.1k (£500 off) in a mag I was looking at today.
My mate recently bought a Scott Spark 50 which was just under £1500 and he's really happy with it. It's a great FS XC bike, not huge rear travel but has handled everything he's chucked at it. I would have suggested an Orange 5 S, but the price has just gone up for the 2010 models and it's a bit over your budget (nearly 2k).
go for a specialized new, then you have a lifetime warranty, I think. I've broken 4 FS second hand frames now 😡
So in essence you guys are saying new, Yeah !!
buy new, "last years" model reduced (so a 2008 or 2009). See www.paulscycles.co.uk for an idea how much reduction you can get. Like cha****ng says youll either get a 1500 bike for 1000, or push your budget and get a 2200 bike for your top whack 1500. I got a Reign 2 (from local bike shop not mail order) a few years ago down from ~£1600 to ~£1100.
Sorry, but I disagree. As its your first FS bike you won't know exactly what suits you or how to compare bikes properly. You may buy a pure XC bike with short travel, and then find you really like the steeper stuff and want something burlier with longer travel. Exactly this happened to me. Buy secondhand, run it for a year, then either keep or sell at not much loss to get the bike you really want