1st Mtb

Bit of help needed here people, been into my off road bikes for 20+ years and could probably reel off the latest, bang up to date on trend 1×11, dropper post equipped, 780mm/50mm bar/stem, tapered head tube, 142 rear end 160mm “all mountain, Enduro” bikes in my sleep – but a friend who is after his 1st mtb with a view to getting fit and hopefully getting some off road experience has asked me to find him a suitable bike.
I’m genuinely stumped, where do I start – halfrauds? Second hand? LBS? Without wanting to sound like a snob I’ve only ever been concerned with ” high end kit” so really hoping some people have got some advice/experience about some good cheapish (£300 – £500) bikes!
Thanks in advance

Halfrauds are OK for a Boardman if you know what you’re doing or have a friend who does. Otherwise I wouldn’t touch them as you’ll get shit advice.

I’d say go LBS and go big name brand. Hard to go wrong with that for a 1st bike.

Paul’s Cycles if you know what you want (and they have it for sale)

LBS if you don’t

If you’re happy supporting them then S/H is an option too

good cheapish (£300 – £500) bikes!

Last year’s stock if you can find it. Spesh, Giant, Trek et al all do great stuff at that range, especially if it’s last year’s model.

Failing that, I’ve heard pretty good things about Decathlon’s stuff. Not inspiring, but cheap and cheerful.

I’d still look for an “out of date” bike, though. Could possibly find a £700ish bike within budget.

Such as this – http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s2p4505/GIANT-REVEL-1-DISC-LTD-2012

Rode a Revel a while back on a product testing day. Pleasantly surprised with it. The frame was superb. Let down a little by the fork, but great otherwise.

Halfords have some reasonable entry level bikes in the Carrera and Boardman ranges. Nothing special but you’ll get something fairly reliable and a good base to upgrade from. Or as Spin says try something like a Kona. My first proper MTB was a Kona Hoss and served me pretty well and was even better when I started to upgrade bits of it.

I’d suggest going second hand! You could pick up something pretty decent at that price on ebay with a bit of patience!
If he gets a new bike at that price, it’ll be OK but not great, however if he gets into it and wants to upgrade, or doesnt get into it and want to sell, a used bike of that price isn’t going to sell for much.
On the other hand, my friend recently got a cannondale off ebay, USA made frame, OK its a good few years old but its full XTR, hope hubs, etc etc… £400. He rode it for a bit and decided the frame was too long, so now its going back on sale and he’ll probably get his money back for it. Can take a while finding the right deal, but its going to be the best way of getting bang for buck IMO and a decent % back if you sell it in the future. You could argue the plus side of a new bike is you get a warranty with it, but if its mainly for offroad, the stuff thats likely to get broken probably wont be warranty anyway.

LBS or Halfords for a Voodoo/Boardman/Carrera.

Always best to try before you buy.

2nd hand is where its at.

Wow! Thanks for the (conflicting!) advice, as I said, I’m happy to sift through the shit advice from the likes of halfords as I’m confident I know more than the spotty little oiks! Just wanted to get a feel for the direction I should be looking.
SH Isn’t a prob as do 99% of my own maintenance and I’m sure there’s sum cracking buys out there. Think I’ll take him for a nose down halfords and check out some boardmans, and keep an eye on the classifieds on here and pink bike etc. cheers for the link captain, I’ll check those out 2.

Halfords, and Decathlon have excellent options in this range- I think over the last 3 or so years, the only budget bike tests Halfords haven’t walked away with were ones where they had no bikes actually in the test.

Their Bantu is ace at £400. Not light, but sturdy and very well thought out. Hoodoo is the same only lighter, at £500. Fury is also ace but currently a wee bit high priced (so they can do their “SAAAAAAVE £100” thing in a month I assume).

Second hand, sure, but you could easily buy a worse used bike for £500.