Mate of mine’s just bought a bike.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/carrera-vulcan-mens-mountain-bike

I’m going over tonight where I’ll do doubt be asked an opinion (because obviously the time to ask is -after- he’s bought it). Any thoughts, so it at least vaguely looks like I know what I’m talking about? (-:

Apparently his missus is thinking of getting one also. Any recommendations for something that isn’t a BSO in the same sort of price range?

Cheers.

Carrera is the cheapest ‘proper’ stuff. Otherwise Voodoo are good and there was a silly good value Laura Trott MTB a while ago. Outside of Decathlon, you’ll struggle to get a better bike for the money.

Edit: 10% discount for British Cycling members, just show the card when you pay.

Lovin’ my two Voodoo bikes.

The Voodoos are better, but theres nowt wrong with the carrera vulkan for the money, nice enough looking, it’s nothing fancy but perfectly reasonable.

Forks could be better but it would push the price up so you can’t really have it both ways 🙂

Lovin my Voodoo, and cut my teeth on Carreras back in the building Healy Nabb days..

Good bikes, do the job, no money.

Btw im selling a legit large 2016 bizango for half halfords price, its on the bay of e as i type

Fork is the bad bit there- least good fork that works, basically. They do the job but need plentiful TLC, at the very least a wipe and lube after every ride without fail, an occasional strip and clean is valuable (it has fairly poor seals, and plastic internals that’ll wear out in 10 minutes once mud gets in). Everything else is decent and at this price, forks don’t get better so, that’s OK.

I feel like maybe spending a little more could net a big upgrade though. Go Outdoors sometimes have some great stuff on discount, always worth a look.

Fork was the first thing I thought – my experience with Suntour is… not good. We killed one on a brand new bike in a fortnight and Evans were shits about it.

Cheers guys.

Edit: 10% discount for British Cycling members, just show the card when you pay.

Oh, that’s handy to know. Ta.

The suntour epicon on the Voodoo has been ok, had my ass handed to me by orange 5s by say 20mtr from top to bottom of last bit of Lee Quarry, but it’s 5 grand full boing bikes against a halfords shitter!

Edit in fact whatever the suntour were on the Carrera 26ers back in the day used to handle Healy Nab, Lee Quarry cragg quarry and gisburn just fine too.

We destroyed a few of the low rent rockshox forks around Cragg back then however

The Epicon’s a good fork- Suntour have a bad rep just because they make so much low end OE, but nobody thinks all Rockshox are bad just because they make crap like the XC28 tk

Eldest (8) has a Voodoo. Really good value bike.

Just had this discussion with a work colleague for his nephew. Decathlon looked slightly better but very little stock.

For the use the lad wanted they ended up getting the Carrera Subway – basically a slightly better specced / cheaper alternative without the junk fork (and all black was OK with da yoof). They took my cycling UK/CTC card (also now get discount) – sales assistant didn’t know what the card was so just gave them the BC discount without any hesitation (so basically 10pc is there if you just ask nicely).

Yeah North wind is right, lots of sub 1k hard tails on suntour X** coil forks unless you spend serious cash.

They are probably the biggest OEM fork suppliers at the moment. Even fitted on hard tails from the more designer mainstream brands.

It’s either that or rockshox crappiest coil forks which are arguably no better.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/carrera-kraken-mountain-bike thats on offer and its the higher model than the vulcan

Just to note, epicon were rebranded to epixon, I belive due to some sort of copyright naming issues, so epicon will be older stock/ lower spec.

I’m biased but I love mine!
Airfork with adjustable damping, it replaced an Xcm, which was basically just a spring in a tube.

I bought my daughter the Trott MTB mentioned above in March. Alu frame, Suntour Raidon adjustable air fork (bolt thru), 1×11 GX, good Tektro hydros. It was an absolute bargain of a bike for just over £300!

Suntour are great. Good enough for Tippie.

Just as a coda to this,

My mate’s missus bought a bike before I had chance to pass on some of the suggestions (skids’ recommendation looks a bargain to me). Ended up with this:

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/carrera-crossfire-2-womens-hybrid-bike

I’m really not so sure about that fork… hopefully it’s largely going to end up as a commuter and she’s not planning on being a gnarpoon.

It’s a worse fork than the suntour x** series or RS xc, It may as well have a lighter, solid fork.

But there’s nothing wrong with the bike for the price.

The fork with probably seize after a year and develop rust on the stantions, though.

The laura trott mtb 1 is a sick bike for the money, buy you can’t buy them new anymore, similar spec ‘man’s bikes’ were twice the price.

Managed to snag one for my mrs, turned up at Halfords to collect and they hadn’t built it up /messed up the order.

They had a factory boxed one though which I took away as I was worried they’d run out of stock, which they promptly did!

They must have been selling it as a loss leader though, it’s a serious spec bike for £350.

I built it up and test Rode it, and despite being several sizes too small for me, it rides fantastically, I really couldn’t fault it. The forks seem have a higher quality coating on the stantions too rather than the cheap silver ‘chromed’ finish that a lot of low end forks have,

I expect the mtb2 to be a bit more expensive!

OK, “Halfords Bike”:-

– Apollo: do not touch with a bargepole, the definitive cheap Bike Shaped Object (BSO), will make you hate mountain biking, and will be in a skip within 18 months.
– Carrera: good budget bikes, but all the cheap suntour XC* forks are pretty horrible.
– Voodoo: good bikes, if you get the slightly more expensive bikes in the range with Suntour Raidon/Epicon forks, rather then the cheap Suntour XC* forks on the cheaper ones.
– Boardman, similar story to voodoo really.

I’ve got a Voodoo Bizango, use it for everything (raced it, long XC rides, jumps in the woods, black runs at welsh trail centres), all the bike I need till I eventually buy a full-suss. I guess with the reverb dropper I added, it’s an £850 bike though – might get something with a bit more “credibility” for that price.

[Quote] rickonwheels – Member
OK, “Halfords Bike”:-

– Apollo: do not touch with a bargepole, the definitive cheap Bike Shaped Object (BSO), will make you hate mountain biking, and will be in a skip within 18 months.[/Quote]

Are they really that bad? Have they got worse?
My first mountain bike was an Apollo Equito that I bought in ’96. It was pretty basic….canti brakes, rigid fork, 21 speed (I think).
I was under no illusion it was a cheap bike, but I loved it. Went riding all over the place on it, used it for 6 months of commuting, took it to Germany for 6 months and rode it most days on road and off road.
The only thing that went wrong was bending the mech in a large twig while riding through a forest in Germany. I managed to bend it back into shape enough to ride home and get a new one fitted for peanuts.

Maybe it’s simplicity was it’s strong point…?
It eventually got nicked from the locked up bike shed at uni. The whole shed got cleared out – there was just a pile of snipped d locks on the floor!

The trouble with the Apollo range is that they don’t or very rarely fit them with a rigid fork. The suspension units they put on them are just there because folks want a bouncy fork, they don’t actually do anything. The bottom brackets are weak point as well. Most of the range has an old style cup and cone system that is woefully sealed. I have seen bikes fall apart within a year but I have also seen bikes last way longer than they have any right to if they are looked after. I think the old 90’s Apollos were better spec’ed when compared to their modern day counterparts.

Yeah that’s a pretty sweeping statement.. Cheaper forks are fitted to everything these days, regardless of who makes them.

Here’s a £700 HT with shite forks.
https://www.evanscycles.com/norco-charger-7-3-2017-mountain-bike-EV277757

All I’m saying is you can get a good hard tail for not a fortune if you are not insisting on a popular brand.

anyone got an opinion on their electric assist bikes? Thinking of getting my wife a pendleton one so she might enjoy rides with me a little more. Obviously its a £300 bike with £450 of leccy bits on it, but I didn’t recognise the brand of any of them (no bosch stuff on it, for example)

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/electric-bikes/pendleton-somerby-electric-bike-white-navy

Here’s a £700 HT with shite forks

Compared to some forks they are pretty good.

On a £700 bike though?

Apollo bikes, honestly, go and look at them – they don’t even have cheap suntour forks. Dangerous BSO at best. You can’t expect much if you buy a full-suss bike for £170, but honestly, friends don’t let friends buy something like this:-

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/apollo-radar-mens-mountain-bike

I really wouldn’t fancy anyone’s chances on that on anything other then a towpath, and the suspension is pointless, and probably dangerous.

A rigid v-brake bike would be a much better bet at that price:-

(edit) http://www.wiggle.co.uk/wiggle-mountain-bike/