I’m in need of finding myself some alternative exercise after moving home and losing my old bunch of football mates, a lot of people I work with are quite into their cycling and so I’m going to give mountain biking a go with a few of them before my waistline spirals any further out of control!

First issue I’m having is that it’s been about 15 years since I last regularly rode a bike to any extent so I’m somewhat out of the loop when it comes to identifying what’s a good bike and what’s best avoided. I’m hoping as time goes by and I become more competent I can do some proper off road riding but initially there’s going to be quite a bit of tame stuff along former railway lines to try and build up a bit of fitness and then heading for some more exciting stuff with a few friends on the weekends. With that in mind I’d been looking at trail type hardtails as a decent niche to suit the sort of stuff I’d be looking to tackle, specifically the Whyte 900 series really catching my eye when looking round a few bike shops, however prices do seem a bit off putting for someone taking a bit of a leap of faith that they’ll stick with it despite local bike shop’s best attempt at doing me a deal. I’d also seen the Commencal Meta HT as a potential, slightly more affordable, alternative as you seem to get a lot of kit for your money there but information on them doesn’t seem to easy to come across. Not sure if any of you kind folk would have any preference for one above the other? Or any other recommendations that would be similar or even better suited for what I’m looking to do?

My other thought, given prices seem to have increased more than I anticipated in my cycling sabbatical, is to look for slightly older versions of either of the above bikes, or any other suggestions that may be kindly thrown my way, as second hand bikes so I’m not as financially exposed on my new venture. The other side of this option that appeals to me is the need/possibility of doing a bit of work to the bike to fix things or bring things up to a more modern standard, give me opportunity to customise things a bit more without being as worried about ruining a more expensive brand new bike and also give me the opportunity to learn about more about how it all goes together so I don’t have to rely on my local bike shop for every tiny repair in the future.

Lastly, and this issue concerns the Commencal first and foremost, is sizing. I’ve been and sat on a Whyte 901 in a shop with a medium frame, didn’t really get chance to have much of a ride but it felt comfortable enough, the sales person wasn’t sure whether I’d be better off on a large though, they were concerned with the handlebars hitting my knees in tight turns. Seems odd to me that someone of my height 5’9″ would have to worry about such a thing on that size bike and those doubts were confirmed at another store, where the bike wasn’t available to view, but the owner said I’d be better off with medium and to always go smaller if in doubt between two sizes. This all becomes rather trivial when comparing to the Commencal as I’ve not managed to find anywhere I could potentially try one for size and judging by their geometry table on their website the bikes seem to size at a completely different to scale to pretty much any other brand, think my little comparison had the XL in Commencal being most closely matched to a M in Whyte! So that thrifty option becomes very difficult to judge as I could potentially burden myself with a very uncomfortable bike if I take that plunge.

Think that’s probably enough wittering for an opening post, any advice would be greatly appreciated, hopefully can get something sorted out and continue to contribute as an active mountain biker!

The Whyte 901 is very well regarded but if you’re not sure about the cost take a look at the Voodoo Bizango or Bokor from Halfords. Excellent for the money and there’s various discounts you can get easily.

Lots of info/questions there.

You’re buying at the right time, lots of deals about shortly as old stock gets moved for next year’s models. Don’t fret on that, they’ll still be great bikes even if the colour scheme isn’t up to date.

Sizing – only way to know is by riding them, but at 5’9″ i can’t really see you needing a large and def not an XL. Don’t make decisions based on geometry tables until you know what you like as different styles have different lengths of the top tube nowadays, and also different brands measure the seat tube (from the pedal axle to the bit where the seatpost goes) differently too, some to the junction with the TT and some to the top of the tube…. so one bike’s 18 may be another’s 19 or 17 depending… Ride some and see what feels right.

You say there’s a few at work that ride, can you borrow a bike and try it for size?

In terms of what to look for. At (I’m guessing) your budget – which would be helpful to know – and being uncertain if you’ll stick with it, I’d look for a decent brand aluminium alloy hardtail and make your pricing concessions on componentry. It all wears out and can be upgraded to better stuff as you get bitten by the bug.  Base level is really Shimano Deore, then SLX, then XT, and then XTR.  It’s all brilliantly functional and I’d suggest Deore would be fine for starters.

Wheel size – really two choices nowadays….27.5 or 29. I personally like my 29er for the riding I do, but if I was starting from new (and at 5-9) I think I’d probably be looking more towards a 27.5 (aka 650b)

A lad at work who was in a very similar position to yourself picked up a Calibre Line 10 from go outdoors. He loves it, and it quite happily bouncing around the Peak several times a week. Changed man to be fair.

I would say at 5.9 you would fit most medium size bikes. at 6ft 1 I’m right on the edge and a larger is better for me.

I would also say you dont need to spend anymore than 1k on a hardtail. Voodoo bikes are really good value for money and there’s no need to start think about up grading anything other than pedals and grips. Bike fitness makes a bigger difference than an sick looking expensive bike.

https://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/voodoo-bokor-mens-29er-mountain-bike-18-20-22-frames

Don’t forget to budget for a helmet, gloves, glasses, reasonable wicking top as well as a backpack (camelbak) and usually  any sports type shorts will do.

Whereabouts are you? Somone here can probably catch up with you when you go try stuff out.

At your height I would expect medium. Ally hardtail 27.5 as suggested. The whytes are pretty sorted straight out the box from what I can see. Go outdoors bike are good for the money but support from them may not be all that, Halfords somewhere in between on average, some better, some worse. The park tool website is a great place to learn about maintenance. a lid, gloves, and shorts with liner. Consider a bum bag that will take bottles, or a sh camelback.

I’m 5 foot 9.5, I own a Whyte 901 in a medium and reviewed the new 909 in a medium earlier this year. There’s a lot to be said for buying the buy that catches your eye. It’s basically what I did when I got the 901, and I still love riding it…the 909 was like mine on steroids though!

Thanks for all the responses, I’ll try and answer as much as I can.

I’m based near Alfreton, Derbyshire, so plenty of choice for places to look around at bikes between Derby, Nottingham, Chesterfield, Sheffield, etc. and reasonably well set for (hopefully) plenty of future trips out towards the peak district once I’ve got to grips with things.

I did find it odd that the salesperson in suggested the large might have been the way to go when I looked at the Whyte, I’m obviously not a particularly big guy at 5’9″, so I’d usually been looking at mediums when browsing different websites. The Commencal geometry table through me somewhat though as I’d seen a few reviews that said they run a bit small and their figures seem to confirm that but without having one to try in person then I’ve got pretty much no chance of knowing what I’d be getting into there with no bike history to compare to.

If I end up buying new then I wouldn’t really want to be spending much above £1000, local bike shop reckoned be could get me a brand new 2019 901 for around £1200 if I purchased through him with a few extra perks thrown in, but even then that seems a bit of an expensive gamble if I don’t get into it. That’s why I’d considered second hand as a cheaper way of testing the waters, thinking I might be able to get a year or two old bike for closer to half that money and then not have to worry as much about breaking things when I inevitably fall off or losing as much money if I don’t stick with it without having to sacrifice capability.

Unfortunately the colleagues with bikes don’t live that close to me, and tend to go a fair distance on weekends, so not so that easy to get to have a play without being a bit of a burden to them turning up with no bike of my own to tag along properly. One of my mates back ‘home’ has an Orange Crush that I’ve had a go on in the past and that fit me pretty comfortably as a medium but for whatever reason just didn’t strike me as something I’d want to buy myself, maybe I just don’t want to be a copycat? Again on the potentially flawed geometry comparison there, Whyte’s medium definitely seems bigger than, certainly seemed longer when I sat on one in the shop, but the Commencal large seems a closer match to the numbers of an Orange medium.

Seem to keep coming back to the Commencal, seems to be a lot of bang for your buck with them and I do think they look awesome, but as a complete newbie it seems a huge gamble to go for something that I’ve had no chance to try out to any extent. Might have to force myself to go head over heart and either stump up the extra cash to go for a Whyte or find myself another more affordable option that has the same draw as the Commencal.

I would ask what your new riding buddies are riding and if they had to buy again what would they buy?   Mountain bikes are like shoes- so many different types and you need to make sure it fits and is suitable for your intended purpose.

If your new riding buddies are into big Cross Country  rides, you may want to look at lightish 29er with neutral-ish head angles. Or do they go and ride chunky technical stuff that you want to learn to ride? Then look at long, low slack etc.

Take your time selecting- as riding the wrong type of bike could hold you back in both confidence, fitness and skill levels because your reference point will be your rding buddies.

Well my mate back home, in the West Midlands, has got an Orange Crush and he tends to go to Cannock Chase as much as anywhere on the trails there, he’s the one most enthusiastic about me getting involved as I think he struggles to find anyone to go with at the moment so doesn’t really bother with going too far from home or making a full day of things on his own. So with him it’d probably be more focused on trails, probably taking it turns to travel up/down to each other and sample different places with maybe the odd full day out doing some glorified cross country stuff every now and again.

The couple guys at work I’ve spoken to about it are a bit more difficult to judge. The first who lives half an hour or so away is a bit of a lapsed mountain biker as he group of friends have steered more towards road biking and taken him with them, so he’s got an older Whyte 905 that he doesn’t really use as much but again he seems to quite like the idea of getting back out there if I got a bike to tag along with him. The other guy hasn’t worked here very long but he’s got some Ibis full suspension thing, can’t remember what model, so he’s probably the most ‘into it’ but at the same time probably my least likely accomplice at the moment as I don’t have the same relationship with him as the other two yet.

A trail type bike seems the way to go I think, I think I’ll gravitate more to that sort of thing as I attempt to acquire the necessary talent. Seems better to go that way and have the capability to do those more techincal rides even if it means a bit more effort whenever I might be tempted to do more XC type stuff, although I’m more likely to go for some incredibly mundane former railway line rides if I’m just looking to stretch my legs on my own so that shouldn’t be too much of an issue.

I think I’d go for a trail type hardtail from what you’ve said. A cross country geometry one will be worse for technical trails than a trail hardtail will handicap you for cross country rides. At the end of the day the trail bike is still a hardtail and shouldn’t weigh too much more. Often the longer slacker ones have a steeper seat tube angle which can really help with pedalling efficiency anyway.

It’s already been linked to, but I think the 18″ Voodoo Bokor from Halfords could be spot on.  Good looking spec and geometry, and for the (sale) price of £680 it’s tough to beat.  Give it a year of riding to figure out what sort of stuff you like doing and whether it’s something you want to get into seriously, look after it and you’ll make a decent amount back if you decide to upgrade.  As a returning beginner it’ll be more than up to the job.

EDIT: You can go to a Cycle Republic store for the Voodoo if you don’t like the idea of going into a Halfords..

If you want to up the budget a bit then the Sonder Frontier is worth a look: https://www.alpkit.com/sonder/sonder-frontier

If the Voodoo is the option, join British Cycling (Bronze is about £18 IIRC) and then you can get 10% off everything at halfords (not just bikes) which is useful for stuff you need in a hurry like spare tubes and stuff.

£18 spend for £68 off and counting is a no brainer, plus all the other benefits of BC membership (other discounts, priority for tickets for stuff and so on)

This is quite tasty for the money https://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s155p7396/CANNONDALE-F-SI-2-29-2017

I’d be looking at the classifieds on here and on Pinkbike though, for something local that you can go and throw a leg over then wave some cash under their nose

I was in a similar-ish position to yourself a couple of years ago.

On the topic of new v.s. second hand, I think I’d be tempted to go new if you have the money to do so.  Personally I went the second-hand route, and that’s worked out well for me.  But it takes more time, and is a lot more hassle, and given that each of the three bikes I’ve built so far have costed £450-500, it’s not really *that* much cheaper than the likes of the Calibre Line 10 or the Voodoo Bizango.  If you just want to get out and ride, buying new and just cracking on with it certainly has its benefits.

In re: what bike: I don’t think you can go too far wrong with any of the suggestions so far.  You’ll learn far more by going out and riding than you will from any number of online reviews or spec sheets.  If you’re really not sure that you’ll stick with MTB, it’s probably worth trynig to ride some different bikes, whether you get a few rentals at trail centres, or go to demo days, or get a demo from a shop.  It’ll give you a much better idea of what you like, and whether MTB is for you or not.

Finally, as others have said don’t forget to budget for all the “other bits” that seem to be involved in mountain biking.  A helmet is an obvious one!  Most bikes don’t come with pedals (possibly you know this, but I was shocked when I found out, I can tell you..) so set aside a few quid for them.  For riding the disused railways you don’t need much in the way of gear, but once you start longer rides on more technical terrain (you mentioned Cannock previously) it’s nice to have some means of transporting water and snacks; a small toolkit to fix up minor mechanical issues (multitool, inner tube, tyre levers, small pump); and some knee-pads, gloves, and eye protection.  Shoes become more important, too — trainers are OK, but really not confidence-inspiring on rough ground.

EDIT: You can go to a Cycle Republic store for the Voodoo if you don’t like the idea of going into a Halfords..

Cycle Republic is owned by Halfords

Haha, I know – I just meant if one preferred not to be seen entering an actual Halfords establishment.. 😉

After what seems like an eternity of scouring the internet and making many a failed offer I now have myself a bike.

https://photos.google.com/photo/AF1QipNnnYcPQEabT0t7MyE-JfK4khs2GgxudzseLRVd

Rather off piste from what I was generally looking for but I grew frustrated on my endeavours and just started trawling through endless lists of bikes online until this caught my eye. Ended up spending a little more than I had originally intended but from what I’ve read it seems I’ve obtained rather a lot of bike for my money.

Now time for me to get out there and start riding, luckily have some very tame glorified footpaths I can utilise on my doorstep to get things setup to my liking and then hopefully push on to some more interesting stuff!