I’m looking for something that’s pretty well sorted for around a grand. WWSWTWD ?

At the moment its probably more “what can I buy?” rather than “what should I buy?”.

What do you want it for general XC or lairier stuff?

The Canyon stoic looks pretty good and modern. You’d get the basic one delivered and have some spare for a dropper and pedals without going too far over the budget.

If its more XC then have a look at the Grand Canyon or Boardman Hardtails.

XC – On One Whippet

Honestly think you’ll be lucky to find anything with a decent fork for that price that is in stock.

Boardman MHT8.9 gets a Reba, although groupset is SX this year.

it’ll be used for a bit of everything – would prefer something with no obvious weakness i.e. crap fork and a well balanced package of components etc

I quite like my Calibre Line 29. Originally bought it as a stop gap while I don’t have time to ride much but I quite enjoy it.

Voodoo bizango 29er, if you can find any in stock.

Removed. not 29er

On One Big Dog? I love my Crush29 but theyre too pricey unless you go 2nd hand

Wait a few weeks and secure a Ragley big Al frame and go from there brilliant bike once built up 150 fork 65o head angle and 435 mm chainstay its a right good bike

keep them coming folks…
out of interest why are Scott, Trek, Kona, Giant, Specialized not as highly recommended as they used to be?

keep them coming folks…
out of interest why are Scott, Trek, Kona, Giant, Specialized not as highly recommended as they used to be?

They can use their brand to charge more for the same product for people who don’t know where else to look.

On-one big dog or scandal

I’d been looking at similar bikes recently for C2W and had real trouble actually finding anything to buy. I ended up getting a Trek XCaliber 8 though, which wouldn’t normally have been something I’d have gone for. I’m pretty happy with it,though realise I’d want to make a few changes and addtions to get it to suit.

Bizango.
Add some deore brakes and a brand x dropper and you are sorted for well under a £1k.

The £1K area seems to be very popular which is why the options are limited as most are sold out and if not sold out some vague ‘available in 6 months’ type thing.

Would possibly be better to come up with a list of what is actually available to buy and then ask which you should buy from that list.

Under the recommend what you bought, I recommend an On One Scandal.

On One Scandal: its a very capable bike for the money. Has done everything well for me, long XC, Munroes, Steep techie enduro and even 3 day bike packing. If I could only have one bike I would keep this one.

I’ll second Boardman MHT8.9 I had the 2019 which I think is better than the current one but only beacause it was Shimano SLX 11 speed 11-46×1 as opposed to the current Sram 12 speed which is the budget version but both have Reba forks and very good all rounders but I replaced it with an On one Scandal because I wanted a slacker front end and surprise surprise it is so much better on steep downhills compared to the Boardman but it is slightly slower up the hills but I have put Maxxis Minion tyres on it so that might change when I put fast rolling tyres on for the summer (when it comes)

My scandal was a penny under your budget.

Great bike, but as mentioned above,it’s not an XC speedster.

On One Scandal will do most things you can throw at it; very capable on steep, technical trails and I’m still being surprised how well it handles stuff like rocky drop offs that I thought I would only do on my FS.

keep them coming folks? Anything else I should look at?

Nukeproof Scout?

Bought Mrs Ready a (slightly over budget) Merida Big Trail 500 before Xmas. Impressed with it so far. Worth a look

Vitus Sentier VR? It’s £100 over the £1K budget, but comes with the Brand-X dropper already installed. So if you were planning to install a dropper, you’re actually under budget!