New bikes for casual rider. Greater london

Hi everyone, this is my first post.

I am looking to get a bike and at the moment I’m torn between the Voodoo Nakisi (gravel/adventure bike( and Voodoo Biazngo (Hardtail mountain bike). I know they’re pretty different but I just wanted some opinions.

The major drawback for the Nakisi looks like the breaks which are some Tektro mechanical disc brakes which aren’t well reviewed.the Voodo is a £125 more expensive but has hydraulic brakes.

If the Nakisi I’d definitely go for it but now I am not sure.

I’m not going to be racing but the MTN bike I hear would be a nuisance on paved roads.

I’d probably be cycling to friends houses in London now and then and cycling around fields/parks otherwise. That’s why I thought a gravel would be my best bet, but the bizango looks quite the better bike albeit maybe not on paved roads.

Any thoughts/opinions would be much appreciated.

I appreciate I should have a better idea of what I want to do with the bike but I’m just not that sure yet.

Welcome.if you bought the mtn bike do you think you will try mtbing in the future.

For my money (living on the outskirts of greater london), if I could only have 1 bike it would be my gravel bike. It’s not “great” at anything but it’s pretty good at lots of stuff, so much so I can use it for my commute to work (13miles each way, “off road” rides around the bridleways of Headley and box hill and road rides with my mates.

I do now have a separate road bike so it’s been consigned to the commute and the bridleways bit it still gets used a lot. On the other hand, my mountain bike has been given to my dad.

However, if you think you’d like to try mountain biking properly in the future then clearly a mountain bike would be better, I just couldn’t be bothered with the extra faff of driving somewhere as opposed to cycling from my door

Having said all that, drop bars are not for everyone and they took a bit of getting used to.

For me it depends where in London you are. If most of the local riding is Thames path type stuff then go for something gravel focused but without drop bars.

Or even just get suitable tyres for the Bizango. That’s pretty much how I run my MTB which hasn’t seen a mountain or mud in a couple of years and it’s fine but a gravel bike would be better.

What about something like this:

Vitus Mach 3 VRS

Might be the best of both worlds.

Potentially. What sort of terrain do you think warrants a mountain bike?

The reasons swdan gave are what is swaying towards a gravel. But it is the difference between quality between these two bikes that would sway me towards the Bizango.

Qwerty, the virus looks good but I can get a couple discounts at Halfords so that’s why I was looking at them.

Andy_B, yeah slicker tyres on the MTN bike could be an option but I hear that if I’m mainly riding on roads/grass it wouldn’t be worth it much?

Just wish there was an upgrade to the Nikasi that had hydraulics (based off what I have read online…not experience)

I have cable discs on my gravel bike, started with tektro lyras and then upgraded to trp spyres. They’re not as good as the 105 hydraulic brakes on my road bike but they’re not bad and if I completely honest I don’t “need” anything more, albeit that doesn’t mean I haven’t looked into upgrading. The trouble is there aren’t really any cheap road hydraulic options as the levers are quite expensive compared to MTB ones

The Voodoo Marasa gives you the best of both worlds. £450, flat bars, hydraulics, efficient tyres. No fork to look after.