Contrary to what mountain bike websites may imply, you don’t have to be a millionaire to be start mountain biking.

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By ben_haworth

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Q: How much to start mountain biking? A: £605.00

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It strikes me as a little dangerous to imply to an absolute beginner they could ride up (and down) helvellyn armed with nothing more than a bike and helmet.

I’m not a fan of this bike price snobbery trend. GCN keep doing it with the Eurobike vs super bike which makes me cringe. My first bike was a £10 cast off from the neighbours and it was as much fun as current bikes that cost 100’s of times more.

Not many people are going to try and tackle Helvellyn full stop so hardly a benchmark.

@Sam_Forward that wasn’t the intention, I’ve edited to clarify.

I started with a bike and a helmet about 27 years ago and I’m still here to tell the tale.

I was riding a Trek 930 with V Brakes and some Rockshox forks (can’t remember the model but they were silver).

I’m all for people getting a bike and a helmet and getting out there and riding.

+1 on we get so focussed on kit, not on the ride.

Gloves. I know not everyone rides with them, but for any beginner they should surely at least be on the ‘other stuff’ list? Saving one’s palms from the inevitable early spills, as well as preventing blisters on hands unaccustomed to gripping handlebars for several hours at a time.

It’s exactly how I started out, a 26” Carrera Vulcan from halfords, (which was the go to beginners bike ) a cheap helmet and pair of muddy fox cycling shirts worn under normal shorts. Rode natural trails and didn’t die.

Looking back I wasn’t missing out as everyone rode similar kit.

My favourite bike is my £500 Go Outdoors fatbike. You don’t need to spend loads*
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*second favourite is ebike at £5k 😂😳

@andyspaceman I’m with you on gloves. Benji rides without gloves. Every time I do that something bad happens, so I wear gloves.

I am a very keen cyclist (3 or 4 rides per week all year round) and my bike would cost around £800 to put together and it is my only bike. Of course it can be done, just that people are gullible, fall for marketing, unable to make their own decisions, peer pressure etc,. etc,.

I am a very keen cyclist (3 or 4 rides per week all year round) and my bike would cost around £800 to put together

Edit, don’t you ride a rigid, brakeless, fixie?

Of course it can be done, just that people are gullible, fall for marketing, unable to make their own decisions, peer pressure etc,. etc,.

It’s not as simple as that though really. I started on a relatively cheap bike and a £20 Halfords helmet.

But then you realise that actually, fiveten freeriders are much better than whatever crappy old trainers you might have. Some endura Humvees are better than some old shorts from Next. A waterproof, well-laid out hydration pack is better than that free rucksack that’s been lying around the house for 20 years. A Giro helmet fits better etc etc’.

Doesn’t mean everyone needs a 5 grand bike, but spending on a few sensible items makes the whole experience a bit more pleasurable.

we get so focussed on kit, not on the ride.

that’s the benefit of not reading the mag (or any MTB mag/news, which is funded by kit/bike manufacturer ads). Don’t know what’s out there, don’t need it, don’t miss it.

My first bike cost £300 and I didn’t have a helmet*
Rode Snowdon like that and didn’t die.
*Helmets just weren’t a thing back then and bikes were a curiosity on Snowdon.

Edit, don’t you ride a rigid, brakeless, fixie?

Nope, not since August 2021. The most recent MTB I had (2019) actually cost £400 used (was £1000 new) and it was great.

Doesn’t mean everyone needs a 5 grand bike, but spending on a few sensible items makes the whole experience a bit more pleasurable.

Yeah. It took me far too long to realise that the right clothing makes rides way more enjoyable. Compared to having XTR written on your rear derailleur, it’s miles better value!

Good article!

Even good clothing doesn’t have to break the bank tho

Places like freewheel often have great sales on clothing

Decathlon also offers some good stuff at decent prices

Totally agree and a great idea for a article. So much more ineteresting then here is the latest overpriced and over marketed object. I stopped reading bikepacking.com due to the hilarious and insane cost of everything they reviewed or discussed – it just felt obscene.

The bike I’ve done the most miles on over the last couple of years (thousands) is a second hand Arkose which cost me £800 (£400 for the bike and £400 on upgrades).

My road bike was an experiment in how much I could build up (new and secondhand) for a budget of £500. Ended up with a really nice ride weighing 8kg. Its only got Sora which is a pain tbh but thats genuinely the only downside.

My MTB is a secondhand Dialled Alpine from before Jesus was born – though to be fair I am replacing  that this year! (my 15 year old daughter has a better mtb than I do!)

I’m in the happy position of being able to spend on bikes but I generally choose not to and tbh its pretty easy these days to get a cheap good set up, easier than its ever been I reckon.

It may be a great bike but it’s a shame it comes from Halfords. They are “box shifters” who detract from businesses who are real specialists. They offer poor advice on bikes, car seats and car parts in my experience. While they will have good staff members, the company as a whole seems not to have invested in training or even care about offering good service.

I guess the obvious follow up article is to test the “used bikes are better value” mantra, i.e. Take that same £605 and throw it at used bikes/parts and see if a better bike can be obtained for the same or less spend, this is what lots of people do for their second or third MTB ond so on. Those noobs that get hooked are going to start thinking about their next bike eventually. If £600 gets you started, what do you do next? Could you do the same with half the amount of money? Is exponentially more and more spending inevitable or can you not get more ‘serious’ without flogging a kidney?

The obvious benchmark for value and function being the Voodoo you’ve just bought for this piece, and then the next inevitable question looms, would the money be better spent on upgrades?

But then you realise that actually, fiveten freeriders are much better than whatever crappy old trainers you might have. Some endura Humvees are better than some old shorts from Next. A waterproof, well-laid out hydration pack is better than that free rucksack that’s been lying around the house for 20 years. A Giro helmet fits better etc etc’.

Doesn’t mean everyone needs a 5 grand bike, but spending on a few sensible items makes the whole experience a bit more pleasurable.

That’s also probably an article waiting to be written, what kit/accessories genuinely makes a difference during ‘year one’ (maybe on into year two?) of a noobs MTB experience, what is the realistic cost, and what is a more worthwhile use of limited funds, what is a potentially frivolous waste?

You might as well set out to write a series of these now, based around the fictitious experiences of imagined noobs (both male and female)…

For those keen on more of this sort of thing:

We’ve already done ‘How to buy a second hand mountain bike’: https://singletrackworld.com/2021/10/how-to-buy-a-second-hand-mountain-bike/

And we did a ‘best upgrades’ a while back too: https://singletrackworld.com/2018/12/our-teams-top-5-upgrades-for-your-new-bike/

And it’s a sponsored piece, so all the products are from Freewheel, but the advice on the bits of kit to consider buying and why is still sound: https://singletrackworld.com/2020/11/kit-guide-for-new-riders-how-to-have-safer-happier-bike-rides/

It may be a great bike but it’s a shame it comes from Halfords. They are “box shifters” who detract from businesses who are real specialists.

Yep. Halfords are doing as much to kill the LBS as the internet.

Aren’t Halfords a local bike shop?

Halfords is one of our better local bike shops. There’s a motor factors that expanded into bikes and repairs a few years ago which is decent too, but after that you’ve got a traditional bike shop with opening times entirely at the whim of the owner, who’s standard response to even the most basic spares is, ‘I’ll get it from the wholesalers on Thursday’. Oh yes and there’s also…

Dave Hinde. 😱

The lads in Halfords are quite helpful and interested.

Yep – my local halfords guys are really nice and have helped me several times by lending me a tool or finding a small part for me.

by contrast my two nearest LBSs couldn’t give a toss unless you are after an eBike.

Aren’t Halfords a local bike shop?

+1

Brand snobbery (of the bike shop kind). When Tesco wanted to open a mini market next to the local coop half the town was up in arms as it was ‘Tesco’. Apparently Sainsbury, Londis, Coop are absolutely fine, but Tesco selling the exact same stuff in the exact same way, at near enough the same prices is killing the high street.

I’ve bought loads from our local Halford bike shop – excellent service.

Gloves. I know not everyone rides with them, but for any beginner they should surely at least be on the ‘other stuff’ list? Saving one’s palms from the inevitable early spills,

I’ve warn gloves ever since the local shop got a number of phonecalls asking if the paper boy (me) was okay.

I like to think it was the guardian readers and that all the telegraph/mail readers just filed it under a good honest days graft for a tenner a week

People that are new to biking (calling them Noobs isn’t very inclusive and inviting if they’re reading this and makes us seem a bit dickish) are probably better off buying a decent new budget bike that going second hand as there are lots of people selling truly trashed bikes for too much money.

It’s a complete minefield if you don’t know what you’re looking at (Once you end up replacing the trashed drivetrain, servicing the forks, changing the brake pads, maybe getting an LBS to service the whole thing for you as you don’t know much about the above) your £850 FB marketplace/eBay bargain is looking rather expensive.

If they buy something half decent like the Voodoo a or Calibre etc then they can try the sport out and upgrade or replace from there.

Like it or not Halfords, Decathalon and Go Outdoors are gateways into the sport and to think otherwise is just snobbery.

Aren’t Halfords a local bike shop?

Only if you equate Tesco or Sainsburys to your local corner shop.

I agree with the comments about the media telling you what you need to promote business.
Not sure why I need to make these additional purchases. Is this just marketing?
What is wrong with bib shorts. Why do I need to wear mountain bike shorts over the top?
Why are there no rear pockets on mountain bike tops? Is this just to make sure I buy a biking backpack?

Liner shorts

Nah!

Been mountain biking for 37 years I think and only ever owned one pair of liner shorts, which I used about 5 times

Horrid things.

PS, can I come up Helvelyn with you on the test? Sounds like fun if you can find me another Voodoo 🙂

It may be a great bike but it’s a shame it comes from Halfords. They are “box shifters” who detract from businesses who are real specialists. They offer poor advice on bikes, car seats and car parts in my experience. While they will have good staff members, the company as a whole seems not to have invested in training or even care about offering good service.

Just not true I’m afraid.

In the 2 years I worked for Halfords, I did a 1 day PDI course before which I wasn’t allowed to build bikes, a 2 day ebike repair course (never intended to be in depth, but just cover the basics) and a Technician course which was much better than either the Cytech 3 or Velotech Platinum Plus which I also have. Customer service was hammered in to us every day. We were told that we couldn’t compete with online retailers on price so we had to do it on service. Customer complaints were taken very seriously – visits from the area manager, making good with the customer, retraining etc.
Of the 5 of us who worked in the Bikehut, all were regular riders MTBers, Roadies, BMXers, Tourers. Halfords really tried to recruit enthusiastic cyclists to work in the Bikehut. The problems came when they didn’t have enough staff and someone from the Auto /leisure department had to cover.

Glad to see support for Halfords. I’ve never really used them until on holiday some cup and cone bearings loosened and I didn’t have the correct spanners.

Halfords sorted my out really cheaply and while I waited

They clearly are a shop and if they are nearby they are local

Everyone is free to use them or not. But they are far less of a distortion of the market than say Canyon or Planet X. Although hands up I own a canyon, although it was in lock down one and I was on course to test ride and buy a Trek before everything shut down

It’s fine to tell people to use their LBS. BUT… take a wander into your LBS tomorrow morning (you’d not have been able to go today as LBS are almost all shut at the times most working people are able to go and shop, such as after 5.30pm in the week or on Sundays) and see what bikes they have, and report back here with the price on their cheapest available bike in a size L (or 58 or 19″ as depends on their sizing descriptor) that could safely go up and down Helvellyn. Not medium (we’re not selling a noobie a bike that doesn’t actually fit are we ?) Not an extra small as the noobie in question isn’t a Diddy Man from Knotty Ash.

I just looked at the web site for 18 Bikes (local for me) and… well your noobie is certainly not getting anything in stock their for £605, even without the helmet).

I’m absolutely not a fan of Halfords, and do try to avoid as best I can.
But for a noobie, I see the appeal- you can go and poke around their Web site 1st to get a feel for £££, and are open on a Sunday to go shopping when not at work or collecting the kids from school and making their tea.
And many noobies are not I’d guess looking to drop a four figure sum on something they don’t know if they’ll like or not.

2nd hand if a noobie with no mtb knowledge is a complete minefield even with a STW guide ! How do you know it’s not twisted, has hidden / concealed crack, or nicked. (You’re a noobie remember- you’ve not got the experience of seeing 7 different mates Crackandfails broken at the bottom bracket yet). New, even Halfords new, gives a warranty and a half chance of being able to hold them to it.

All you folks banging on about using (or losing LBS): how many are riding British built bikes (made, not just badged up), or drive British built cars made with British made steel ? Not many I bet. So what’s different about the LBS to all the other local British industries that most have evidently not supported?

from before Jesus was born – though to be fair I am replacing that this year!

Read it here first. The Second Coming is due in 2022. Christ on a bike!!!

Of course it can be done, just that people are gullible, fall for marketing, unable to make their own decisions, peer pressure etc,. etc,.

Why does this need to be so judgmental? People like nice stuff.

What is wrong with bib shorts. Why do I need to wear mountain bike shorts over the top?
Why are there no rear pockets on mountain bike tops? Is this just to make sure I buy a biking backpack?

Nothing and you don’t. I have worn just lycra shorts for 30 years when cycling and many different types of bike.
MTB tops are loos and rear pockets would flap about all other the place if you put say a phone in them so as above I have also worn road type tops on many different types of bikes.

Why does this need to be so judgmental? People like nice stuff.

Not judgemental, just a comment on why many people may think you have to have the nice stuff before you can ride a bike. Of course people like nice stuff, this thread is about not needing nice stuff to start riding bikes.