A friend of mine has seen the light and is going to buy a new full suspension bike, he has £1,200 to spend, he has seen the 2013 Camber for £1200 new but I think he can do better for his money.
Any helpful comments gratefully received

I had a camber as my first full sus i loved it at first but soon found the limits of the forks and got fed up of changing bushings 👿

The Anthem X’s at Pauls look pretty good.

The Giant Anthem X 29er 1 won trail bike of the year at WMB for what it’s worth.

If he’s over 6 foot, happy to buy 2nd hand and wants a do it all bike that’ll handle the uphills, downhills and everything in between, then he could do worse than look at my Turner Flux that I’m about to re-list for sale at below that price 😉

Otherwise it really depends on what he wants to do with it. In truth he’s not going to get much for that money, low spec etc. Best bet is to focus on getting a good frame/shock/fork combo and upgrading the rest as and when. The Giant Trance is possibly a good bet. Best of both world 27.5 wheels (Giant own-branded but believe thay are DT Swiss as with their road bikes), good frame for the money and more flexible in what it can handle.

If he’s interested in 2nd hand at all my full sus Cube AMS 100 is for sale (2012 model RRP £1500 coming up to a year old excellent condition, £900ono). Cracking XC bike and with the money left over could upgrade whatever on the bike.

If new, then again, I’d highly recommend Cubes! For the price they come with fantastic components and great build quality – might be able to find a 100mm – 130mm full sus for 1200ish.

boardman FS…

GF has the old (26″) version. more than enough bike if he is just starting out/getting serious and the spec is decent/GVFM. rides nicely. change the saddle, though.

This looks good value and any size available 🙂

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1867/a79912/ams-150-pro-grey-n-green.html

and the 130 looks good value here:

http://www.bike-discount.de/shop/k1866/a79054/cube-ams-130-race-black-anodized.html

Giant Trance always gets great reviews. Mine was £1k 3 years ago, newer models are slightly better spec’d. Can do way more than I expected for a 5″ travel bike 😀

Thanks for your replies, to answer a couple questions, he is 6ft and likes to ride singletrack and trails nothing alpine so 120 ish travel should do.

Thanks again really appreciated