Mountain Bikes under £300

[Alimo!]

Hi,
I assume this question has been asked 100's of times but any advice would be welcome.
We are going to buy or first mountain bikes for recreational, forest or canal route weekend rides.
Decathlon have their own range of bikes and Halfords have a range that is advertised as exclusive to them.
We are thinking of the Carrera Vulcan Disc Spec for both of us.

If I try to get too techy I'll quickly exhaust my knowledge but I am thinking about an aluminium frame, front suspension and disc breaks.

So a couple of questions:

Does anyone have this bike or know of a better alternative for under £300?
Is there a real difference between 21 or 24 gears? (Which one is easier to climb hills with?)
Levers or twisty hand grippy things for gear change?

Thanks

 

[fossyant]

Carrera are OK, but the mechanics are iffy. Decathlon good all round and you get a very good warranty.

21 / 24 gears just refers to the sprockets at the back 3 x 7 or 3 x 8. The more gears just means the 'jump' between sprockets is a bit less, but TBH, I doubt you'd notice much. All 'triple' chainset geared bikes (i.e. 3 rings at the front) will get you up the side of a wall.

 

[colinr]

Twisty grip gears are horrible. Levers much nicer.

Was going to suggest Specialized Hardrock at £300 but they've stuck an extra £40 on the basic model for 2011!

 

[RecordAceFromNew]

Fwiw, if I had to choose between the Carrera and the Decathlon Rockrider 5.3 based on specs alone I would choose the latter.

Firstly the Rockrider is nearly 2kgs lighter. 15kg is heavy for a hardtail, and betrays the Carrera's generally lower quality set up. The Carrera might have a higher "rrp", but imho that means nothing - I wonder who would ever buy one for £450.

Secondly the Rockrider is a 27 speed set up, so its rear hub has to be a modern standard configuration. I don't know what the Carrera is, for 21 speed (i.e. 7 at the back) it could be a 7 speed freehub or even a freewheel hub, either standard is essentially obsolete.

But the most important thing for the OP is to go try both, and see which one/size fit and feel best.

 

[ThePainInSpain]

Can only comment on the B'Twin Rockrider (Decathlon) because it's what I have. For €299 I think it's an excellent machine.

Mine has a 2 year warrenty, but so far after 6 months and 1500kms I've had no problems with it. Mine is used mainly off-road, so it gets some banging about.

 

[Zoiders]

If you check the full spec list there is nothing wrong with the Carrera and it has an 8 speed SRAM group set, hubs are standard freehubs that will take an upgrade to 9 speed in the future.

The frames on the Carreras are actualy perfectly good quality, quite frankly I think Decathlon are fibbing about the weight of the Rockrider, very few cheap bikes make it below the 30lb mark.

Get the Carrera and have no worries, or my choice would be to see if I can find the Subway disc which has the same SRAM 8 speed groupset with no suspension forks and get them to swap the tyres out to make the sale, it would be cheaper and the low end suntour sus forks are no loss.

 

[roirizla]

If you would consider 2nd hand & if I had more forum posts, I'll tempt you with my bike I'm putting up for sale soon

 

[Zoiders]

I do like Decathlon but I am not so convinced about the uniformity of the service, I think it varies just like it does with Halfords, they have a habit of employing bi-lingual staff which at my local decathlon meant the mechanic didn't speak English at all just French, thats doesn't make him a bad mechanic but language barriers can lead to mix ups, having said that it's preferable to the teenage chimps that are only capable of grunting that Halfords have been known to employ although some branches do have lads who good at what they do.

I would pick either bike depending on which you can get more cheaply, what the local service is like and also which of the two is easier to get to, Halfords being everywhere, Decathlon being only in few locations that can be a bit of a trek.

As MP said, going up a hundred to the Rockrider 4.0 you get a big leap in kit.

I would spend more on the 4.0, or spend less on the Subway, I like bikes to have the full spread of bits I want or be very simple and no fuss, component compromises tend to clash with each other.

 

[ThePainInSpain]

I do like Decathlon but I am not so convinced about the uniformity of the service, ............. they have a habit of employing bi-lingual staff which at my local decathlon meant the mechanic didn't speak English at all just French.

Why would they employ someone who only speaks French in an English store ? Or are you talking about a French store.

 

[Zoiders]

Why would they employ someone who only speaks French in an English store ? Or are you talking about a French store.

It was a few years back, Decathlon had a policy of recruting bilingual staff which tended to mean French students and the like.

 

[Oldlegs]

Have you had a look here?

http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/products.php?plid=m1b0s2p0&tbv=_Mountain_Bikes_Front_Suspension


There are a few 2010's within your price range.

 

[mcshroom]

Sheffield Decathlon has some French staff as well. Every time I've been to a Decathlon they seem to have known their stuff (English or French). Even the poor guy who I bought my Rockrider 5.1 from (before I knew anything about bikes needing setting up, I thought you just picked one off the shelf

) 10 minutes before closing. He sent me to put the ticket through the tills and had it ready for me on my return, even though the store was busy.

 

[Alimo!]

Thanks for the replies. Useful info, for instance, I never realised you could actually try the bikes before you buy, other than sit on one and pull the breaks!!
Seems the general consensus is both would be ok with maybe the Rock Rider 5.3 just shading it. Decathlon is just down la rue from us, so that would be easy to get to. I'll try both though (and then do what the missus tells me to do!)
Thanks to Oldlegs for the link. Deffo the place to go for the next upgrade.

Mo

 

[Brahan]

WOW this is great value. http://www.paulscycl...lid=m1b0s2p1938

Good link Oldelgs

EDIT: I know it's a bit more than £300

 

[Muddyfox]

Twisty grip gears are horrible. Levers much nicer.

You've obviously never used Sram xo

Simon