Mountain bike for ~ £300

[kawakid]

Not cycled in 20 + years and I would like to know if it is for me.

I'd rather have a mountain bike as I live 40 seconds walk from some woods, where I regular see mountain bikers whilst walking my dog.

Where I live Halifax, is very very very hilly. Think of outside dry ski slopes and steep steep hills.

Anyway I thought I would like to try it.

I don't want to spend a lot and then find out it's not for me.

On an exercise thing, I am fairly active, walking at least 5 miles every day. And I probably do around 4 hours a week on an exercise bike. But I know the gradients will be a killer.

I don't want to do 2nd hand.

Looking at bikes, I would prefer disk brakes. But at this budget perhaps this is too much to ask for.

I've bought a Mongoose before from Evans for my son and was impressed with their service and value for money. So I am happy to buy from them again. I am also fairly handy with a spanner.

What can anyone recommend for my budget, please remember I just want to see if cycling is for me. I am not going to pump £800 in to something, that might just stay at the back of the garage for the next 2 decades.
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I've a twin and a 4.

[Copycat73]

buy a budget £80 or £150 for disk brakes item..from tesco , asda, halfords or somewhere the like ride it till it drops to bits after 2 or 3 years.. bin it then decide from there..
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Whatever I post I have no citation and no intention of providing one..
caveat emptor

[The Shaggy D.A.]

[arry]

If you're going to stick to new - you'll want to up your budget to a max £400 and then look for 2012 model bikes in clearance and search for GT Avalanche (2.0 or 1.0 - don't buy the 3.0), Specialised Hardrock, Kona Splice, or even a Fuji Nevada - should be able to get a 2.0 for that sort of money, and that's reasonably well equipped.

[flat spot]

For that sort of money defo go 2nd hand. £300 is peanuts for a mountain bike nowadays and you may as well be looking in argos for one.

[J4mes]

I bought an Ex-display Trek 4300 for £300ish a few years back. Very pleased with it, much lighter and more robust than the raleigh I had before it.

[haroman666]

Not cycled in 20 years...

Spend nothing on a bike. Just buy something that you can learn the ropes on, and then once you're confident you want to get a better bike, skip it and buy a new one. No use splashing out on a bike that you might not even enjoy riding.

If it's just for going for a quick ride round the woods then all you'll need is something hard-tail from Halfords. Or if you can find something within your budget from Evans then buy from there. Either way, unless you're planning to do serious cross-country or to do huge jumps, you don't need anything more than a budget hard-tail.
In fact you'd probably be fine with a tesco bike with some slighty more knobbly tyres on.
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The mistresses: 2000 Honda CBR600f, 2000 Honda VTR1000

[Omega]

I like my £200 Rock rider 5.2 from decathlon.

[Rigga]

There's someone on here selling a nearly new Trek for 350 absolute bargain was almost tempted myself but can't justify it. Think it was a 20 inch frame. Have a look in the classifieds section.

[Pigeon]

Want a £300 bike which shares many of its groupset with an £800 Specialized.
simples

[kawakid]

[G]

Do not touch Halfords Apollo brand.

Their Carrera and Boardman brands generally offer decent value for money.
In some cases they use frame designs from older models of big-name makes.
Often owned both and been happy with them.

Another one for 'go second hand'. If you're not sure if you'll like it; even more reason to, as a £300 second hand bike will still be worth £300 in a few months (probably more, I suspect the market this weekend is pretty low if your weather is like mine just up the road.)

If you'd had your £300 to spend at the end of 2012 season sales, you'd have had a chance of getting a decent spec bike for that - possibly at second hand price or below. But there's not many good offers on now.

It's over your budget and a '29er', but this seems a reasonable deal considering what else is out there:
https://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Models.aspx?ModelID=95400
29er means it's got a bit bigger wheels - this should mean it 'rolls' over obstacles a bit more easily.

Or this from Halfords:
https://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_810619_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

[The Tot]

If you can stretch another 60-70 quid, the Carrera Vulcan won some magazine tests, not sure if it was MBUK or something, but I was tempted to get that.

If you DID go 2nd hand, you'd be able to pick up some specialised hardrocks with discs for a pretty decent price of around £250-300. People who have them swear by them
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The Tot 2019 Z1000SX - 2007 R1
Never argue with autism

[400bandit]

I paid £180 for a second hand Voodoo Bantu, for the money I don't think you can do much better tbh!
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Current Bikes 650 Honda Bros, VTR1000 Firestorm // Past Bikes: Sachs Madass 50/110cc - Bandit 400 - FZR750
(+ a XS650 in lots of pieces in my garage and other places...)

[Pigeon]

[Mondeo Man]

I am forever amazed that ppl spend such ludicrous sums on bikes.

Atm, I am riding a Halcyon hybrid bike. Cost £150 quid. Absolute dream to ride. Light, swift, comfortable. What more do I actually need? Nothing.

It seems to be only over the last 5-10 yrs has the FAULTY notion of having to spend 400+ become 'common knowledge'.

It's utter rubbish.

True, the cheapest of the cheap should be avoided. I'm talking Toy's R Us full suspension mtb for 59.99. Might be good for 3-6 months, though, if that's what you're after.

But if you get something in the 90-150 figure that has the requirements you need ( do you really need a carbon frame? Answer: no) and you look after it, chances are it'll be perfectly adequate. Spend a little more 150-250 and you'll get a really decent bike.

Spend a bit more 250+ chances are you're just posing, getting bikes that are "in season" (as above) like some sort of queer fashionista.

[Drew]

[arry]

Your halcyon would last all of 2 minutes on a decent trail. Either from its own self destruction or from the fucked off rider getting off and kicking it to death in frustration.

[G]

[Mondeo Man]

You are a stupid head.

[SQL]

[Fnatic]

Bought a Carrera Vengeance from Halfords around this time last year having not ridden a push bike (not including spinning bikes) for about 5 years and completed the Trans Pennine Trail in 4 days on it. Can't recommend it highly enough. Gave me no problems over the 4 days. We must have had about 15 punctures in a group of 12, lots of other issues but I genuinely didn't stop once.

Smooth gears, lightweight, disc brakes, really wonderful bike. It was about £300 when I bought it so could probably picked up a used one for less now.

https://i.imgur.com/lRxlTmo.jpg