New sub £1000 hardtail reccomendations

[Ferral]

Morning everyone. I've a severly lapsed mtber, used to do a lot of xc and dirt jumping in my teens, gave up when I went to uni but am starting to hanker after it again - especially as I've moved closer to work so can cycle rather than get in the car. I'm going to do the cycle to work scheme so a £1000 bike will cost me £600 and come out of my salary before either the wife or I notice

Thing is, the choice is mindboggling! All these different sized wheels and forks have increased in travel significantly since the late 90's when i last paid any attention I'm not sure about 29inch wheels, I'm only 5'7 and 10.5stone so im not sure all that extra rotational weight will do me any favours :?:

What do I go for for a hardtail that will make the 6km (road) or 7km (offroad) commute fun and be good to ease me back into a bit of cycling. Becuase I used to have half decent bikes I want to get something that feels lively rather than spendin less money on a dead bike that turns me off biking again (one of the reasons i lost interest first time round was I bought a full sus but not having the squirt of a hardtail didnt do it for me).

I'm thinking about the saracen mantra elite 2014 or maybe a kona cindercone or GT zaskar (but i remeber hearing that GT's weren't GT like they used to be??). Any suggestions? Its flipping confusing!!!

 

[orangeone]

cannondale sl range is quite good I don't own one but a friend of mine has one and it rides very nice. you're best bet is to look online at reviews and make a short list and go from there

 

[wicket]

Pipedream do a steel hardtail with x7 I think.

 

[coomber]

New on one 650b look nice. Same as always though, Google local stores and test some. You will be able to find good or bad reviews of nearly any bike online.

 

[superstu]

Are you not restricted on the c2w scheme? May limit where you get it from. Loads of options for great bikes under £1k. GT not what they were though and kona have evolved from the race light 1990s which you may not like.

 

[xerxes]

Paul's Cycles is always worth a look: http://www.paulscycles.co.uk/m1b0s2p0/M ... Suspension

I bought my 2007 Giant from there in 2008 as a "last years model" with a £500 discount.

You can check out BikeRadar to make sure you don't buy a lemon: http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... mit=Search

 

[mattrixdesign2]

I picked up a Cube Ltd SL, Reba SL forks, Mostly XT (other than Cranks and STX Shifters), brand new for £750. I took a flyer on it, but found it great fun to ride and pretty mean when it comes to riding hills.

If you are willing to go for a 26inch wheels you may get a real bargain/high spec. Personally I think 29ers are just to big for me (5ft 9in), 650b would certainly make more sense.

If you are mixing road and off road then bigger wheels make more sense, but having 2 bikes (1 for road, 1 for off road) makes even more sense