I feel you have missed the irony in my reply. I was attempting to ridicule the "500 should be minimum spent on a mtb to last and enjoy riding" comment.

Could probably get a Voodoo Bizango for a hundred quid more, someone has posted something up on here in the last week or so.

Its been voted hardtail of the year and is a much better option than this.

Forget full suss unless your looking at spending a grand.

I too will add that a full sus at this price point will be a bit of a missed opportunity. Full sus is designed for some fairly heavy use over rough terrain going downhill.

If you were into that sort of thing, then you would undoubtedly be looking to pay more to get a bike that would give you the performance and reliability you'd need hurtling down a hillside. That bike would still be heavy; Full Sus bikes aren't that concerned with weight (cos it's all down obvs).

On the other hand, if you were buying this for light trails or just rolling around as a leisure bike, you would be far better served by a hardtail which will give you ample damping through a front fork alone and will be far lighter. This means going up as well as down will be a)actually doable without giving yourself a hernia and b)fun!

Another point to note - suspension = lost energy. So, full sus will suck up more of your efforts than a hard tail, and a hard tail will suck up more of your energy than a fully rigid bike. Some suspension is lockable to negate this somewhat when rolling along or going up. Bear this in mind when thinking what you might use the bike for.

In summary, you can get some excellent value hardtail mountain bikes or hybrid bike at this price point, but, a full-suspension machine is a very technical and specific tool designed for doing one thing only - down hill fast! An entry level machine is going to be sitting a few more hundreds above this (ironically perhaps, the Decathlon full-sus bikes do get listed as best entry level by some sites, just at around the £6-700 mark)

I would worry that someone interested in getting into bikes or mountain biking would be put off from the sport if they were to get this.

Hope this helps.

Got mine (Vengeance) early today for my 10yr old daughter - nice to have 14" frame with this spec. She won't have a clue about no lockout of naff fork - superb for her to use on canal and many forest paths in Scotland.

Accidentally voted cold. Sorry.

Stroke, pin to pin then a bush. Happy Days!

Will it be the right size though? Should still save the cash for a hard tail.

So what is in your cycling 'criteria' then? Does this include anyone that buys a £500 + bike that has been reduced to £3-400 because it is on offer or last years model, or anyone that buys a second hand one. :smirk:

For anyone wanting an introduction to mountain biking the Rockrider 520 on their website for this price that is front suspension only would be a far more sensible choice.

BB7's are worlds apart from the BB5's...the fact that you can very easily adjust on a trail, takes seconds, no messing around with bleed kits and hoses make them more liveable than cheap hydraulics in my opinion. More expensive hydraulics would provide better modulation and be lighter admittedly, but BB7's do not compare with BB5's and are recommended on many a biking forum for those that do not want faffing.

Cheap nasty built bike with cheap brakes and cheaper gears - all which will start causing problems after light usage. Save your money. You just won't buy a bike at this price built to last (not new anyway)

I bet the majority of hot votes are by people clueless to mountain biking.

This is not a good MTB, avoid.

Your right. But, it does screw tight. KInd of locks out and does not bounce around. For around £40 you can get a Rock Shox Air on Ebay. Plan in a few months

Missing something, halfords vengeance went hot (my vote) because it was £156 which is much cheaper than this. 10% code, 10% British cycling, 10%ish gift vouchers and 3% poss quidco.

Admittedly haven't got experience of the BB7s, but I was so relieved to get rid of the BB5s that came on my Hardrock. Went to some cheapy Shimano hydraulics from CRC and the difference is night and day.

My most recent purchase was a Pinnacle Arkose 2 gravel bike/cross bike which comes with Tektro Hylex and the stopping power on those is phenomenal.

Couldn't go back to cable discs and constant tinkering. I know the BB7 has double sided pad adjustment so that might make it more liveable than the BB5s.

Heat added for a 26" bike, there's not much love left for them online :smiley:

They can't bear the shame of being seen on a sub £500 bike, so simply don't take them out.

Cold ❄ Full suss for under 250! Get s similar priced hardtaill from chainreaction cycles on offer. You will notice the difference in ride quality. Wouldn't touch this for free. 500 should be minimum spent on a mtb to last and enjoy riding.

i used to like to ride straight over potholes with dual suspension bike - so no dangerous swerving in traffic

so it protects your wheel from knocks and your bum from bump

My mountain bike has cable brakes... and not even cable disc brakes! Cost like £800 back in then. Still does a reasonble job though and sure helps keep the weight down.

Kosher deal, heat from me

Does the rear shock have lock out?

Hands down prefer a decent set of Avid BB7 cable disc brakes than any el cheapo tektro hydraulics any day of the week.

I bought the carrera a few days ago and they say it weighs around 13kg . I took it out for its first spin nothing to mad. after 7 miles I thought it was good bike . the down side is no lock shocks but to be fair it didn't bother me. the thing that did was weight... I am a occasional MTB rider but i ride a road bike more and the one thing I noticed about the carrera was its weight . it is around the a average I have been told . the btwin looks like of weighs more with 26" wheels . just for the weight I would go for the carrera

COLD . No rock shox

What's better this or the carrera vengeance

​I can say flat out the wheels stop without lock up. Hydraulic will sharpen it but pure stopping will be negligible.

Oh and the weight. Light bike. Less effort. Like being on a weights bench using the lightest weights. :wink: all relative.

only real concern I would have for this is weight, but to get a good full sus your looking at a grand, and most of that is just for the name.

cable brakes don't concern me at all, I've seen lots of badly setup hydraulic brakes that would struggle to stop a kiddy bike. look to upgrade pad compound before anything else

heat added, but I will say that most peoples needs off-road will be fulfilled by a hardtail.

Btwin from Decathlon are great bikes at bargain prices... Mines still going great after 4 years of riding...Hot from me!

Edinburgh have a large in stock the website has XL which is good for 6ft1 up. 5ft10 ish for the large.