What bike for £600 - gotta be from hellfrauds tho!

[dave_s13]

I work for the NHS who are letting us have a push iron through the cutcle 2 work scheme thing that Halfords run.

This means I can get a £600 bike and only pay £430 for it spread over 3 years....which aint bad really.....is it?

Anyway as far as I'm aware Halfords own carrera range are supposed to be pretty decent but they "only" seem to go up to £449 for a hardail MTB.

It will be used for light off road stuff and the odd commute to work (10miles each way on road only) but only once a week though, due to access to showers.

Ideally I want something I can pop the wheels off and put some road tyres on fairly easily.

I don't have time to do the research on this one so can you lot make the decision for me please ta.

[pdV6]

GT Aggressor?

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/...CarSelectorGroupId__varientcategoryId_82394_crumb_33980-33957_parentcategoryrn_82394

[MTY4000]

My firm used Halfords last year for the scheme.

As I recal as part of the scheme they offer, Halfords can source most bikes in on request. So if your scheme is the same you may not be limited to their standard lines, e.g. Specialized, Giant etc may also be options.

Edited by MTY4000 on Monday 23 July 12:43

[snotrag]

Odd... Cycle 2 Work scheme is nothing to do with Halford, any bike shop should honour it. I've sold bikes on this scheme in 3 shops...

You sure your right about that? Not just your HR/boss trying to fob you off?

[dave_s13]

snotrag said:

Odd... Cycle 2 Work scheme is nothing to do with Halford, any bike shop should honour it. I've sold bikes on this scheme in 3 shops...

You sure your right about that? Not just your HR/boss trying to fob you off?

We've been issued a url (www.halfordsc2w.co.uk), user name and password that takes you to a Halfords website where you can apply for a letter of collection to X value.

That's the only info we've been given???

How would I go about doing it through another supplier?

[Rico]

snotrag said:

Odd... Cycle 2 Work scheme is nothing to do with Halford, any bike shop should honour it. I've sold bikes on this scheme in 3 shops...

You sure your right about that? Not just your HR/boss trying to fob you off?

IIRC there are quite a few schemes, each with different terms and conditions.

[pdV6]

Rico said:

snotrag said:

Odd... Cycle 2 Work scheme is nothing to do with Halford, any bike shop should honour it. I've sold bikes on this scheme in 3 shops...

You sure your right about that? Not just your HR/boss trying to fob you off?

IIRC there are quite a few schemes, each with different terms and conditions.

I imagine the company in question just wants to keep a lid on overheads by dictating a single supplier. Makes life easier for them I imagine.

[snotrag]

Ok, fair do's then. As said, look at what halfords can get on special order - I'd imagine (hope!) they have acccounts with all the major importers (madison, fishers etc) so should be able to put in a special order for anything on there books, which should cover most of the bigger bike manufacturers.

Speak to someone in your local store, should be able to help.

[Roman]

I was in Halfords at the weekend and I have to say that that £450 Carrera Fury has quite a similar spec to the GT at £550 or the £600 Chris Boardman MTB. It gets some very good reviews too...

[dave_s13]

Looks like Halfords can source most models.

So what's the concensus??

£5-700

Light off road use, nothing too hardcore but I'm not exactly gentle
Commute once a week
To suit a big lad (6'4" - 15 stone)

I know the best thing is to go to somewhere like evans (there's one near me) and have a go on a few but any suggestions welcomed.

Thanks.

[DanH]

They can get bikes from anywhere and if you cause enough trouble also get you bikes over the value of the voucher. Given your budget I suspect one of their bikes may be the best value if you can find a store that can assemble it properly...

For what its worth, the halfords scheme is improperly run. They try to claim you can't top up, yet they refuse to refund the difference if you buy a cheaper bike. This is to make things simpler for themselves but frankly its theft if you don't buy a bike of exactly the voucher value.

p.s. if you want a bike they can't supply they go via leisure lakes which isn't great if they have no stores locally.

[Jimnic007]

I bought a Saracen Zen last year under this scheme from Halfords. Not a big Saracen fan but it was heavily reduced and therefore had some good components on it for the money (about £450).
Not sure if they still do this model.
You could also put some money towards it and get a nice Kona from Halfords?
Cheers,
J

[snotrag]

dave_s13 said:

Looks like Halfords can source most models.

So what's the concensus??

£5-700

Light off road use, nothing too hardcore but I'm not exactly gentle
Commute once a week
To suit a big lad (6'4" - 15 stone)

I know the best thing is to go to somewhere like evans (there's one near me) and have a go on a few but any suggestions welcomed.

Thanks.

Halfords he Kona - who make the 'Hoss' range, which is specifically desinged for 'clydesdales' (their words) aka larger fellas. Good bikes, very tough.

Edited by snotrag on Monday 23 July 21:02

[W00DY]

Get a box of frosties for another 10% off bikes and accessories and with 50% off accessories when you buy a bike you can get a great deal. My dad just bought an 07 carrera subway 2 plus £90 in accessories for £250 which is £20 less than the advertised price (no scheme or anything),

Woody

[CooperS]

snotrag said:

dave_s13 said:

Looks like Halfords can source most models.

So what's the concensus??

£5-700

Light off road use, nothing too hardcore but I'm not exactly gentle
Commute once a week
To suit a big lad (6'4" - 15 stone)

I know the best thing is to go to somewhere like evans (there's one near me) and have a go on a few but any suggestions welcomed.

Thanks.

Halfords he Kona - who make the 'Hoss' range, which is specifically desinged for 'clydesdales' (their words) aka larger fellas. Good bikes, very tough.

Edited by snotrag on Monday 23 July 21:02

Are you doing this scheme from somewhere like the MOD, i know when i looked into it, it was halfords only from them.

Anyway i would get a kona or a nicely spec'd carerra, go in ask to look at their 07 - 08 range and see what hard tails they can get in for the price? i know they can get anything in from kona if there bothered enough so dont take any rubbish off them.

[dave_s13]

NHS m8.

I think I'll head down this week for a look at a Kona.....The Hoss Dee lux looks like a nice bit of kit

Cheers fellas.

[MTY4000]

I'm 15 stone too (I do circuit training as well as biking) and 6' 3 and have been taking relatively light cross country bikes up and down mountains since the early 90s with absolute confidence in the durability of the bikes. I think the Hoss may be a bit overbuilt (unneccesarily heavy) for your planned use - IMHO (although it does look good!).

Couple of tips:

I'd look for a "cross country" bike and a front suspension fork with lockout + get some tyres suited to your planned use. If the off road is canal paths / parks you probably don't need a suspension fork at all, but likely as not you will get the bug and start to do some more adventurous stuff.

Depending on the fork you get on the bike, ask them to set it up for your weight (it will probably be set up for someone lighter out of the box) I think this may include correctly weighted oil for coil sprung forks (someone may need to confirm this though?).

Make sure they size you up correctly too, and don't just hand you the biggest size they have. For reference I ride a 19" hardtail (Specialized), or a "L" full suspension bike - it will vary by brand though - these are not the largest sizes in the range.

[dave_s13]

Now this looks rather trick

http://www.evanscycles.com/product.jsp?style=60941

Claud Butler CapeWrath Carbon 2006 - £699



Now I don't know if Halfords could source one of these but you never know. I'm thinking the lightness would be ideal for the commute to work.

Are carbon frames a good idea? How resilient are they compared to ally or steel??

Edited by dave_s13 on Tuesday 24th July 22:33

[snotrag]

At that money - don't go carbon. Light, yes. But resilient, no - they are much more susceptible to crash damage.

I used to sell the Giant XTC carbon. It was £999. Bear in mind, the frame costs £750 on its own - how good do you think the components were? Truth was, if you spent your £999 on the Alu XTC you got a much better bike.

That Claude Butler, I'm guessing, would suffer the same. And at that price, I don't think it will be a particularly high quality frame.

That, and the Giant, existed because some people just had carbon fibre induced blindness.

(That is why both of these frames are 'carbon coloured', to show off. Higher end carbon frames are likely to be painted, as the purpose of the material is not asthetic.)

Edited by snotrag on Wednesday 25th July 09:38

[dave_s13]

Cheers. I kinda thought that.