New or second hand mountain bike(hardtail)?? Advice please

themoney

I am just getting into mountain biking. I have been up in to Slade Valley a few times on a borrowed bike and it time to invest in a bike but I can't decide if it's better to buy a brand new Felt Q220 2010 Model in store or to buy a secondhand Trek 6000 via the web both come in around €400 which is the max I have to spend.

What do people think

Here is a link to the Felt http://www.wheelworxbikes.com/product_info.php?cPath=1_4&products_id=2050

The Trek I am looking at has only been cycled in the city and has never seen a trail according to the sellers.

Cheers

Morgan

Link to the Trek?

Bluefoam

At that price range I'd look at secondhand, bigger bang for your buck.

A decent fork and hydraulic discs would be on my wishlist. Maybe the Suntour forks have improved recently, but I'd be inclined to look for marzocchi, rockshox, manitou air forks as opposed to sprung.

Buying a cheap bike is a false ecomomy as you will tend to upgrade the parts.

themoney

Here are some details on the Trek

Trek 6 series mountain bike
-Never off road
-size 21, deep section aluminium octagonal section frame
-fully Shimano XT Deore equipped,
-24 gears, rapid Fire shifters
-disc brakes, rapid fire levers
-DART ROCKSHOX front fork,
-Shimano SPD pedals
-bottle cages

Cheers for the quick reply

Morgan

That's a very large frame on the Trek - how tall are you? Drop into a shop in tow n to try one for size if that's what you go for. Is there a picture of it?

Bluefoam

themoney wrote: »

-fully Shimano XT Deore equipped,
-DART ROCKSHOX front fork,

It would be unusual to find a bike with full XT Deore groupset (and brakes I presume) with a Dart fork.

The dart is a basic entry level fork (barely suitable for offroad IMO) & XT are a high end groupset.

themoney

No good quality pictures
I am 6"2
I am going to head over to a shop now to check the size

The spec on the Felt is good from what I can see but what do you guys think

Morgan

Bluefoam wrote: »

It would be unusual to find a bike with full XT Deore groupset (and brakes I presume) with a Dart fork.

The dart is a basic entry level fork (barely suitable for offroad IMO) & XT are a high end groupset.

Probably a Deore groupset.

themoney

I just called into wheelworx to tried a Trek 6000 and the guy their said 19" is the correct size for me in relation to off roading. Guess I must be closer to 6"1 that 6"2.

I won't be buying this 21" Trek but my question still stands

New low-end bike or good level secondhand bike

Morgan

Good secondhand, if it's in good nick.