€1000 (or as close as) Aggressive Hardtail

rizzodun

So, I'm lucky enough to have my bike to work available to me again, and looking for an Aggressive Hardtail for winter riding.

Something low and slack, head tube angle about the 65° range, 130mm/140mm travel.

I have an XC bike for long spins, but it needs some serious fixing up, and a full suss MTB, I'm looking for something I can trash in the winter and throw in the shed, without all the effort to clean shock/bearings/pivots after every mud packed ride!

Some that I've looked at so far are:

Nukeproof Scout 290 Sport €890 (All scouts are out of stock in Chain Reaction)
Vitus Sentier 29 VR €1070 (Out of stock in Chain Reaction)
NS Eccentric Chromo 29 €1470

My BTW works with any shop, can travel, so, what's out there? Or is anyone riding something they can recommend?

ec18

orbea loki?

emeraldmtb

Building one from the frame up myself. Went for the Eccentric Alu 29. May be a cheaper option in a full bike than the Chromo?
The geometry on the NS sold it for me, and the low price compared to all the steel options.
The other one on my list was the Commencal Meta AM HT, also available in steel or aluminium versions.

Beyond that, the UK seems to be full of small frame builders doing steel hardtails.

Stanton, Cotic, Dartmoor, ...

Lemming

Check out the Marin San Quentin; just got released a couple of months ago. Cheapest option is £650 (so roughly about €700-ish?), the other two models are about £1100 abd £1500 respectively. Orange also have a couple of hard-tails that hang around the £1100-1300 range.

Or as emeraldmtb has said, there's no shortage of small UK builders; also to add Bird (welsh brand) to that list, although not steel hardtails if I recall.

rizzodun

Good shout lads, I was actually looking at the Commencal Meta HT last night.

I think the BTW scheme we use covers online, but thinking that a brick and mortar shop will get it to me quicker, any dealers worth checking out for the ones you mentioned?

I had a massive wanting for a Dartmoor, and for sure building one up may be a netter option but with work and family I think one I can get out and ride (and upgrade later) will be my best option right now.

xxyyzz

Maybe have a look at the Whyte 905, it was mbr's aggressive hardtail of the year this year. Velo.ie sell them although I don't know if they are doing the btw scheme at the moment.

rizzodun

Leaning towards the Orbea Laufey, not quite as slack as I'd like but ticks all the boxes all the same, plus may be able to get it on finance and BTW, so can stump for the eagle drivetrain and Fox 34's!

The entry level is €1300 though, so in keeping with the thread title, it's worth considering if anyone else is thinking the same.

https://www.orbea.com/ie-en/bicycles/laufey-27--h10-19

CramCycle

xxyyzz wrote: »

Maybe have a look at the Whyte 905, it was mbr's aggressive hardtail of the year this year. Velo.ie sell them although I don't know if they are doing the btw scheme at the moment.

For the retailer it doesn't matter, a BTW customer is the same as a regular customer, the company just hand over the cash rather than the OP. To this end, no retailer (in regards the irish BTW) does the scheme, only employers provide the scheme but any shop can provide the bike if the employer allows it.

emeraldmtb

For reference, I only recently compiled a long list of brands with an aggressive hardtail (or more than one in some cases) in their lineup. I wouldn't claim this is a complete list but they're the ones I've found.

Kona Honzo
Cove Hummer
Diamond Back Sync'r
Production Privee Shan
Cotic BFE & SolarisMax
On One Dee Dar
Ragley
Genesis Tarn
Commencal Meta AM HT
NS Eccentric
Nukeproof Scout 290
Santa Cruz Chameleon
Dartmoor Primal & Hornet
Stanton Switchback & Slackline
Curtis AM9
Surley
Canfield Bros Nimble 9
Guerrilla Gravity Pedalhead
Vitus Sentier
DMR Trailstar
Dialled Bikes Alpine
Onza Jackpot & Payoff
Bird Zero AM
Orange Crush
Kingdom Vendetta (titanium)
Stiff Morf
Norco Fluid HT
Octane One Prone
Singular bikes
Voodoo
Sonder Transmitter
Lynskey (titanium frames)
Singlebe bikes
Pace Cycles
18 Bikes
Chromag (numerous bikes)
Pipedream Moxie
...

Airdrop

Biopace

I steer a Bird Zero AM, massive fun, tough as nails and not too weighty compared with some steel hardtails.

Lemming

emeraldmtb wrote: »

18 Bikes

Just posted a picture of their new steel frame all built up today. Looks really nice.

On note of Sheffield bike builders; heres another name for your list emerald; Airdrop.

MediaMan

CramCycle wrote: »

For the retailer it doesn't matter, a BTW customer is the same as a regular customer, the company just hand over the cash rather than the OP. To this end, no retailer (in regards the irish BTW) does the scheme, only employers provide the scheme but any shop can provide the bike if the employer allows it.

It's only the same for the retailer if the employer pays directly. Many employers use a voucher company, which will take a substantial cut, leaving the retailer with less than face value.

CramCycle

MediaMan wrote: »

It's only the same for the retailer if the employer pays directly. Many employers use a voucher company, which will take a substantial cut, leaving the retailer with less than face value.

It is still the same for the bike shop though, they have just agreed to take a 10% hit to facilitate more customers, it is still simply money in for product out. Voucher companies affect the employee only, as there is no longer room to negotiate what many in the past would have thought a reasonable discount if a regular customer.

I despise voucher companies by the way, they take a 10% cut for no real benefit as quite idiotically, most companies do either the same or more work than if they ran it themselves.

cjt156

emeraldmtb wrote: »

For reference, I only recently compiled a long list of brands with an aggressive hardtail (or more than one in some cases) in their lineup. I wouldn't claim this is a complete list but they're the ones I've found.

Kona Honzo
Cove Hummer
Diamond Back Sync'r
Production Privee Shan
Cotic BFE & SolarisMax
On One Dee Dar
Ragley
Genesis Tarn
Commencal Meta AM HT
NS Eccentric
Nukeproof Scout 290
Santa Cruz Chameleon
Dartmoor Primal & Hornet
Stanton Switchback & Slackline
Curtis AM9
Surley
Canfield Bros Nimble 9
Guerrilla Gravity Pedalhead
Vitus Sentier
DMR Trailstar
Dialled Bikes Alpine
Onza Jackpot & Payoff
Bird Zero AM
Orange Crush
Kingdom Vendetta (titanium)
Stiff Morf
Norco Fluid HT
Octane One Prone
Singular bikes
Voodoo
Sonder Transmitter
Lynskey (titanium frames)
Singlebe bikes
Pace Cycles
18 Bikes
Chromag (numerous bikes)
Pipedream Moxie
...

Airdrop

How many of these would be sub 1k price range? My teenage son is looking to upgrade for xmas. He wants full suss but anything with full suspension in that price range is shockingly heavy with poor components.

I'm on a 700 euro Canyon hardtail and trying to steer him to something similar. Looking for alternatives that wont break the bank.

Lemming

cjt156 wrote: »

How many of these would be sub 1k price range? My teenage son is looking to upgrade for xmas. He wants full suss but anything with full suspension in that price range is shockingly heavy with poor components.

I'm on a 700 euro Canyon hardtail and trying to steer him to something similar. Looking for alternatives that wont break the bank.

Without looking, a few of the above listed bikes would be sitting slightly north of £1000 (not sure about euro prices), such as the Nukeproof Scout, or Orange Crush depending on which model you opt for. The Vitus Sentier can be had for £999 last I saw on CRC although can't recall if that was a sale price or not. There's another bike not on that list which got released about two months ago and most definitely has a model below €1000, being the Marin San Quentin 3 which can be had for £650, so even adjusting for euro conversion shouldn't stretch above €1000

Another brand that aren't on that list come to think of it and have a variety of bikes - including a half-decent full susser called the Bossnut - for below £1000 are Calibre. Not sure of which models might come under the notion of 'aggressive' hardtail though, if any.

Obviously looking at the second hand market would see a lot of the above list of names cropping up.

Top Dog

Buddy got a Nukeproof Scout from CRC for less than 1k euro this year.

Hurrache

It's hard to find RRP euro prices for Nukeproof (possibly due to current stock all sold and awaiting the 2019 range), was that a clearance price for the Scout? The Sports Room in Wicklow Town and the Bike Rack near Cabinteely are dealers for Nukeproof down here, with the added bonus that if your company used biketowork.ie they're on that list.

Top Dog

Hurrache wrote: »

It's hard to find RRP euro prices for Nukeproof (possibly due to current stock all sold and awaiting the 2019 range), was that a clearance price for the Scout?

Nope. Think he got it in March.

rizzodun

So, picked up this yesterday from Bikeology in Naas. Top lads, all sorted over the phone and some final tweaks in the shop. Unfortunately yesterday was a complete wash out with the weather but got a decent run on it today, what a bike, hit everything I normally do on my enduro bike and it ate it up, forgot how much fun (and more violent) riding a hardtail was.

ford2600

https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bikes/clockwork-137-s/2018

1277 incl delivery and with end of season discount and BF discount. Cheap decent bike with BTW scheme


Not a Loki or probably not in the super aggressive bracket but it'll do me for what I'm at.


OP doubled the budget here and no one batted an eye lid... worse than the road crew!

rizzodun

ford2600 wrote: »

https://www.orangebikes.co.uk/bikes/clockwork-137-s/2018

1277 incl delivery and with end of season discount and BF discount. Cheap decent bike with BTW scheme


Not a Loki or probably not in the super aggressive bracket but it'll do me for what I'm at.


OP doubled the budget here and no one batted an eye lid... worse than the road crew!

Ahhh now!!!

I did double the budget, that’s true, I also pointed out the entry level Laufey is €1300.
So, while I blew the budget, it still falls into the (€1000 or as close as) category!
I ought to report the post for alluding to me acting like a roadie! :pac: