Decathlon or Halfords

davegilly

Have a road bike and now looking to get a MTB for a bit of messing about with the kids in the forest and general cycling about town/on holidays. I've narrowed it down to the two options below - not looking to spend big money and was hoping to stay below the €450ish mark. Any recommendations which you think would be best? Or are they much of a muchness? Thanks for your help

Halfords - Carrera Vulcan - https://www.halfords.ie/bikes/mountain-bikes/carrera-vulcan-mens-mountain-bike-2020---blue---s%2C-m%2C-l%2C-xl-frames-347014.html

Decathlon - Rockrider 540 - https://www.decathlon.ie/ie_en/27-5-mountain-bike-st-540-blue-en-s301097.html#

russtini

Had a look ... the Carrera looks a little better component wise. Have you considered a second hand hardtail- in simple terms the weight of these bikes and the fork are the weaker points at this new price point and you can typically find a €800 priced new bike at this price point with a air fork and lighter frame. Best of luck though - new bikes are always good fun!!

maddness

To be honest at the price it’s not really a mountain bike you are buying so I’d imagine they are both as bad as each other.
I’m not trying to be rude for the sake of it but if you took either of those two bikes on trails they wouldn’t last long.
If you are limited to that budget I would definitely keep your eyes on Donedeal for a used bike.

beauf

davegilly wrote: »

....for a bit of messing about with the kids in the forest and general cycling about town/on holidays. ...

Why would either of those bikes not last doing the above?

maddness

beauf wrote: »

Why would either of those bikes not last doing the above?

Actually fair point, yes they probably would.

beauf

I've no experience of true MTB. We've a couple of non suspension MTB/hybrids. They are fine for everything up to light trails. I find you reach their limits as soon as the trail gets bumpy especially with roots and the speed increases.

I assume that if the op had any intention of hitting an actual mountain he'd need a different bike.

Tenzor07

davegilly wrote: »

Decathlon - Rockrider 540 - https://www.decathlon.ie/ie_en/27-5-mountain-bike-st-540-blue-en-s301097.html#

OP, I would say the above is the better bicycle, slightly better gears on it, though at the price range there's little difference between both.

The one above is fine for a family scoot around the local forest park and the occasional visit to a Coillte MTB trail..

Just make sure you keep all bolts tight and make sure you bring it back to get the gears tuned up every now and again...

Tenzor07

russtini wrote: »

Had a look ... the Carrera looks a little better component wise. Have you considered a second hand hardtail- in simple terms the weight of these bikes and the fork are the weaker points at this new price point and you can typically find a €800 priced new bike at this price point with a air fork and lighter frame. Best of luck though - new bikes are always good fun!!

I find that at the lower end of the used MTB sales you're buying well well used 10 year old bikes that were pretty good in their day.. You're also buying someone else's problems as usually the drivetrain is worn out and can be pricey enough to replace...and the suspension isn't usually well maintained and will need pricey servicing too..
....having said that a lot of people sell their Bike to work purchases with a good discount off the €800 selling price....
...at least with a shop purchase you have some sort of warranty cover.

davegilly

I went into Halfords today in Limerick just to have a look at the Carrera. They had about 10 bikes built and ready to be collected. Had a quick look and one if them had the saddle on crooked and another had the chain rubbing against the front derailleur. That's what turns me off Halfords and Decathlon is miles away.

davegilly

Tenzor07 wrote: »

The one above is fine for a family scoot around the local forest park and the occasional visit to a Coillte MTB trail..

This is exactly the plan, thanks for the input. The Decathlon bike is now out of stock so I think I'll forget about the Halfords and wait till its back in and just get it. Thanks all.

kirving

I would not buy a Carrera bike - given that they haven't fixed what I consider to be a serious design flaw years after a frame broke coming down a hill and locked my rear wheel.

The rear dropout IMO is hopelessly undersized and cannot cope with the torque generated by the disc brake.



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beauf

If every bike broke that easily every bike they ever sold would be returned and they would have stopped selling them years ago.

I could have been a one off or a bad batch.

2 Wheels Good

Bad timing with the lack of rentals but maybe look at getting an ex-rental off Ballyhoura or Ticknock, they'd usually be in around that pricerange and well looked after

kirving

It broke extremely easily, and IMO is a flawed design compared to every other bike I've made a point of comparing it to since.

What percentage failure rate do we need to see before classifying something as a bad design? Certainly not 100% as suggested.

boomdocker

Tenzor07 wrote: »

I find that at the lower end of the used MTB sales you're buying well well used 10 year old bikes that were pretty good in their day.. You're also buying someone else's problems as usually the drivetrain is worn out and can be pricey enough to replace...and the suspension isn't usually well maintained and will need pricey servicing too..
....having said that a lot of people sell their Bike to work purchases with a good discount off the €800 selling price....
...at least with a shop purchase you have some sort of warranty cover.

Good advice there - generally stay away from those older bikes - unless you know someone who knows what they are looking at that can examine for you

beauf

kirving wrote: »

It broke extremely easily, and IMO is a flawed design compared to every other bike I've made a point of comparing it to since.

What percentage failure rate do we need to see before classifying something as a bad design? Certainly not 100% as suggested.

It's unreasonable to write off an entire brand, with lots of different models and designs, that's sells over a million bikes a year, and in 2020 ..."...Halfords built 86,000 bikes in the week before Christmas alone.." based on your experience of one bike, or even one model.

That's all. Bike obviously failed. It would certainly make you lose confidence in the brand.

My personal opinion, and I know very little about bikes and even less about MTB but Carerra bikes are a solid but basic cheap bike. Fine for hacking around. When I was considering them I thought the Voodoo range had some useful upgrades, over the Carerra for basic MTB.

What about other brands like cube or giant, though I realise that would blow the budget entirely.