£300 mountain bikes
 

Have done loads of research, test rides etc. Want a £300 hardtail with disc brakes. Struggling to choose between:

Mongoose Tyax Elite which has hydraulic forks with lockout and
Specialized Hardrock Comp Disc.

Any helpful advice?

Steal one.... :D

Oh no.... that's not very helpful is it? :lol1:

Can't think that you will get much for that kind of money unless you buy second hand... that's what I would do.... (ebay)

Go for the Specialised but as Uncle says you wont get much for 300 quid....

Spesh. My girlfriend is looking at one of those and its not a bad bike for the money. Was looking at £300 budget myself til I found out work was doing a tax free scheme so Ive ordered a Rockhopper Disc thats £600 but under the scheme I will pay about £329 :)

Simon

I have had a claud butler stone river for a couple of years, mainly used for getting me to the gym and back which is ok for now but will it fall apart if I do much more than that?

Bought the gfriend one recently with discs a carrera from halfrauds

Dont really think its worth it unless seriuosly muddy **** is you gambit - it all adds weight surely and theres plenty stopping power in standard set-up

£300 is the budget. Serious mud is on the agenda. Birthday present for 14yo so 2nd hand not wanted.

Think we'll go Specialized. Thanks for the advice.

Doesnt have to be that much mud to benefit from disc brakes. Standard v's get clogged up so easy and wear down your rims. As soon as I went through a bit of mud in my old Carrera the brakes started making an awful sound.

So deffo go for discs IMHO.

Simon

I have an 07 hardrock and despite my best efforts to break it (Jumps, drops, and high speed crashes), its surviving well. Quite suprising really as im 15 stone and will try most downhill trail i can find.

Only thing i'd say is the derailers can be a pit pissy if they get much mud on them, but a splash from a water bottle usually cleans them out. The other thing is the cable brakes slacken off (due to cable stretch im guessing) fairly regularly so you just have to keep checking when doing maintenance.

The only problem ive had after a year the front fork has stiffened up a lot which im guessing is dirt in the oil, but can be sorted easily with a strip and clean oil.

Lockout is nice, but you can turn up the preload whilst cycling easily on the fork and get the same effect.

The mongoose didnt fell as robust when i had a go.