Help Choosing A Mountain Bike

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This may seem a little bit unconventional, but

Dealers are low on stock because of Covid and increased demand for bikes in general
Choice will be restricted as a result
Pre-Christmas demand will make the situation worse
January & February bike shops are usually the quietest months - a good time to buy
Buying a bike mail order is not recommended -
especially with a budget of £300 - not a lot for a decent bike (and why risk a cheap one?)
Befriend your local bike store; if it closes how well will Wiggle look after you?

As already mentioned - a mountain bike iisn't what your son-in-law needs - especially as he's a big bloke and wants to carry a small child on the back. He'll need a good strong set of wheels for that.

My suggestion - have your daughter go your local bike store and buy a gift voucher for £300 (or more if she prefers). At the same time buy £30 of bike bits (lights/bike clips - whatever gives the hint of what's to come in the new year). Wrap the bits exravagantly to add some fun to Chrismas day. Ask the bike store to let you know when a suitable bike comes into stock (a good quality used bike should fall within the £300 budget) and the pair of them can go and collect a perfectly set up appropriate bike that will actually get used, rather than a cheapo one that won't.

Chances are the bike won't be ridden much during the winter months anyway.

Bikes are like shoes. A good one will last years.

Good luck
 

My view with bikes is that's you're better off paying, say £500 on a better bike to start off with rather than going for an absolute entry-level £350 one. The latter will have a heavy frame, heavy and cheap components that will go out of adjustment/fail sooner and all-in-all will be less fun to ride and own.

IMHO the extra £150 to get into something like that Boardman would be money well spent and you tend to get it back later if and when you sell.

OR it just lasts you for many years. The current fleet of bikes here are 2, 5, 7 and 10 years old. All decent brands (Boardman, Trek, & Jamis), all in good nick.

At that price I'd also avoid front suspension. The cheap stuff is heavy and clunky. I think the suggestion of a hybrid is a good one. I replaced my hardtail Trek commuter with a Boardman and much prefer the latter.
 
This may seem a little bit unconventional, but

Dealers are low on stock because of Covid and increased demand for bikes in general
Choice will be restricted as a result
Pre-Christmas demand will make the situation worse
January & February bike shops are usually the quietest months - a good time to buy
Buying a bike mail order is not recommended -
especially with a budget of £300 - not a lot for a decent bike (and why risk a cheap one?)
Befriend your local bike store; if it closes how well will Wiggle look after you?

As already mentioned - a mountain bike iisn't what your son-in-law needs - especially as he's a big bloke and wants to carry a small child on the back. He'll need a good strong set of wheels for that.

My suggestion - have your daughter go your local bike store and buy a gift voucher for £300 (or more if she prefers). At the same time buy £30 of bike bits (lights/bike clips - whatever gives the hint of what's to come in the new year). Wrap the bits exravagantly to add some fun to Chrismas day. Ask the bike store to let you know when a suitable bike comes into stock (a good quality used bike should fall within the £300 budget) and the pair of them can go and collect a perfectly set up appropriate bike that will actually get used, rather than a cheapo one that won't.

Chances are the bike won't be ridden much during the winter months anyway.

Bikes are like shoes. A good one will last years.

Good luck

A mate of mine went through this process recently and got a decent used Trek hybrid for £300-ish. Looked like new.
 
Prices are all over the shop as other members have already said.

I built this Boardman hybrid in the summer, rode it once and flogged it for £700 Every part was used from eBay and the only new bits are the tyres and the gear levers.
FFD43006-8C70-4AB1-B0D8-F8BA823CE38B.jpeg
 
Purchase a higher spec used bike over a new cheap one.

My bike -


A used one for sale -

 
Purchase a higher spec used bike over a new cheap one.

My bike -


A used one for sale -

Totally opposite bike to what the OP enquired about.
 
Thanks everyone, in case my daughter can't access this thread I'm emailing a lot of the comments to her as there's a lot of good advice here.

Much appreciated!!
 
On a practical note.....

Gift wrapping a new bike to open on Christmas Day? Rather you than me.

A gift wrapped bike underneath the Christmas tree - it would need to be a bloody big tree and the shape of the package might just be a giveaway as to what's inside......hardly a surpise gift then?

Much easier to gift wrap (for example) a bike pump, a bike lock and a gift voucher - plus the added benefit of a second Christmas when your son-in-law gets to choose a bike that actually suits him in the new year.

Plus, better to have him choose the bike himself. If your daughter buys a bike that turns out to be a pup - he's not likely to thank her for it when it comes to riding it.

My friend & neighbour spent over £650 on a really good quality hybrid bike. After a couple of years of not riding it because of health reasons, he decided to sell it. Within the last 3 months, I helped him sell it through my local bike store who were desperate for stock. It had no more than 50 miles on it. The store sold an as new bike, fully checked over, on commission for £320. The new customer was delighted to grab such a bargain.

Like dogs, bikes are not just for Christmas.
 
This is probably the wrong frame size and is in Wales, but it's just over £400 for a barely used bike with some mudguards thrown in.

 
Frame size medium for up to 5ft10 tall - SIL is 6ft2"! Also collection only from too far away, so not an option - but is an indication of what you can pick up "second hand" if you know what you're about - which daughter and I are not!!
 
Frame size medium for up to 5ft10 tall - SIL is 6ft2"! Also collection only from too far away, so not an option - but is an indication of what you can pick up "second hand" if you know what you're about - which daughter and I are not!!

All the more reason to visit your local friendly, specialist bike store who will be able to give all the right advice, sell a bike that's fit for purpose and service it when needed. We're all being encouraged to shop local, aren't we?

It's much easier for those of us who've been riding (and servicing) our own bikes, but for the inexperienced cyclist, that's what bike shops are there for.
 
As a general point, there always used to be a huge number of virtually new bikes being offered on EBay as a result of the "Ride to Work" discount scheme. People bought bikes via a company scheme, at a significant discount, with repayments spread over 12 months. They then got them home and discovered that they weren't actually going to buy them.

But, like buying a three year old car at half price, it demands a bit of knowledge as to what you want. No sense in buying a three year old six seater Land Rover, if all you want is a thing to go to the shops with.
 
First response from daughter - "can't access the threads but the email's really useful, many thanks".
 
All the more reason to visit your local friendly, specialist bike store who will be able to give all the right advice, sell a bike that's fit for purpose and service it when needed. We're all being encouraged to shop local, aren't we?

It's much easier for those of us who've been riding (and servicing) our own bikes, but for the inexperienced cyclist, that's what bike shops are there for.
This is good advice if you can find a good, local shop with stock, and that can be a frustration/limitation! You'll pay close to full retail normally but as ss201 says that premium can be worth it for the support you can get. However not all bike shops are equal and personally i have found many are not that great (Condor i like). I had an expensive wheel repaired by two high end shops previously (Sigma and In-Gear) and both failed miserably despite having their own race teams - i kept breaking spokes, basically because they hadn't tensioned the wheel properly. In the end i bought a tensiometer and a key and learnt to true and tension a wheel myself and the wheel has been perfect since.

Personally I think for £300-400 or so buy something new and off the peg (an MTB is the most versatile) and online unless you can find a good shop with stock. Most websites have the size guides so you know what size you would need. All bikes at that price point are going to be much of a muchness, and if your SIL gets into it more there is always the option to get something better/more focussed further down the line, and at that point he'll know whether a mountainbike, hybrid, road bike, cyclocross bike, dutch bike, pub bike, fixie, something that will take panniers or whatever is what he really wants. If he doesn't take to it, it's not a huge outlay to worry about. Cyclists (myself included) i think often have a tendency to try to get the best of everything possible, but any bike is a good bike! And testament to that i rode the Etape due Tour once with a friend from my cycle club. This was Pau to Hautacam so included the Tourmalet. His bike was a 20 year old shopping bike complete with basket, with the original tyres that were visibly cracking. (He did this for a joke) It got through fine. I wouldn't recommend that but i think it goes to show it is possible to overthink things sometimes!
 
Big problem with buying second hand is that you can end up spending a lot replacing worn parts like brakes, crank etc etc
 
Having been cycling since about the age of 8 or 9 until around 19 when I lost interest basically as I didn't fancy cycling alone having been used to cycling with others albeit sometimes alone during that time, I used to be really into my bikes albeit had a limited budget. My preferred brand back then was Ridgeback...

Fast forward 13 years and I decided to get back into it again as I used to really enjoy it - especially the long treks I used to do with friends.

I went to a very good local cycle shop who were stacked to the ceiling with bikes.

I didn't want to spend much as I didn't know I'd stick at it for sure at that stage (I would have upgraded later on had I).

They recommended a Giant Hybrid as I was mostly going to ride on the road but I wanted something that could do a bit offroading is needs be.

It didn't have any bells or whistles (no suspension, no disc brakes etc.) but was a good solid quality bike for £300 (I paid extra for a soft gel saddle).

It wasn't the lightest bike but by no means was it heavy and suited me well (I'm 6'4" and 120kg of which 80kg is muscle according to the last scan at the gym I did and so I am bleedin' heavy).

I kept the cycling up for a good year but being much older second time around, I found it to be quite uncomfortable on wrists and my **** despite the upgraded saddle - even just cycling a few miles every other day of the week.

Maybe had I had suspension it would have been better, who knows but I don't think I enjoyed cycling second time around like I did first time.

So I called it a day but I got a lot of my money back selling it having spent nothing on it.
 
Having been cycling since about the age of 8 or 9 until around 19 when I lost interest basically as I didn't fancy cycling alone having been used to cycling with others albeit sometimes alone during that time, I used to be really into my bikes albeit had a limited budget. My preferred brand back then was Ridgeback...

Fast forward 13 years and I decided to get back into it again as I used to really enjoy it - especially the long treks I used to do with friends.

I went to a very good local cycle shop who were stacked to the ceiling with bikes.

I didn't want to spend much as I didn't know I'd stick at it for sure at that stage (I would have upgraded later on had I).

They recommended a Giant Hybrid as I was mostly going to ride on the road but I wanted something that could do a bit offroading is needs be.

It didn't have any bells or whistles (no suspension, no disc brakes etc.) but was a good solid quality bike for £300 (I paid extra for a soft gel saddle).

It wasn't the lightest bike but by no means was it heavy and suited me well (I'm 6'4" and 120kg of which 80kg is muscle according to the last scan at the gym I did and so I am bleedin' heavy).

I kept the cycling up for a good year but being much older second time around, I found it to be quite uncomfortable on wrists and my **** despite the upgraded saddle - even just cycling a few miles every other day of the week.

Maybe had I had suspension it would have been better, who knows but I don't think I enjoyed cycling second time around like I did first time.

So I called it a day but I got a lot of my money back selling it having spent nothing on it.
I advised a mate of mine against buying a mtb and to buy a Boardman Comp Hybrid and fit 32mm nobbly tyres for his infrequent muddy rides.
He did and he’s delighted.
 

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