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@whatfriends
bloody hell marc, he's got no off road experience and you try to hand him a nicolai... thats like giving a new driver a super car. nice bikes hey are though.
sparky, think about your budget first, and then go look at the trails and see what they are like.
its pretty obvious but the more fancy stuff you get for your budget, the lower the overall quality of everything will be. do you need gears or will singlespeed do? do you need suspension forks or will rigid be fine? look for disc brakes cos the are better, cable ones work well enough but dont feel as nice as hydraulics, though they are much easier to work on if your knowledge or tools (i.e. on the trails) are limited. rigid bike are amazing first bikes, they can teach you so much finesse and make you a better and quicker rider based on skill alone, so if you ever upgrade you'll take that extra learned ability with you right away. my local store has started selling the charge singlespeed off road bikes and they look quite impressive (except the huuuge wide bars). do you wanna jump and throw it around or do you wanna sit down and pedal for hours at a time?
never an easy question to answer, but it might also help you if if you popped to a few bike shops and spoke to the staff there. at the very worst, you'll know what you dont want to buy.. good luck.