Recommend a full suss MB for under £1k?

Work has finally ok'd the bike to work deal so I'm really tempted to blow the limit of £1k on a mountain bike. Having only ridden on roads I don't have much of an idea on this kind of thing but those I've spoken to say you need to spend at least a grand for something decent. Any reccommendations anyone?

What type of riding?

you don't need to at least spend a grand to get a decent MTB, even £300 get you a decent MTB (front suspension only) nowadays, however avoid full suspension one for the same price, you'd need to spend a bit more to get a decent full sus one.

Personally I wouldn't spend less than £500 on a hardtail and 1K on a full suss.

If you can afford to add anther £200 the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Comp 2008 is a goodun

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/specialized/stumpjumper-fsr-comp-2008-mountain-bike-ec001438

Personally I wouldn't spend less than £500 on a hardtail and 1K on a full suss.

£300 isn't bad if it those known brand, like Kona, Specialized, etc.

I got a Kona Hahanna still going strong after 10 years.

I remember Cannondale were the shit back in the 90's, especially with their neat fork, are they still good nowadays or?

http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/productDetails.asp?productID=17874&categoryID=853
Meant to be very good.

crack and fail = cannondale

i think 300 is way too little to spend my friend just bought an Orange P7 with Rockshox Rebas and Hope hydraulic disks for 600 secondhand. beautiful bike, absolute bargain. i still think specialized put out great OTP mountain bikes.

Personally I wouldn't spend less than £500 on a hardtail and 1K on a full suss.

£300 isn't bad if it those known brand, like Kona, Specialized, etc. I got a Kona Hahanna still going strong after 10 years.

Thought full suspension would be £700+ for a decent one (after all, the big brand full sus bike tend to start at £700 like Kona).

actually this look good, £500 off it's RRP price, putting it down to exactly £1,000

http://www.evanscycles.com/products/kona/queen-kikapu-2007-mountain-bike-ec014357

man I feel like going off road now.

Yea the Kona Hahanna is good for he money

Defo spend more than 700 on a full suss. You will notice the difference!

This has been on offer on Wiggle.co.uk for a while (was tempted myself a while back). Good component mix for the money, and plenty of travel. No idea how it rides though. Rockshox Pike 409 fork and Fox float air rear.

Get something with a good fork and rear sus. These things are very expensive to upgrade later.

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Not sure about the felt........had a few of those back on warranty.

Talk to gabes, he goes downhilling regularly (doesn't use any suss).

No suspension FTW.

Hardtail maybe.

No full sus unless you plan on heading to the Alps regularly.

Not sure about the felt........had a few of those back on warranty.

Disclaimer for previous recommendation:
I was looking at it, purely based on the spec sheet, and thought Felt had a decent rep in the MTN bike world.

you don't need to at least spend a grand to get a decent MTB, even £300 get you a decent MTB (front suspension only) nowadays, however avoid full suspension one for the same price, you'd need to spend a bit more to get a decent full sus one.

Complete load of bollocks, would you spend £300 on a road bike? No, then why would you spend so little on a MTB.

Spend the whole grand and then look to upgrade the wheels and possibly the brakes and front forks.

depending on style of riding you want to do,ie xc(cross country,freeride or downhill)determines which style of bike,personally speaking you need to spend this sort of money for a decent machine,but everything is relative to its use,a bike for £300 is fine for occassional light off road is fine,but it will be haevy and have cheap components,spending your limit will get you a bike which will be more cost effective in the long run.

Complete load of bollocks, would you spend £300 on a road bike? No, then why would you spend so little on a MTB.

because sometime it's usually enough, that used to be the case when bike company still make rigid MTB in the past, thought nowadays even the cheapest bike got a front suspension fork annoyingly enough.

Having said that, £350-400 is enough for a decent MTB, not £300, reality fail on my part for not being up to date.

400 is enough for a basic entry-level MTB only, but you won't get much. it's definitely worth spending more. personally, if i was to get back into mountain biking (which will happen one day hopefully), i wouldn't consider anything less than the kind of thing you can get for around 800+

unlike the world of diminishing returns that is road racing, with mountain bikes you really get a lot more if you spend more (to a point, obviously). I also wouldn't rule out full suss either, they can be great fun. I really don't see the advantage of downhilling rigid other than purism.

When i was about 14 I wanted the Cannondale Super V 4000. It was fucking orgasmic. dirt magazine tested it at my local trails.

Complete load of bollocks, would you spend £300 on a road bike? No, then why would you spend so little on a MTB.

Spend the whole grand and then look to upgrade the wheels and possibly the brakes and front forks.

+1
cheap forks have rudimentary damping that are no better than a pogo stick, decent forks are £250+
wouldn't consider a hardtail under 750 and a bouncer at just over a grand (there are some discounted 08 bikes at this price worth looking at)

I'm sure you might pick an old raleigh activator 2 in a charity shop somewhere?

tasty specialized £978 -

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f_ProductID=8956&f_SupersetQRY=C106&f_SortOrderID=1&f_bct=c003155c002909

if they are good enough for the athertons £1100 -

http://www.edinburghbicycle.com/ebwPNLqrymode.a4p?f_ProductID=10189&f_SupersetQRY=C106&f_SortOrderID=1&f_bct=c003155c002909

tough to split the two.