Advice on hardtail purchase (Felt Q920, Cube Ltd Pro, Giant Talon 0)

Waesfjord

with your help over past weeks, I now have whittled down what bike I'm about to purchase, so thanks all to that.

My gut feel is that Giant even discounted, is still now great compared to the Felt (heavier, poorer shocks, & brakes I think), however unsure on the Cube - is the extra ~€100 worst paying?

Any help woud be appreciated 0 specs called out belwo for easy reviewing :cool:

The first bike is 2009 model Felt Q920, priced at ~€880
http://www.evanscycles.com/products/felt/q920-2009-mountain-bike-ec017065

Shocks - Recon SL Solo Air with TurnKey lockout
Brakes - Avid Juicy 5's, 180/160
Weight - 12.5kg

Next up is the Cube Ltd Pro model for 2011, price €970.
Shocks - Manitou Minute LTD 100mm, Air Assist, Remote-Lockout
Brakes - Shimano BR-M4451 hydr. discbrake 180/160
Weight 12.4kg

Last up is the Giant Talon 0 2010 Model , €920
Shocks - RockShox TORA 302 Air 100mm Turnkey lockout
Brakes - Giant Root hydraulic discs160/160
Weight - 13.2 kg

From a shocks point of view, all air air shocks which is good, I think the Giant is worst. However don't know the Manitou Minute shox are any good at all or how they compare to Recons?

Again brakes wise, I have read that Juicy's can be quite hard to maintain, Shimano easy to maintain, Gient brakes are an unknown. Also Giant front brakes are smallest at 160mm.

The rest of the bike trim on all bikes seem decent, however I am no expect, but at least no entry level mech, so shoudl be robust enough.

I have no clue how to compare frames, or know when certain makes upgarded their frames types (every ~5years or so I'm told).


Cheers for reading this far

Lemag

I think that I'm about to pull the trigger on this

Lawdie

Brian, its time you made up your own mind. Stop looking for others approval. As I have previously stated go try them, buy the one that feels right for you.

Unless you are planning to heavily compete, ALL the bikes are pretty similar.

Also its poor etiquette to start an new thread based on your similar previous post.

Do it or get off the pot.

Lemag

Lawdie wrote: »

Also its poor etiquette to start an new thread based on your similar previous post.

True that. Another post in your previous thread should have done the trick. Regarding the comparing components - this is something you should be able to do yourself with a little help from google. Constantly asking people to do the comparisons for you smacks a bit of laziness.

As far as I can tell the Canyon which I've linked is better speced than all of the bikes on your short list. They're only available directly from the Canyon website however so you'd have to take a bit of a leap of faith regarding the suitability of the fit.

Pull the trigger man!! Do it!!

Waesfjord

sorry guys. fair enough, as I think I'm set on the Felt Q920, jsut waiting on paperwork from work

Reason for looking again is that my wife now looking at buying a bike, so had a look today (and she is similar enough sized) and looked at the two other bikes mentioned.

I'm stuck on a Raleigh to Work scheme so only (most) brisks and mortar shops in Ireland only allowed,.

She is not, just need to be an Irish company. She's looking at getting a Focus Black raider, not entirely convinced, hence the looking around.

Anyone know if Canyon website is Irish VAT registered (think not as seems a German company from website), maybe she could purchase off them if so.

Lemag

brian1976 wrote: »

Anyone know if Canyon website is Irish VAT registered (think not as seems a German company from website), maybe she could purchase off them if so.

I'm quite drunk so I might not explain this very well.. I'll take my time. I rang Canyon and a very pleasant lady informed me that if I could provide a company VAT number that they could zero the VAT in line with the BTW scheme. However, the btw scheme allows for one to receive a tax exemption on a bike costing up to €1000 after VAT(Irish VAT). German VAT is 17.5% whilst ROI VAT is 21%. So it 1000/1.21 = 826. This is the maximum amount that Canyon can charge your employer before Irish VAT. This is where is gets tricky. 826 x 1.175 = 971. This is essentially what they can take off the RRP of whatever your buying and charge to your employer (minus the 17.5%). Take this 971 from the full RRP of whatever you are looking to buy and this is what you will need to pay.

Make sense?