A friend is looking at buying a bike,mainly to banish the spare tyre but with a view to pootling off road (as opposed to getting serious). He's got upto £350 to spend. I was thinking along the lines of Marin/Trek/Specialized/GT mainly as they all do a broad range of bikes but I haven't got much idea/experience of what's around. Any ideas or recommendations welcome!

start by using the search box on the forums select page and putting in "bike", "cheap", "budget", "rigid".
play around with combinations

I'd go no suspension and look for an old model which will get more of a bargain. Concetrating on getting a gr8 frame rather than the components. Marin's are usually good for this as their frames tend to be identical through a range ( for the same material/shape - sus, hard tail etc. ). So as finances allow upgrades are good.

For example the Bobcat Trail (£350ish) I believe uses the same frame as the Rocky Ridge (£900)( and the Pallisades which I ride ). A frame I can vouch for being strong as an ox and very upgradable.

Dom.

try looking at a thread currently on page 4 called 'choosing a bike - help' by Simon Gibbard. We managed to talk him into spending £380 on a GT Karakoram from Paul's Cycles. A good bike reduced from £700 as it is a Y2K model.

Generally agree with Dom's advice, but there are fewer and fewer rigid bikes available now, so it's harder to pick up a really good frame and upgrade later. But totally agree that a cheap bike with a cheap suspension fork is really a waste of money.

The Karakoram is a butted steel frame, with a decent Judy XC fork, sound Deore mechanicals and some top Syncros parts (cos GT owned Syncros). If they've still got any left this is the best deal I've seen in this price range.

"Generally agree with Dom's advice, but there are fewer and fewer rigid bikes available now"
Yeah, noticed that when looking at the Marins, the bobcat actually isn't rigid ( have to go hybrid for that ) however I can vouch for the frame and the forks should last a while and generally easy to maintain to keep going because of their elastormers (sp). Plus they are fine for light trail work. Mine are better now than ever although the seals and such like are going and a wobble is starting to set in so need replacing..... Time for some Z4's :).

Dom.

try to talk the shop into swapping the sus forks for some cheapy rigids (try to get it for the same price or less) then the bike will be lighter as budget sus forks weigh a ton and don't really do the job, and he'll get more skill for if/when he starts to ride harder off road stuff.

Carrera Subway's are good urban rigid mountain bikes at Halfords. Yes I know its Halfords but the bikes are superb value. Currently all Carrera bikes have a £100 voucher for spares/accessories of your choice. This ends on the 27th. If you have a mbna credit card you may have received a 10% off voucher recently. I think the voucher ends on the 1/8. It appears you can combine the offer. I bought my superb Subway 8 for £315 (£350 minus 10%) and bought a load of spares/accessories with my £100 voucher. Effectively making the bike easily sub £250. The next cheapest bike with premium Shimano Nexus 8 speed hub is over £1000! I'm 20 stone and the bike seems pretty strong to me.

Another good urban/rigid bike is from the Edinburgh Bicycle Coop. I forget the model but it has 8 gears, decent wheels with a cassette rather than freewheel and generally good spec all round for £245.

Specialized bikes are coming down in price.
The Hardrock Sport can now be had for <£250 at http://www.cyclestore.co.uk/

Have a look at the Revolution range on the Edinburgh Bicycle Co-operative website - real value for money.

I'd recommend Orbea whole heartedly - just bought two (for the wife & daughter). One is a lightweight hybrid the other is a well specced MTB, both for around £250 from my local bike shop (Cycle Asylum - London E12). Can't see a reason for spending more - they really are excellent value.

Hamilton

Here's a thought - get a Spesh Hardrock rigid for £200 and spend the remaining £150 or so on some decent budget forks in the impending late summer / autumn sales...