Quote ="Fungus The Muffin Man"In your price range then the Spesh or the boardman are quality bikes. I have a sub for What mountain bike and they rate the Carrera Fury as the number one starter mtb bike for your price range And also the voodoo Hoodoo (£500) is rated higher than the spesh.
I also wouldn't rule out this from Canyon [urlhttp://www.canyon.com/_uk/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2537[/url
Or if you could stretch the budget a bit this from Planet x [urlhttp://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/FBOOINX529/on_one_inbred_x5_29er_bike[/url
I'd also look at this Giant which has a great spec on it [urlhttp://www.edinburghbicycle.com/products/giant-revel-ltd-0-12[/url'"
The Voodoo Hoodoo is a great bike, its what I have at the minute, due to our c2w scheme being limited to £500.
It's lighter than my roadie (which was only a starter bike, no trick bits) so i like that