Hello,
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I’ve recently moved to the region “Pays de Gex” in France. This region has Monts Jura, a mountain chain of 1700m, in the backyard and is about 70 km away from the Alps. I want to start mountainbiking here and am looking for advice to buy a bike.
Experience wise, I’ve done some mountainbiking in Belgium over 8 years ago. Since the region is very flat, those were XC rides. I remember grasping the bodyweight use pretty good. I’m also doing road biking.
I’ve read [First/Budget Mountain Bike Buying Guide](https://www.reddit.com/r/MTB/comments/9hqf5r/firstbudget_mountain_bike_buying_guide/) at the subreddit here and watched several Youtube videos of [GMBN](https://www.youtube.com/@gmbn/featured). I have 2 questions now:
* **XC vs Trail**: The region here “demands” a trail bike, I think. It seems very versatile. I love flow and just enjoying the beauty of nature. For this I’m doubting if a full-sus XC bike would also do the fit. Any beginners here that had a similar dilemma?
* **New vs Used**: Based on the above guide, I was thinking of buying a Canyon Neural or canyon lux trail, given their value for price and availability in Europe. Some of my friends also recommended Orbea Occam or Oiz. This means I’d at least spend 3k. I’ve found out that [Decathlon has some used bikes](https://www.decathlon.fr/produits-reconditionnes/vtt-reconditionnes/f-size_40-m). You can find the Orbea Occam for example for about 2k.
Would any of these bikes be worth it? Or should I even go lower in bike range for a first bike? I don’t mind spending some money for value, but I don’t want to regret a 3k purchase in a year or so. Heck, I’d even go as high as 5k if that’s what it means to enjoy rides and have a peace of mind for the next years.
Don’t hesitate to add other things to consider. Thanks for the input!
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