The Aldi Premium 29er Mountain Bike sells for $399 down under in Australia. Would you buy one if it appeared in the middle aisle of your nearest Aldi?

>>> The best cheap mountain bikes in 2019

How much 399 AUD in UK pounds? Currently, it comes out at £221.79.

What would you get for your £221.79?

It’s a 29er hardtail. It’s only available in two sizes (Medium or Large) and in one matte black colourway.

The frame is aluminium is actually appears to be pretty impressively put together. There’s even internal routing for the gears and disc brakes. The back end is not Boost. It’s actually old skool 135mm quick release. According to The Internet, the bike is actually a Polygon.

There’s a suspension fork up front. It’s a coil-sprung SR Suntour XCM with relatively skinny 30mm stanchions, quick release axle and a lockout dial on top of the right hand leg ad a bit of preload twiddling on the top of the left hand leg.

Geometry info is pretty scant but we have found out that it sports a 70° head angle and the fork is a reduced fork offset 44mm version.

The brakes are disc brakes. Not only that but they’re actually hydraulic disc brakes from Tektro, which is extremely impressive on a bike this cheap.

The drivetrain is a 1×10 system utilising Shimano’s Deore bits and bobs. The 11-42T cassette is nice and wide ranging. The rear mech has a proper clutch in it. There’s even a relatively neat looking chain guide (presumably because the chainring is not a narrow-wide one..?)

The bike will be in a box. There’ll be no test riding it. It may even be quite an ordeal schlepping the 16kg box to the till.

And once out of the store, you’ll have to do a bit of assembly work (the seatpost, front wheel, pedals and handlebars are all off-the-bike in the box).