Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests Bike Talk! Yay!

My lady friend is looking to purchase a MTN bike this spring and I am helping here find the perfect bike. Her needs are pretty basic. Will be used for transportation with the occasional trail ride. Definitely a hardtail XC sort of bike. She is looking to spent around $400. I think that is fairly reasonable given her needs and experience. We have only been to one bike shop and they were mainly a Specialized dealer. She tried both the Hardrock(in a womans M size) and the Rockhopper(in 17in mens). Almost the same exact geometry from the looks of it by prefered the feel of the Hardrock. The only other bike that was a slight option was the Giant STP3 which is one of those urban insaino bikes. Dont know too much about those but the frame seemed to fit her alright. We definitely plan to hit up a bunch more shops and take some test rides but I was hoping to get some input from the bike junkies on the site. Thanks much.

I have a Trek 720. It's a hybrid bike, mountain bike frame with street/trail tires. Paid somewhere around $350 for it 4 ago. Been ridden thousands of miles and the only thing I've had to replace is the rear cassette because it was a defective one, and that was covered under warranty. Finding a good bike shop, one that will do small maintenance for free and really back up their products is almost as important as the bike itself, especially if you don't do your own maintenance.

I stopped paying attention to the latest and greatest equipment when I got my bike a few years ago, so I'm not up on the new stuff. But personally if I was just looking for a basic transportation/occasional trailer ride bike I'd buy a used one. There are plenty of rich people out there who buy a high-end bike then quickly get bored of the sport and sell their stuff.

I used to be a Fisher guy. I have a 2000 Marlin, which is right up her alley - nice aluminum frame, mid-level components, good balanced geometry, and overall good build quality. I now have slicks on it (Richey Tom Slick 1.0") for Riding around campus, but it's a great bike for all-around trail use. However, since GF sold out his interest in the company, I've heard bad things. My favorite dealer quit carrying them. Trek is still good, and Specialized has good bang-for-the-buck.

The P3 is an awesome bike, but isnt the frame a little heavy? Also, i thought they were quite a bit more that $400. But i guess that all depends and what its geared up with.

The ZX-9R is a great bike!

I was thinking motor cycles

i'll be in the same market in a month or two - my fiancee (will move to "wife" status on saturday - w00t!) and i need to get a bike for her so that she can hit the trails w/ me on the weekends. i have a '99 rockhopper A1 FS comp and an old '92 rockhopper expert "beater" bike - she tried the old rockhopper and the top tube was way too short for her, so we haven't been riding together since then. just need to get one w/ the right geometry for her - we'll have to test-ride a bunch to see what she's most comfortable on.

for whatever reason i'm partial to specialized, but i can't say that i'm biased against anything...it seems to me that giants have a lot of bang for the buck, so when i bought a road bike a couple years ago i picked up an '02 giant TCR1 at an end-of-the-year clearance sale at my local shop. the component level on the giant bikes was consistently a level up from the competing specialized and cannondale offerings, and i liked the fit of the giant - so i bought it over the specialized allez comp i was also considering.

a quick visit to the bike shop last fall seemed to show that the giant mtn. bikes were set up similarly - a tad better component set than the competition at their price point. the ~$500-600 level giant also had disk brakes, whereas the specialized did not...though for our use we certainly don't have to have disks.

so, all that to say - i'd look at giant's offerings in your price range. might be a pretty good value for the money....

Hard to beat a Giant Yukon or a Rincon at or around that price range!