I tried out the Giant Iguana disc and Specialized hardrock pro the other day. I liked the Judy TT fork on the hardrock better than the Iguana's manitou six, but I preffered the Iguana's brakes. Other than that, they were very similar, and I thought they were ok for just under $500.
I've been looking at other bikes online, and I've found a few models with better componentry in the same price range. These are:
Iron Horse Rogue
Raleigh M80 disc 03
Diamondback Topanga comp disc 03
and also, but not as much:
trek 4900
GT avalanche 1.0 disc 04
My top two choices are the raleigh and the diamondback; they happen to have almost identical specs (and websites, weird!). I will test them out soon. There aren't any Iron Horse dealers near me, so I can't try out the rogue. Does anyone know anything about it?
Now, I've found the raleigh for $380 at http://jbmountainbikes.com.
Part of me wants to buy it before they sell out, and another part of me wants to wait and see if I can get a better deal, or a reason I should not buy the bike altogether.
Any advice, suggestions, objective observations, etc. are welcome,
thanks in advance,
andy