Mountain Bike for <$500

[aswindler]

Hey, new to the forum and I guess you could say newbie in the *real* biking world as well. Looking to get a new mountain bike and don't want to spend more than $500. Most important thing is the frame, I know I can upgrade components and I don't mind tweaking.

I'm in Chicago so it's a lot of flat riding, I'm planning on throwing road tires on for city/light trails but want a mountain bike for occassional heavier riding.

So far I've looked at the following:

Trek 4500/4900
Cannondale F300
Giant Iguana
Specialized Rockhopper (didn't ride)
Schwinn Mesa/Mesa Disc
Gary Fisher Marlin (didn't ride)

My top picks are the F300 and the Iguana. I found a 2002 Iguana for $460 which seems like a pretty good deal and puts it in my price range. Only lame thing is the red and white paint job but it ain't TOO bad.

I've been hoping to find a deal on the F300, but it's pretty slim pickin's since the bankruptcy. I want to get back to some stores to ride the Gary Fisher and the Rockhopper, but I wanted to post to see what general thoughts were on what I'm looking at and the deal I found on the Iguana.

If I go Trek it seems like the 4500 might be a better deal than the 4900 because they seemed pretty similar overall. But I wasn't in love with either of them.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice!

Andy

 

[rek]

The frame of the Cannondale would be better than the Giant. Not saying for a moment the Giant's frame is poor, but if you're looking closely at frame quality (as opposed to the supplied groupset etc.) the Cannondale would be the one to go for.

I wouldn't worry about the bankruptcy stuff; the bicycle division has always been profitable (the company was dragged down by their motorsports division, a case of biting off more they could chew..) The receivers ended up keeping the bicycle division for themselves

If you're looking a bike with a view to upgrading, make sure that whatever you get has disc brake mounts on the frame and fork -- without these you won't be able to upgrade to disc brakes, should you want to in the future. (I'm not sure the F300 has disc mounts, though the Iguana probably has, since you can get it with a disc option)

 

[redandblack]

The upper level specialized bikes are really good. I ride a hardrock FS, and that's perfect for the roads and the hard trails. I don't know about the rockhopper, but I would assume that its just as good, if not better than my bike.

My bro has a hardrock sport and its a pos.

 

[mdp1116]

i just got a 06 trek 4900D for less than 550 at a local bike shop.. i had thought that i wanted a haro v4 but i was told that the trek was a whole lot better bike than the haro.. i have ridden it 2 times before i got it and i loved it.