Need help picking a good mountain bike -- calling on experts

dwagner

I'm new to the MTB world. I've been running "professionally" for several years now and am looking to get into the MTB-ing sport.

Not willing to spend tons of money on a bike till I know what I'm getting into. Sub-$600, or around 440 euros.

I definitely need Double-walled wheels/rims (durability, people said the singles cause flats all the time) and Disc brakes.

I've been looking at the Trek X-Caliber 4. I've read reviews and it seems like half the time bikers are so biased to their $3,000 bikes the cheaper ones get beat down all the time. My other interest was the Specialized Hardrock Disc, but my local bike shops don't carry the Hardrock line and my Scheels only carries Trek for the most part.

I'll obviously be a beginner, and will be riding on gravel roads, road, and singletrack trails (nothing extreme, like downhills or mountain climbing).


Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

chrisw333

Sounds like you're no in the UK?

Best bet is to post internet links to the specific bikes you are looking at and then people would advise you.

Dual ply tyres really are not necessary for the typle of riding you describe. I would drop that from your wish list straight away - the people who say single cause flats all the time are talking nonsense. Unless your idea of 'gravel roadsand singletrack trails' is steep rocky routes in the Alps.

cooldad

He said rims not tyres.
Mainly a UK forum, but which $s. Hong Kong, Aus, NZ?

dwagner

cooldad wrote:

He said rims not tyres.
Mainly a UK forum, but which $s. Hong Kong, Aus, NZ?

chrisw333 wrote:

Sounds like you're no in the UK?

Best bet is to post internet links to the specific bikes you are looking at and then people would advise you.

Dual ply tyres really are not necessary for the typle of riding you describe. I would drop that from your wish list straight away - the people who say single cause flats all the time are talking nonsense. Unless your idea of 'gravel roadsand singletrack trails' is steep rocky routes in the Alps.

USA. So approx. 440 euros.

and, the two bikes:


http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/ ... ck-disc-26

http://www.trekbikes.com/us/en/bikes/mo ... aliber_4/#

rockmonkeysc

We don't use euros here in the UK. We like a photo of the Queen on our pounds.
Neither of those two bikes is particularly good, I had the Specialized (wouldn't recommend it) and the Trek isn't much better.
It's hard to suggest alternatives as the usual recommendations are Voodoo, Carrera and Decathlon bikes which are much smaller brands which I don't think are available in the US.
You will get better advice on a USA based forum.