Mountain Biking - trying to find a bike under 500

im trying to find a moutin bike under 500-but my problem is i need a bike that i can jump of dirt and at our skate park i dont know the first thing about this kinda bike but heres what im going to do with it- jump off dirt metal and concrete jumps use it to get places and use it on a graval/paved bike path

You're about to get pounced on. :eek: Try this thread: $500 bike thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=56148) Good luck!

im trying to find a moutin bike under 500-but my problem is i need a bike that i can jump of dirt and at our skate park i dont know the first thing about this kinda bike but heres what im going to do with it- jump off dirt metal and concrete jumps use it to get places and use it on a graval/paved bike path

Search ebay and the for sale forums at ridemonkey, pinkbike to find a dj oriented bike that can be used for your needs. Also there might be a used one at your lbs. If not, soul cycles makes a frame that is in your budget, get that and slowly collect up parts or move parts from your other bike onto that frame.

http://www2.trekbikes.com/Bikes/Mountain/Bruiser/Bruiser_1/index.php This will suit your needs as well.

Specialized makes the hardrock sport which in my opinion is a great starter bike...its what I use know and I take it on some technical trails...and it holds up fine. I think it is around 350. Trek makes a few under 500 as well.

This is why the $500 thread needs to stay as a sticky

This is why the $500 thread needs to stay as a sticky

No, this would have been posted anyways, that thread lost alot of it's effectiveness.

No, this would have been posted anyways, that thread lost alot of it's effectiveness.

I enjoy disagreeing with Raiyn to get a rise outta him as much as the next guy but this time I'm in full agreement with him. The post your rig and under $500 threads were great stickys that served a purpose and were an asset to the forums. If you think the under $500 lost it's effectiveness then you weren't watching it's viewed stats very closely. The views on that thread rose consistantly day in and day out, which shows that it was definitely being used.

The other stickies were excessive and definitely a pain to scroll past. I agree they both could have been better, but they were definitely assets. For example, in the post your rig thread. There were too many "Nice bike!" replies and endless chatter/text posts. It should have been limited to pics of your bike so that one could read it and NOT sometimes go 3 pages without seeing a single image. The posts with dead links could have been deleted, etc. But it was still a great sticky.

And the Under $500 thread could have been better limited. Dropping replies that were anything other than suggestions, questions, and direct replies would have made it a better tool.

Yes, they require more moderation and have no doubt I am 100% aware of what a PITA that is, more so than likely any of you ever will be. But the amount of time that you are dropping into these new ideas is definitely competetive to the dedication that would have been necessary.

Nothing personal, but the beauty of these forums are that you get everyones response. A FAQ written by one person narrows the opinion most easily accessable and as a result looses the effectiveness of the information.

Anyway, just my $.02. These new ideas seem to be mirroring our U.S. government. Instead of enforcing competent current laws (rules in this case) on the books, new rules are created which are IMHO less effective.

New members look for under $500 bike suggestions and want to show off their new bikes more than probably any 10 other reasons combined. To make those topics most easily accessable only makes sense, to me anyway.

This is going to be fun. I don't mind the 500$ thread, but I don't have time to maintain it. I tried but the info was getting outdated and the thread was getting to long. I don't think Kona has the time to maintain it and neither does any other mod.



And the Under $500 thread could have been better limited. Dropping replies that were anything other than suggestions, questions, and direct replies would have made it a better tool.


You are right. But it will never happen. Users will always post what they want. Then there will always be the response from Raiyn (;)) to not post that and then the obligatory re-response. Thats an impossible dream to maintain. I watched every thread work like this and I tried for a while to clean those thread up and at one point dedicated almost 14hours in total to cleaning up the crap posts. Thats a lot of time to be putting in to maintain a "post your rigs sticky" and "post your stunts drops" sticky. I like the idea in theory of the 500$ thread, but as I said last year, and I will say now, it needs to be reworked yearly to accomodate the differences. As a new user I would never read that thread and I would post a new post, then I would likely leave the forum because of the abuse I would receive because I didn't want to read a 1000pages of crap to find out the bike I am looking at barely received any talk. Yes know now, all 500$ bikes are basically equal, but I sure wouldn't have believed it when I started.



Yes, they require more moderation and have no doubt I am 100% aware of what a PITA that is, more so than likely any of you ever will be. But the amount of time that you are dropping into these new ideas is definitely competetive to the dedication that would have been necessary.


If you are MORE aware than we think then you should realize the time we are putting in is to hopefully limit the time later.

I also don't think you realize how many new users complain in private and at one point in public of how that 500$ forum worked. There was 3 pages at one point of people hating it, and raiyn defending it. I agree its a good idea, but it became overly bloated. If we can rework it somehow so it become less bloat and more info than we may come back to it.

Keep in mind, we picked the timing for now, simply because the posts will be at their lowest. We will have something permanent in place by winter time that will work. The real 500$ posts don't start until Jan :)

No, this would have been posted anyways, that thread lost alot of it's effectiveness.

We would have been asked to move it into that thread though :)

What about a 500$ thread like the freeride ht's. Raiyn you can start the thread and create a list of 500$ish bikes. Everytime a new bike is suggested it can be put onto the first post. This way the member doesn't have to dive into a million post thread if he doesn't need to. We can help and because Raiyn started it he can moderate the first post himself. Could even get kind of fancy and link to posts about that bike where the conversation started?

I loved the under 500 dollar thread and think it should stay sticky. I am not going to post a long and drawn out reason as to why. I just know this. When I first joined the forums and I was looking for a starter bike this thread gave me all the information I was looking for. It was a major help to me and I think it still provides great information for newbies looking for a starter bike. Besides it provides a point of reference for people looking for a bike in this price range. When someone posts a thread like this one you can just say "look at the under $500 thread." How can that be a bad thing?
One point I do agree with is I obviously do not monitor or maintain the thread. I do not have any idea how much time that takes. I do think that this could be a valid reason for it to not be sticky. Again though, my vote is for it to be sticked again.

Maelstrom I feel your pain and yes, definitely appreciate the work and flat out BS required to keep things flowing fluently.

I actually feel better about it knowing that you have plans to have something in place before the start of next season and that the straight up removal isn't the permenant solution.

My primary problem was a community driven advise thread was being replaced by an opinion piece by just a few. I'd rather something that all people contribute to as by it's massive amount of bias opinions, contributes a oddly enough a less overall biased information resource..

Thanks for clarifying and I look forward to seeing this thing come along over the next few months..

I second that recomendation of the Trek Bruiser 1, try it out. I find it a little heavy, but it is REALLY durable.