Mountain Biking - Iron Horse Outlaw Pro?

I've been into mountain biking for about 2 months now. I started out on some crap 24" wheeled bike that my sis had. After a week, I got ahold of a Wally World(Wal Mart) XR200. Mainly just to see if I wanted to get into the sport farther.

I found out quickly that I LOVE mountain biking, and i've yet to even get out onto actual trails, all I do is flatland stuff/natural jumps that I can find at the school across the street.

Even with this low impact, somewhat smooth riding, i've screwed up the XR200 pretty bad. The front forks are borderline useless, I can bottom them out off the SMALLEST stuff. The derailleurs(which are crap to begin with) are coming apart, and are out of tune after every ride. The pedals are complete crap(Metal tooth "band" screws into plastic center piece), and are getting ready to come apart. The latest thing to brake, was the freewheel on the rear hub. Bearings in it siezed.

Just to get it back to being safely ridable, using the cheaper of the higher level parts, its going to cost me about 140 to 150. I was thinking this would be alright, because, the way this bike seems to be build, parts look semi interchangable with high level parts, meaning I could upgrade what breaks, then eventually buy a new frame. BUT i'm not sure if parts are interchangable, I'm not that far into the mechanics of MTBs yet.

The route I would prefer to take, is to spend a little more coin, and buy a new, better MTB. So i've been looking at new bikes. Problem is, my budget is $300...MAYBE. So I've narrowed it down to one bike, which seems alright, but I'd like some input from the people on here, that know MUCH more then I do.

This is the bike i've been scopeing out.
Iron Horse Outlaw Pro Mountain Bike (http://www.performancebike.com/shop/profile.cfm?SKU=21282&subcategory_ID=3050#)
http://www.performancebike.com/product_images/400/30_6995BLU.jpg
http://www.performancebike.com/product_images/400/30_6995BLU_B.jpg
http://www.performancebike.com/product_images/400/30_6995BLU_C.jpg
http://www.performancebike.com/product_images/400/30_6995BLU_D.jpg

Any help would be appreciated. Whether it be pros and cons of this bike, or some ideas on a different bike that would better suit my needs, etc. And remember, i'm not doing any real serious riding with this thing, no hardcore trails or jumps quite yet.

well, it has to be better than the wally world thing you're riding!

Yeah, of course its better then some crap Wal Mart Mongoose....but i'm hoping to find the best bike for the money. This appears to be good to ME, but I don't have very much knowledge when it comes to bikes

Never buy a bike at any department store again, it's a waste of money and time. The IronHorse it definately a good bike to start with, although, it is still cheap as far as Mountain bikes are concerned. The bike will last about 3x longer than your previous bike did. The more money you sink into a bike, the better and stronger (and often lighter) the components will be, so the bike will break less often and actually cost less in the long run(repairs and what not).

I knew at the time that I should have at least bought an intro bike from a shop, and not Wal Mart, but it was my parents money, not mine, and they weren't up for anything more then a Wal Mart bike, now they understand why I thought it was a bad idea.

I understand the whole bit about the more money you spend, the cheaper it will be in the long run, but I need a bike NOW, lol. I would love to wait and buy a little higher level, but I just can't wait.

Also, with this bike, I know i'll be able to upgrade it later as needed.

Thanks for the reply!

Anybody else have input?

I have one more thing to say, recently, there was a new member, whose name will remain unknown, that didn't do as we told him (went and bought an X mart bike) and he also bad talked members. He had massive problems right away when he started riding his bike, so he came back to complain on bikeforums about it. We had told him that would happen, and it was his own fault for not listening.

We on this forum know an extreme large amount about bikes, and I think every member here would strongly urge you not to buy an X-mart bike.

He was also in the same predicament as you are now.

If you really need a bike fast, go ahead and get the Ironhorse. An extra 100 would make a huge difference in quality of bike though. It will probably cost you a lot when it does break, because bike parts are friggen expensive.

I think I may have seen that guys thread...did he call somebody a smart ass for no good reason?

Also, I would strongly urge MYSELF to not get an X-Mart bike, I knew before that it wasn't going to be good....but its hard for someone to justify spending $300+ on a mountain bike, that they'll get nothing out of.

I'm looking into those "Extra $100" bikes now, not sure if I can flip that bill though, hell, i'm not sure if I can even flip the $300 dollar bill yet.

Thanks again

ya I know you said you cant wait or anything but seriously think about some how saving money for like a specialized hardrock, you WILL get your moneys worth.