Mountain Biking - fist post, finally getting back into it.

I stopped mountain biking about 5 years ago, and I'm happy to say I'm finally getting back into it and hopefully wil be getting a bike that will last me. when I used to ride I rode a mongoose dual suspension bike and liked it a lot, they still considered to be good bikes? if anybody can tell me which models are well liked that would be awesome. i'll be headin to the LBS next week to start lookin for a new bike.
cheers,
Pobs.

I personaly love Specialized dual sus. bikes right now. Trek has a good line of Fuel series out. Giant has pretty good dual stuff. I personally have never liked mongoose. I'm not sure what they have in play right now, but most of the stuff I see is pretty cheap. Anyways, welcome back. Ride on!

i've been looking at the the ammounts of travel suspensions have gotten up to, pretty awesome. I'm thinkin I might pick up a hardback bike just to try something different. but we'll see.

as far as FS goes I'm looking at the mongoose XR-comp (yeah yeah i know, walmart sells it) but it;s very similar to what I used to ride. the other FS is the woodstock 707 model better bike but more expensive, hmm we shall see, gonna check out the 707 and 505 hardback model when I'm able to get to a store.

I would go for any of the woodstock bikes. what is your price range.

around $600 so the 505 is a bit out my range but it would only be another paycheck or 2 and i;d be abe to afford if it;s really worth the higher cost, are the 505's components of good quality?

I also really like the specialized rockhopper, again slightly out of my current price range but then again they always say you get what you pay for.

The whole drive system on the 505 is good for that pricerange, especially with the disk breakes invovled. The area they are taking away from are the fork and some off the frame. If you dont plan on riding on really rough terrain, it will be a fine beginning XC bike. The driveline on the Specialized is definently lower quality. Thats probably because specialized has really good frames and has to spend more money on them. They also take away from the drive line to get a better fork. If you plan on upgrading the bike though, the rockhopper is your best bet. All in all, It goes on feel. I would say go to your LBS and try them both out, as well as others. In that pricerange, you should also try out the Trek 4500 or 4300. The Giant Rincon is also a good bet. Try out some Gary Fishers. My dad recently bought a Raliegh Mojave 8.0. Its a great bike for its price. In your price range you could try out the Raliegh Mojave 5.0. Again, just try riding as many bikes as you can. Since your just getting back into it, buying a bike online is a really bad idea. And like I always say, Ride On!!!

yeah no way I'm buying online, I'm actually in oregon right now, I head home to hawaii tuesday and i'll be dropping into one of the LBS's there, lucky me there are a few stores to choose from.

Cool. Sounds neet. Post pics when u get it.

as far as FS goes I'm looking at the mongoose XR-comp (yeah yeah i know, walmart sells it) but it;s very similar to what I used to ride. the other FS is the woodstock 707 model better bike but more expensive, hmm we shall see, gonna check out the 707 and 505 hardback model when I'm able to get to a store.

Hardback as in hardtail, right?

hardtail, sorry

Wow! those woodstocks sound amazing! that really is a killer price for all that hardware brand new!