Hybrid Bicycles - Trek 7.3 vs Marin Muirwoods 29er

Looking for a new bike for around $600. Strickly street. Just bought my girl friend a 7.3. Seems to be great. But I'm still looking around. I like the Muirwoods, but can't find any around to check out. None of the REI stores around Sacramento has one.

I know they are both good bikes. What are the differences? And what about the Marin Fairfax? Great price online at REI. But how is it different from the Muirwoods?

Opinions?

Thanks for the help.

B -

The Fairfax is an aluminum bike with lower-end road components (Shimano Sora) whereas the Muirwoods is Cromoly steel with midrange MTB components (Shimano Deore).

Trek 7.3FX is an aluminum bike with Deore components.

Hope this helps.

Fairfax=flat bar road bike. Alu frame w/carbon fork. Costs more. Doesn't appear to be rack/fender friendly.
Muirwoods 29er=civilized mtb. Steel frame/fork. Disc brakes. Rack/fender friendly. Costs less than Fairfax.

Thanks for the responses. What are the pros and cons to steel vs aluminum? Muirwoods vs Trek 7.3 besides disc brakes. Is the Marin heavier because it is steel?
Thanks.

Frame material (steel vs aluminum vs carbon vs ti vs unobtainium...) is one of the holy war topics on BF. I'm not a framebuilder, nor a wrench for that matter, but:

Steel is a bit more "forgiving" than alu. You can bend/weld steel and it will still be strong. Will rust, if you don't take precaution.
Aluminum can feel a bit "harsher" ride wise. Guess that is why there are a bunch with carbon forks. Won't rust.

As far the weight difference, does it really matter? Unless you plan on carrying the bike instead of it carrying you.

Get a Marin Fairfax and you'll be happy. Weighs around 24lbs!

Marin has a factory store in SF, where I would assume they have a pretty complete display of models. Might be worth a drive down from Sac.
I was looking at Marin, and was leaning more towards the Urban side as I felt a lot of my riding would be around town banging over/off curbs and such. As it was I ended up with a Dew Deluxe from a LBS (good price on an '09), which is closer to the Urban side of things.
One thing stuck in my mind that the LBS sales person said and that was that you'll end up with more than one bike of you stick with it - get into it. From that perspective, I figured I would probably end up with a road bike eventually as well. Then there are those mountain bikes too ......hmmm.....

Marin has a factory store in SF, where I would assume they have a pretty complete display of models. Might be worth a drive down from Sac.
I was looking at Marin, and was leaning more towards the Urban side as I felt a lot of my riding would be around town banging over/off curbs and such. As it was I ended up with a Dew Deluxe from a LBS (good price on an '09), which is closer to the Urban side of things.
One thing stuck in my mind that the LBS sales person said and that was that you'll end up with more than one bike of you stick with it - get into it. From that perspective, I figured I would probably end up with a road bike eventually as well. Then there are those mountain bikes too ......hmmm.....
There is a proven mathematical formula that supports it- "n + 1", where "n" represents the number of bikes that you currently own.