Mountain Biking - What is a good Hardtail bike for a beginner?

I am interested in a Mountain style bike for mostly everyday street riding but also good for recreational path riding. I have looked at Trek 3700, Fuji Sunfire, and Specialized Hardrock Sport so far. Can someone tell me some other bikes like these in the $300 price range?

hmm, $300.

At that range I would try to find something without suspension(you won't need it for street and rec. paths) and used.

Also, at this price range, go for something with v-brakes. Any discs the bikes may have are probably no good.


Out of the three you mentioned I like the specialized hardrock the best, just because I have had some personal experience with it and it's a very nice bike for the price.

edit:

heres a link with a bunch of manufacturers sites on it. Good luck with the search!

http://www.geocities.com/mdwsr/

I am interested in a Mountain style bike for mostly everyday street riding but also good for recreational path riding. I have looked at Trek 3700, Fuji Sunfire, and Specialized Hardrock Sport so far. Can someone tell me some other bikes like these in the $300 price range?
I'm relatively new to mountain biking and I just got a Hardrock Sport two days ago. The main reason I bought the bike is that the frame design felt very good to me and it's upgradeable to disc brakes if I choose to go down that path.

I've only ridden it about 10 miles so far, but I can safely say that I like it a lot. My only complaint is that the seat is hard as a rock and will cause you pain. Upgrade it quickly if you buy the bike. I'm looking online for a better seat myself. When I find one with a lot of good user reviews I'll head into the LBS and see if they've got one.

The RST fork and Shimano Acera componets seem ok, I thought that they'd be pretty bad since they're not high end, but they shift smoothly and the fork does it's job on the light dirt riding I've done. The bike also excels at pulling my child trailer too.

I had my hardrock for 10 years and it worked out wonderfully. Get the HardRock - if you want something a bit lighter, you can ste up to the RockHopper (bought mine last year as an '05 for $500). You can probably find and '04 somewhere for ~$350. Good luck!

ya im thinkinga about getting the hardrock but about how much does it weigh?

It's as heavy as a rock. I'd say ~29 lbs for a medium frame. It is pretty heavy, but if you want something lighter, you have to look into spending >$500.

My hardrock sport is great. I have had mine for a year. It is a lot lighter then anything else for the price with the durability. Uou pretty much will have it forever. Goodluck!

Later,

Another MTBiker

This will get you started. (http://www.bikeaddict.com/manufacturers.html)

Consider moving up a little in price range. Look for a bike with at least Alivio level components. At least an Alivio rear derailleur and at least an 8 speed. I would start looking at bikes around $400. It is good advice to move up one level from what you think you need.

You can't really go to wrong by doing that. Look at bikes like the Trek 4300 non-disc, Gary Fisher Advance, etc.

im a begginer too and i bought the hardrock sport in like late july and have had absolutly no problems with it. My friend has the haro escape and has had to get a new fork and front disk brake. So i would get the HR becasue it really druable

don't forget the used option

i bought a used (3years old) trek 6700 as my first bike (still on it now) and it has all xt components, a rock shocks fork (though just a duke), was already set up with clipless pedals, and had decent bontrager wheelsets and seatpost. all around it is a $800-900 bike and i only paid $400.

in my opinion, buying a slightly used but at least entry level competetive bike is much better for development of riding skills than starting off with a new bike with much less reliable components and a much heavier frame