somecallmetex

Hello. My friends have gotten me interested in mountain biking recently. At the moment I am borrowing one of their extra bikes when we ride, but I have started looking into purchasing my own. At the moment my two favorite are the Gary Fisher bikes. Since I am looking for an entry level bike the Tarpon and Wahoo are the two models I am focusing on.

I have read the sticky thread and did some looking into these two models. People seem to be vary passionate about which is a better choice to start with. From what I understand the difference in opinion seems to be that one group of people believe that Tarpon is too low end and can't take enough punishment, and the other view is that as an entry level bike (and more importantly that I'm fairly new to riding on trails instead of pavement) I won't notice enough difference between the two to justify the upgrade.

I suppose my two questions are:
1: Will the Tarpon actually give a newer rider structural issues (or is the quality difference only an issue if you are taking it on more extreme rides).
2: Even if I don't notice much of a difference between the two bikes at the moment, if I keep riding will there be enough of a difference that I would find myself wanting to upgrade from the Tarpon much sooner than I would from the Wahoo?

samburger

My advice is simple: Always go with the nicest bike you can afford. The Wahoo is clearly the nicer bike. At this stage in biking, you probably won't notice the differences in the bikes that makes one better than the next. But soon you will, & when you do you'll be glad you got the nicer bike.

legec117

wahoo cost more because it is better equipped (obviously). If you can afford the wahoo, get it. If not either save to get it or get the tarpon. I have the tarpon and love it. the fork on both bikes are the same, so the ride will be equal, same frame, same brakes, only diferences are shifters/derailuers, wahoo has a double walled wheel Vs. a single wall wheel on tarpon (I bent my rear wheel, and had to get it fixed twice, and have a new set of double walls coming in tuesday), tires are different, and saddle is different (you will probably change saddle for your own preference). both good bikes, the wheel bending was really my fault, not the fault of the bike... I was acting an @ss on a trail

matttheknife

I have heard or read someone say that the main purpose of bikes in these price ranges is to inform the owner - through the experience of beginning to ride - whether or not they want to continue with the sport. If the buyer does want to pursue mountain biking going forward, then the buyer will ultimately want an upgraded bike. I'm not sure if I buy into that totally, but it may make sense to look at craigslist for used bikes at the same price point. If you know you want to ride, and ride a lot, it may be better to get a 5 year old bike that has better, more durable stuff on it. Your LBS may also have some trade ins or consignments. You may want to ask if they don't have any on display. Sometimes the owner may have something he's thinking of selling that hasn't made it to the floor yet. For example, I have been after my sig other to get into riding and instead of buying an entry level bike, we bought the owner's sister-in-law's bike. It's a 10 year old Scott hardtail and it doesn't have disc brakes or other new technologies, but it does have XT components all the way around, it has a great steel frame, and it was really cheap. If she wants to upgrade, we can do so fairly comfortably without worrying about getting the "worth" out of a new bike.

Best of luck!

BianchiDave

I say go with the Wahoo! I just bought a Wahoo about a month ago and am completely satisfied with the performance all around. I use the bike for commuting to work, pulling my boys around in a trailer / attached bike and for practicing work related riding (stair descents/accents, curb jumping and rolling dismounts.) The Wahoo weight is very nice and was defiantly worth the money.
Good luck!
(Sorry for the picture I read the post just before heading out on patrol and figured I would add it to my response.)

somecallmetex

Thanks for the advice. I just noticed that Gary Fisher was bought by Trek. I assume that the 2011 models under Trek will be pretty much identical to the current GF models, but I thought I would check first to see if anyone recommends getting the new model over the current model (which I'm hoping to buy on sale once the 2011 model starts being sold).

Zephyr11

Trek has been in bed with Fisher for a while now. The only difference is that Trek decided to kill off the Gary Fisher name and just make their Fisher bikes part of the Trek Gary Fisher Collection.

samburger

As was discussed in a thread specifically about that topic, there was a lot of overlap in Trek & GF bike models because GF as an entire brand had to make bikes for all kinds of riding styles. That said, many of the GF Collection bikes are better equipped for what they're each specifically made for because GF no longer has to make a bike for every kind of riding. I don't think this will be true for an entry level bike like the Wahoo (doesn't appear to have changed much from last year's model), but GF bikes in general certainly have not gotten any worse from the merge.

BianchiDave

https://www.bikeradar.com/gear/catego...-disc-10-35690