Originally Posted by halfspeed
Here's a really overgeneralized rule of thumb: The more expensive the bike, the lower the weight capacity.
As prices go up, components and frames get lighter weight to go faster so they can't hold up to as much abuse.
There are huge exceptions to this rule. You can spend large wads of cash on custom steel frames designed for 300 pounders to tour the world with gear.
OTOH, if you're looking at low spoke count wheeled, carbon fiber framed, dura-ace equipped multi-kilobuck bikes, you might want to reconsider.
I have to disagree with you generalized rule of thumb. Now days bikes are not necessarily dropping weight as the price goes up. As I stated before, I have a guy who weighs 450 on a Rocky "Flow" and it is by no means a low end bike. Several bike companies have earned their reputation for building rugged first and not worrying so much about weight. The new breed of Urban Assault Hardtails with long travel forks all seem to be beefed up to take big hits and it would follow that they would also take more dead weight in the first place. I have also noticed that some of the mid to lower end Hardtails I am selling have stiffer sprring kits in the larger sizes. At least the Fuji's I sell do.