Originally Posted by
LesterOfPuppets
Yeow! That's light. We might have different definitions of the term midrange. For the 1996 'goose it's MSRP $760, weight of bike in completely stock trim.
Probably true, because today's mid-range bikes include tech that was non-existent in '96. For a hardtail, high-end today is carbon bikes starting in the $5000ish range, e.g. a Trek Elite 9.9SSL or Specialized S-Works, low 19 pounds out of the box without pedals.
My mid-range XC bike is currently an aluminum Trek 8500 frame I bought off Ebay for $168, with my old XC parts kit from my (cracked) carbon Trek Elite 9.9. Basically the parts kit off this bike, installed on an aluminum frame:
