Hey guys, roadie here, looking to get into mountain biking. We have some nice trails in San Diego that I want to explore (nothing too extreme, but some technical stuff.)

Anyhow, I want to use part of my bonus this year to buy a mountain bike and have some muddy fun when I don't feel like using the road bike. My budget will be around $1k-1200. I used to have a Giant mountain bike back in the day and liked it.

I prefer a hardtail and I know I use a large frame.

I keep on seeing some good looking ones on dealsites, but am not super familiar with MTB components. I've been eyeing this one that keeps on popping up on Chainlove.
http://www.departmentofgoods.com/foc...x-xt-bike.html



Any recommendations.

Thanks,
Carlos