Originally Posted by
Zephyr11
The frame on the Handjob costs almost double a complete Boulder. So apparently the cost difference isn't about components unless Giant is practically just giving away bikes for some reason. It's a nicer frame. It's made better. I just think it's a waste of money to put the best fork out there on a Boulder. But hey, it's your money, spend it how you'd like...but don't kid yourself into thinking that a Boulder is a high quality frame.
I see the point you're attempting to make here, Zephyr11. It's just that, you can't assume that because something costs more, that it's of higher quality. I know that type of thought is practically ingrained within us all from birth, but sometimes, it just doesn't apply. Sometimes, it's just a part of some marketing scheme. Since chromoly steel is chromoly steel, as long as the tubular thicknesses are similar, there's just no way that there could possibly be a vast amount of difference there. I mean, just think of the cost of basketball sneakers. There's no way that any mass produced pair of basketball sneakers should cost over sixty bucks. However, we do have the Nike Lebron 9's for $170 and the Nike Kobe VII System Supremes for $180. Go figure!
BTW - If I were going to personally purchase a mountain bike for myself, I'd get either a Voodoo Soukri, or a GT Xizang, and do the custom build myself
* The reason that I posed the original question, was due to the fact that I recommended a Giant Boulder to a young newbie, giving her hopes of eventually being able to upgrade the Boulder into quite possibly, a very capable and uniguely novel MTB. In time, she could gradually upgrade all of her components and switch to some really high-class suspended fork. I still think I'm correct in that regard.
- Slim
