Originally Posted by
Zaphod Beeblebrox
Is a Specialized Hard Rock worth my time?? Bearing in mind I own a crapton of road machines and whatever I get is really only gonna be ridden on the road for the half mile between my house and the trailhead.
Originally Posted by
Clang
In my experience, Hard Rocks and Rockhoppers are priced similarly (~$100), despite Rockhoppers being the tier above. So my advice would be to hold out for a Rockhopper. I have a '93 Rockhopper Sport and it's a nice little bike.
You could get a Stumpjumper too, but around where I live, they're premium priced at around $200.
I agree. I only mentioned the Hardrock because it's my
frame of reference, so to speak.
My point was that 2002 vintage Specialized frames, with both disk and V brake mounts and 1-1/8 headsets, have the ability to carry nearly every modern convenience, and they had aluminum frame design and fancy suspension sorted out. So probably do contemporary Treks and Cannondales and Giants. Mid-1990's XC bikes still have elastomer forks and canti brakes and 1" stems; the premium bikes had experimental frames that might have been metal matrix composite (Specialized) or tubes-and-glue (Trek and Giant).