Post 1
Thanks wgscott, I did hear good things about REI's return policy. However, I hopefully wont need to return the bike if it's as good as I hope it will be! I've narrowed down my search to these 4 bikes :
rei.c om/product/106334/co-op-cycles-drt-13-bike
bikesdirect.c om/products/motobecane/29er-mountain-bikes/fantom29-nx-tcs-mountainbikes.htm
bikesdirect.c om/products/motobecane/29er-mountain-bikes/fantom29-xt-tcs-mountainbikes.htm
bikesdirect.c om/products/gravity/29point4-29er-mtb.htm
I'm leaning towards the Co-op since it has good reviews and comes from a solid company (Rei). However, it seems to me that the other 3 bikes may be more bang for the buck. Again, I can't tell from looking at the specs. Generally, I want to pay less, so I hope you can give me some insight on the bikes in those links. Thanks!
I have to wait 24 hours before I could post my reply. I realize this is to fight against spammers and such, but it's VERY annoying.. 5 posts every 24 hours is not an idealistic limit. Moreover, It kept telling me that I couldn't post links.. Even when I didn't have a single link in the post so I had no idea what the problem was. I had to go paragraph by paragraph removing it them adding them to see which one was causing the false positive.
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Post 2
Thanks grubetown, but I unfortunately haven't had much luck in the search field in terms of mountain bikes. Only one I found was not being sold anymore. Lots of road bikes though.. Moreover, I think it's good to make another post since bikes are constantly changing, what could have been a good buy last month could be out shined now.
Thanks for the link wgscott, I checked them out. After adjusting the search field there were only 2 bikes! I filtered through Men's bikes, $600-$1500 range, hydraulic brakes, and 27.5" wheels. One of those bikes was $1399 and didn't come with pedals (cheap but I'd rather not have to buy my own)!
(Keep in mind this post is a 2 in 1 since I couldn't post before..) I think this is worth repeating. I really have no idea what I'm looking at when I look at these bikes. The fork, stem, shifters, I have no idea what brands (or models of these brands) are good. The bike links I put up are of bikes that I found to have a good brakes - and a variety of Shimano parts (which I always hear are good). I'm hoping I can narrow down a few bikes myself and have someone compare them spec wise so I can see what's best. Of course you guys don't have to if you don't want to, but it would be very helpful and appreciated. Thanks everyone for the helpful posts!
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Post 3
I've pretty much decided to get one of these bikes (That I linked earlier):
rei.c om/product/106334/co-op-cycles-drt-13-bike
bikesdirect.c om/products/motobecane/29er-mountain-bikes/fantom29-nx-tcs-mountainbikes.htm
bikesdirect.c om/products/motobecane/29er-mountain-bikes/fantom29-xt-tcs-mountainbikes.htm
bikesdirect.c om/products/gravity/29point4-29er-mtb.htm
I'm leaning more towards the REI since they do have that return policy and I wont have to assemble the ENTIRE bike (plus I can be sure bike is good and it looks really cool!). However, If the bikes from bike direct that I found have better bang for the buck, then I wont mind buying it and assembling everything. However, I'm still hoping someone here could let me know which of these bikes is best spec wise. Thanks guys!