Originally Posted by mcoine
The fact of the matter is, and I know I will get harrassed for this, the Rockhopper you bought is a relatively inexpensive bike. If you want a perfectly functioning, smooth, quiet, durable, lightweight bike, (like your old bikes) you have to spend a bunch of money. I also think there are a lot of new riders out there, that don't have 30 years of experience on quality bikes, that just don't know what a high quality bike feels like.
here comes the harassment
well it would suck for everyone if every time you wanted a decent bike you would have to cough up 3 grand and more eh? even if you got a great bike, if it's not set up properly by your bike shop or yourself, it's gonna suck. these days there's much more that goes into a bike, more complicated parts so it takes more time to set up properly. shifting and brakes have nothing to do with rockhoppers specifically or even specialized for that matter, the same thing comes on a lot of bikes in that price range. those problems should rather have been corrected by your bike shop.
it's like when you finally get a bose home theatre system setup for 5 grand and then someone goes "oh, bose is just cheap crap, if you want sound quality you would have to spend 50 grand on these handmade german tweeters, and these japanese woofers... and this one hand-made with rare south american rainforest wood... even if you have that kind of system, if you stick it in a gymnasium it's still going to sound horrible.