Originally Posted by Raiyn
What price peace of mind? Do you actually have a Motobecane dealer in your area? The only place I've ever seen them has been in mail-order / web-order ads, which in my opinion is NOT the way for a newbie to purchase a bike.
Well, I'm not strictly a newbie. What I am is a guy that used to bike a lot 5-10 years ago, then I stopped. Basically, I finished college, got a full-time job, and only went biking a couple times a month at most. And then my bike got stolen. Who in the hell steals a 12 year old Cannondale bike? I mean, *seriously*, take the 1 year old Giant that's sitting next to it instead! (They took my 'dale and left my neighbor's *unlocked* Giant. Hahaha....) But I digress. Anyway, I used to do the majority of maintenance on my bike(s) during that time, so it's not a major problem. I'm just a little out of touch with the latest components, names, and quality.
As far as I know, there are no local dealers that carry Motobecane. And the whole "let's buy older, *respected* foreign bike names and sell them with standard asian frames with advertising that implies they are still the same company" makes me very wary of the Motobecane, Mercier, and probably several other names as well.
Let me end by widening the selection range a bit. There's also a Trek 6200 at a LBS for ~$800, which is a bit more than I really want to spend. But the components appear to be a pretty major step up from the $460 models. Hydraulic disc brakes certainly *seem* like a nice idea - are they good in practice? Is it even difficult to change to hydraulics instead of standard cables? Maybe I just need to buy $15 hydraulic cables and replace the standard cables if I want hydraulics? The forks are Rock Shox Pilot, which is supposed to be a step up. Anyway, is it worth it to spend a bit more for a $800 mountain bike vs. a $500 bike, or do you really need to get into the $1000+ range before you get good quality? And if $800 is the price limit, what suggestions would you make as opposed to the Rock Hopper and such?
Last question (I like long posts, if you can't tell... I'm a computer hardware junkie when I'm not thinking about mountain bikes): There's a place not to far away selling a Cannondale Delta V900 bike for $200. I haven't seen the bike in person, but it's supposed to be in reasonable shape. I'm guessing it's about 10 years old, though - maybe more, maybe less. Is it even worth *looking* at, or should I save myself some time and not spend two hours driving to Auburn and back?