Originally Posted by
fixedmonkey
Try and spend the very upper end of your price range...
+1 If I could do it all over again, I would buy my bikes with the best components within my price range. I tend to buy the cheapest and always end up upgrading to better spec parts and ending up paying so much more than if I bought the better spec'd bike in the first place. Hardly no one makes a bad frame these days...
Originally Posted by mtnbiker66
I've seen lots of 500 to 700 dollar bikes with BB5s and BB7s on them. They stop fine and are easy to adjust.
+1 Mechanical disc brakes have come a long way and are no longer expensive... most especially the Avids (which were the best mech disc brakes since the early days anyway). You can easily upgrade them to hydraulics later on if required because you already have the hubs (converting a wheel to disc hubs is so expensive). Also, should you want to upgrade your fork in the future, many new MTB performance forks don't even come with V-brake mounts anymore... and this trend will only increase.
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