Originally Posted by unsuspended
It was meant as a bit of humor. sorry no emoticons
but seriously, if you have a 2000 budget, no reason to just go hardtail, especially if you want ONE bike to do all things. At 2g's you could get a decent fs, I think. look for new 2004 bikes that you can get 3-5 hundred off
I agree completely. While there are still those out there who believe that HTs are the "be all and end all" of MTB'ing, they're rare and most of them either haven't really spent any time on a good FS ride or their total weight weenies who count every gram to the point of neurosis. Unless you're planning to do some serious racing, there's no reason to purchase a $2k HT.
Tweek, make sure you do some serious homework on this one before you go plunking down 2 grrr on that Trek; I think you'll find that you'll be a lot happier with a good FS bike than you will be with HT.