Hello everyone. I'm looking into buying a bike.

Its main purpose will be commuting through the city. Considering the condition of the roads here, it should be able to handle some uneven terrain, but nothing more than a slightly bumpy road.

I am a beginner and don't want to spend a fortune on the bike. There is also a slight chance of it getting stolen - all the more reason to not spend too much money.

I was hoping someone here could help me pick a bike, or at least point me in the right direction. I'm thinking a mountain bike with little or no suspension and road tires.

Any and all advice is much appreciated.

Welcome! This is a common question here. I just did a quick search on bikeforums, and it is hard to sift through all the results. The short answer is that a used, non-suspension mountain bike makes an excellent short to mid distance urban commuter, especially with smooth, street tires. But it is worth your while to try searching and reading through this forum for tips that fit your commuting needs. Although I have been bike commuting in one way or another my whole life, and in earnest sonce the early 1990s, when I found bikeforums, things got real good, real fast bike-commuting wise.

You are on the right track in your thinking. If you have the skill and experience to work on bikes yourself, you can pick up a good 1990's MTB on Craigslist pretty cheap and if you do the overhaul yourself and buy new street tires, you can have a great bike for a very reasonable price. The major brands you'll see are Trek & Specialized but from that era, Schwinn, Giant, Raleigh, and a few others are out there as well. Just use this board as a resource.

In the Trek line-up, the 900 series are the top bikes and the 800 series are more entry level. Any of them would work well.

In the Specialized line-up, the Stumpjumpers art at the top, followed by Rockhoppers and finally the Hard Rocks. I think the Rockhoppers are the sweet spot.

If you aren't able to do the work, it will add substantially to the cost and a new, entry level bike shop bike might be more appropriate. You would probably pay $400-500 for a new bike and maybe $300-400 for an older bike than a bike shop overhauls for you.

You might get lucky and find a good, older MTB that is in good working condition for a good price but that hasn't been my experience. Most have needed at least $50-100 worth of work from an LBS and sometimes much more (ie, complete overahaul with new cables, housing, brake pads, tubes, bearings, etc..).

Well, thanks for the advice. I am definitely looking for a new bike, as I am unable to do the work myself.

What I'd like to have your opinion on is a new mountain bike priced around 400-500 USD. For example, which wheel size do I want? Which brands do you recommend (if they even matter at this price)?

Thanks in advance.

My house is on a "main drag" for bike commuters, so I see a lot of bikes. I'd almost be willing to bet that the proverbial "old non suspension mountain bike" is the most common commuting bike.

You don't get much for $400 to $500. What you will find in mountain bikes at that price range are heavy, slow, and not the greatest quality. If that is your budget, go with a new hybrid like the ubiquitous Trek FX 7.x, Jamis Coda Sport, Kona Dew, Giant Escape, or Specialized Sirrus Sport. Any of those hybrids would make a much better commuter than any $500 new mountain bike.

Wow, these look pretty great. How exactly are they different from mountain bikes?

EDIT: Googled it, looks like hybrid bikes might be more appropriate for me. I'll look into it, thanks.

Lighter frames, lighter solid forks, 700 c wheels and tires, slick 32 or 35 mm tires. Better drivetrain since the manufacturer doesn't have to divert money to the suspension fork. Modern hybrids will be lighter, and the tires better suited for commuting on paved surfaces than the knobbies you get on a mountain bike.

Modern mountain bikes are purpose built for technical trail riding. Good suspension forks cost a fair bit of money, as does a drivetrain built for the demands of singletrack. All that costs money. A decent mountain bike costs anywhere from $700 or $800 for entry level and goes up from there.

$400 or $500 is neither here nor there for mountain bikes. You get inferior everything at that price point. However, you can get a quite serviceable hybrid at that price point. Not something you would ride technical trails on, but more than adequate for a 10 mile commute.

I'm starting to think the down-thumb for modern mountain bikes around here is overstated. The versions at $1000 and below are all still pretty versatile and not "focused" in any serious way. They still have rack mounts and fender eyes. They often have fork lockouts or you can max out the preload. It's easy enough to have a set of both, say, 700c wheels with slicks and 27.5 with knobs. Yes they are going to be heavier, but if you are only going to own one bike, it's a good option.

The hybrids however will certainly be better if you aren't ever doing a wheelie or going down a trail. A dirt road is still a road.

The problem, as I see it is, if you want a new mountain bike, entry level retail price is higher than what OP wants to spend. And at $400 to $500 retail, the basic mountain bike might be OK for a kid's bike, but not the greatest for commuting or trail riding. I have actually seen it with my son's mountain biking team, where kids show up with their entry level mountain style bikes and pretty much destroy them in short order. It is a delicate subject, as the team organizers don't want to alienate newbies by telling them they need to spend $1,000 or more on a new mountain bike. Trek and Specialized have a discount program to try and help league members get decent bikes, and in my case when I mentioned the discount program to my local Kona dealer and showed him the paperwork, he matched the Specialized discount on an equivalent Kona.

Trek bike's 820 is their basic mountain bike at just under $400 , they're OK.. steel frame , LBS sells many.
3500 has an aluminum frame, just over the $400 mark.

Mountain bikes | Bikes | Trek Bikes

Unless you knew you wanted to do some single-track or rough trail riding, I don't see a reason to buy a new MTB when you can get a bike better suited to the purpose for less money.

If you already had a MTB then it would be a different story.

I've been riding an Acera-level front-suspension Hardrock through several incarnations for more than a decade now, including a stint as a commuter, and it's served well. I didn't find the cheapo no-damping suspension fork to be a big deal once I maxed out the preload. I wore out the inner chain ring and broke a few spokes on the rear a while back, but any other money spent has been either for preference or self-inflicted damage.

I agree that today's cheapest level MTB's are a bit too junky. I'd definitely spend to get the one with a freehub and damping. But today, at least, that's $550, not $1000.
https://www.specialized.com/us/en/bi...rt-650b/106497

...and that's a Specialized, you might be able to do better with a discount brand.

Programen, this is where I would have pointed you. Some of the bikes mentioned (maybe all?) will take fatter tires, possibly up to 40mm, which might be attractive for those bumpy roads. Lots of good tires available in the 35-40mm range.

I would recommend taking your time, doing research and riding as many bikes as possible. If you want to haul a lot of stuff, make sure the bike has braze-ons for racks and then figure the cost of purchasing/installing said racks.

On sale now for $550. Retail is $700, which is pretty much what I said about entry level being $700 to $800. I suspect once the sale is over, Specialized will raise the price back up, or likely replace this model with a new one that will retail for $700 or more.

On second thought, MRT2 is right, a hybrid may be a better choice as it would most likely ride better and faster. And if you found one that could accomodate 700x32s you'd be set. I commute on 700x32s on my semi-tourer, and my old roadie. 26x 1.75 on my old MTB-commuter.

One of the problems you might find looking for a used 90's MTB on Craigslist is that a lot of us that use those bikes as commuters don't want to part with them because they are so good. I wouldn't want to sell mine now, and most of us know that n+1 is the correct amount of bikes to own.