best hardtail
 

what is the best stock hard tail for under $800 from your exp.

anything that says "Cannondale" on the downtube

Well this is all going to be personal opinion. It depends on where you live and demographics. What type of riding are you doing?

********************************************************************************************************************************************??:mad:

I second that.:mad: But everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

3rd!!

Giant Rainier

-Middi-zon

Jamis Komodo

Yeah, i was thinking that . . . but, a Specialized Rockhopper is pretty nice.

Hehe...this is a funny thread...:)

Right on!

Hardtail for general mountain biking. Dirt mostly mabey jump once in a while. Im in PA and nothing beastly steep or rough here, just average.

Well, I am normally a hardcore ht fan but after the trail tonight and getting bucked off like a bronco and just plain eating dung the entire ride on a trail I know and love I don't think my ht will cut it for what I want to do. My back, my knees and the parts on my bike got demolished....dually time.

Crack'n'fail? You're kidding right? Overpriced garbage.

Mountain Bike Action did a "best bike under $700" last year and the highest ranked hardtail(2nd overall) was the Gary Fisher Tassajara. This is a great bike for the $$$. Check em out

I love my Cracknfail.

Cracknfail has a bad rep...I don't like them...but I do know some seriously hardcore guys using them and abusing them. They can't all be bad. I bet there were bad batches or something.

I dunno but id probably say that the Claud butler Cape wrathj is pretty good.... u get a lot for ur £ (£399)

I loves my Cracknfail.

bad batches in the mid 90's before they sorted their design with the original CAAD2.
Been brilliant ever since.
Oh and I loves Headshok too.
Lefty gives me a hard on.
Scalpel is cutting edge
Jekyll is schitzo...

and lets get talking about their excellent road bikes.......

Cannondales get a bad rap, but sometimes they do some stupid stuff. I will say that a lot of people damage their C'Dales by riding them beyond their intended purpose. i.e., hucking on a Scapel. However, C'Dale releases some products before they have done enough R&D just to get the product "Out There". Their Bonded (not welded) swingarms SUCK! They will break and when they do it's usually catastrophic. They KNOW it's a inferior design but do nothing to fix them other than replace them under warranty. The whole release issue of the Gemini was a fiasco. They released them, then recalled a bunch due to inferior craftsmanship.

All in all Cannondale is a great bicycle and a good company. Glad to see they finally got smart and ditched the MX division.

L8R

thats not strictly true.
They placed a noticfication for owners to get teh bike checked by an LBS to identify which did not conform.
If you know how they work in mass production you would understand how it is not always possible to identify these problems during QC.

I have a GF Marlin stock and would it be worth it to upgrade to any of these suggestions in a year or two?

Steel is real. I'd suggest my bike, but they stopped making it in '96.

If I had a GF Merlin, the first thing I'd probably upgrade is the fork. The forks that come stock on those feel like mashed potatoes.

its 80mm of travel, so like 100mm or a stiffer shock? anyone ones in mind?