New Mountain Biker...HELP!
 

Im considering buying a fairly serious mountain bike to put to some good use starting in the spring. I will be riding almost everyday on my campus which is rather large (U. Maryland) but on weekends I anticipate heading to N. Virginia. I am looking at the Trek Fuel 80 or Possibly a Fisher Sugar 3 or Fuel 90. Will I really notice a difference in spending the extra money to get the better bikes considering I have no intentions of racing or competing, just somewhat serious recreation. Feel free to make any other suggestions too, and suggestions on best places to buy are always welcome! Thanks!

Howdy Terrapinz, Welcome to the Forums!
All the bikes you mentioned are nice. When you get into the even higher end stuff, you're mostly paying for weight reduction and somewhat better components. And when you wear something out, which you will eventually do anyway, you can always replace it with a better component then. If you're not racing, all the bikes you mentioned would be great rides. That's my 2 cents anyway. Happy Riding!:)

All are good bikes, but I would lean towards the Fisher only because it is the first cross-country full susp. that has made we consider riding a dual susp. Personally, I prefer hardtails and if you go that route, you will get a lot more for the money. I would try to locate someone who has the bikes in question and try to do a REAL test ride on some trails. Offer to buy around of beers if necessary, it will be a worth while investment.

Don't forget there are plenty of good trails 20 -30 min. away outside of Balto. Drop a line if you need info.

The current Sugars only have 2 inches of travel. Wait till the 2002 are available, they can switch between 2 and 4 inches of travel.

This is a little off-topic but if I understand you correctly you are going to ride this to school and lock it up. Don't! Get a junker for this purpose. I know it's a shame not to ride a great bike as much as possible but if you lock a bike like this up on a routine basis it will most likely disappear. Sad but true!

Dude - check out this nice Airborne Ti Bike.
Corsair
Marzocchi Bomber fork
Deore group
Rolf Satelite wheels
$850 Used for a magazine review.

http://www.airborne.net/