First off, I feel like "fresh kill" for even being on this forum. Sort of like a lost sheep in the company of wolves.

Another thing is that I'm a devout "road bike rider" exclusively, and have been for thirty years. I've never even rode a mountain bike, so my knowledge of them are non-existant. However, through a good friend of mine in a trade deal I managed to acquire a nice, slightly used MTB bike for my son who wanted to ride off-road while he's going to college. The bike is a GT 'Talera' with 4130 cro-moly frame that I believe is called a 'hardtail' (has no suspension. The bike has a 7-speed gear cluster in the back with triple chainrings, and is Shimano 'Alivio' components and shifters. I dont know what year the bike is, but I would guess maybe 4-5 years old.

My son loves this bike, and has a lot of fun on it, so I was just wondering if this is an "okay" bike and not junk. The 'Alivio' components seem good, and it shifts well so far, so what do you guys think about it? For a MTB bike it seems kinda light to me, eventhough that could just be perception.


Thanks guys.

Your post is long and my time right now is short, so welcome.

Talk witchya laytah!

it was a decent bike for its time. i bought one new back in 95, and still ride it to this day (as my commuter) with most of the original parts.

Thank you 'lofnsjoke'. My son, who is 27, just couldnt get into the whole road bike scene. So far he's having a blast with the MTB's though. He's even managed to talk me into riding it, my first time ever on a mountain bike. It was fun.

Alivio is at the low end of the Shimano line, but still better than what you find on department store bikes and will work for many years if you're not too rough on it. I had a similar bike to yours with Alivio stuff and it worked great, very crisp and snappy shifting. Yes, it's made of thin plastic so it's going to break eventually. My dad couldn't figure out which way to push the thumb shifter and used his powerful thumb muscles to rip the thumb lever right off. I guess he thought, "hmm this lever isn't moving, maybe I'll just push harder.."

Your dad sounds about like me, "if it dont work - Make it"

Still, I appreciate your response. My son has since been bombing down roads and paths I wouldnt even dare to take any of my road bikes. And another thing, that bike has some crazy low gears in it, what us old timers call "wall climbing gears". I can see now how MTB'ing is a lot of fun. Very different than what I'm used to, but a lot of fun.

The bike is decent, and really thats all we can ask.

Thanks ~ Don

Welcome; and don't worry 'bout us - - this is a pretty mellow group. I'm the only true jerk here, although there are some wannabes .

This guy has you beat.

If he's having fun on it it's a good bike! Now that he's hooked he's going to learn about the dark side of MTB. One fun bike leads to the purchase of progressively more expensive fun bikes.

It's a decent entry level mountain bike, and it's probably closer to 12 to 14 years old.