I read the old reviews and looks like a great bike. Obviously I'm looking to keep my cost down here. So far just looking at pics on CL, bike looks to be in good condition.

I'm new into MTB and am just riding a wal-mart schwinn sidewinder that I picked up at a consignment sale for $30. i started out just riding small hills new my house (so. california) but have graduated into the mountain single tracks. I'm not much into the downhill, but maybe that is because this bike won't hold up to it but I really enjoy climbing. I could see doing some downhilling the future.

Now, is a 14 year old bike in excellent condition a better value than buying something new say off bikesdirect.com for 300 to 400?
One thing the GT lacks is disc brakes. That seems like a certain for downhills no?
Are HT more for climbing and FS more for downhill?
Is there a great weight diff between HT and FS?

thanks

I had a 1999 XCR 2000 a few years ago, and nice as it was, the ride was very dated compared to a modern bike.

The biggest issues with the XCR series were you felt perched on them, as opposed to being part of them when riding, and bearing spares, you can still get the main pivot bearing, but getting it out could be an issue. One think I do remember, and the main reason for scrapping was the bike was noisy as well, and squeeks could be hard to diagnose where they were coming from. In the end it was cost effective to strip and sell as parts and upgrade the frame, rather than listen to the noise when riding (it was bad)

For brakes, if riding on your own, not having disc's isn't an issue, when riding with others who have discs, their absence will be noticed.

For climbing, never had any issues with it, did the job well, although not as good as a good HT.

for weight, a HT will almost always weigh less than a FS bike, from memory the XCR wasn't that light.

For value for money vs a new bike, with out knowing the price of the GT and knowing the BD bikes you are looking at advise would be hard to give.

sorry, i always manage to leave something out when posting.

the GT is $400, sure its somewhat negotiable though. and just looking at the 300 to 400 level bikes at bikesdirect. so many choices really hard to focus on one. being a new rider there's alot to absorb in terms of components and all.