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help narrow these choices down

Spidey

Chimp
Aug 16, 2004
4
0
Sacramento,CA
Can I get some help narrowing these choices down? I'm looking for a mountain bike in the $6-800 range that I can ride trails with and maybe do some light downhill riding. I spent the last weekend visiting every bike shop in my area and looking at tons of shops online. Right now I'm interested in the Iron Horse Warrior Expert, Fuji Tahoe, Giant Rainier, and Kona Cinder Cone. Any input on these or maybe some suggestions on models fitting my criteria I may have overlooked? Thanks.
 

chicodude

The Spooninator
Mar 28, 2004
1,054
2
Paradise
downhill and 800 dollars dont go together. those are all good choices, id say the rainier. But you should really check out the giant warp. its right in your price range
 

jacksonpt

Turbo Monkey
Jul 22, 2002
6,791
59
Vestal, NY
The Iron Horse or the Kona would be my picks, with the Kona being my favorite. But take a spin on them... 10 minutes or so around the parking lot or up and down the street. See how they fit you and buy the one that feels the best.
 

Kornphlake

Turbo Monkey
Oct 8, 2002
2,632
1
Portland, OR
Get any of them, $800 isn't a huge investment (reletavely.) They'll all hold up for the first couple years, after which you'll know if you want a more downhill oriented bike or something else. A XC/trail bike is going to generally be much more versatile than a DH bike, especially at this price. There's no sense in getting something like a P2 only to find that it's geometry is difficult to climb on and it's on the porky side. It's alot easier to go downhill on the wrong equipment than to go uphill, at least that's my experience and downhilling isn't for everybody.

Other bikes you could consider are:

specialized hardrock/stumpjumper
cannondale (whatever model fits your budget)
Gary Fischer (whatever model fits your budget) I really like the geometry of Gary Fischer bikes for XC riding
Trek (whatever model fits your budget) These bikes are known for taking a beating

Don't get too caught up in frame materials, at this price they are all about the same, generally they'll have pretty similar geometry. Things to look at that will really make a differance are (in order of importance)
1) Buy whatever the shop that has the best service carries. Ask if you can ride bikes that are 3 times your budget just for comparision and see how they react, do they want to sell you a bike you can't afford or do they want to make you comfortable knowing you got the best you could afford. Do they take the time to fit you to a frame or do they just pull one off the rack that's easiest to get to? Ask them if they'll throw in a free water bottle or give you a pair of shorts when you buy the bike. Do they give free tune-ups for a month, a year, forever? Will you get a discount on parts purchased for the first year, will they let you swap out parts you don't care for (pedals being one of the most common.) Ask them about their competitors bikes and why you should buy their brand over what another shop carries, if you've done your homework you'll know if they're blowing smoke or if they've got valid points. Buying a bike in this range you're likely to get something that will break within the first couple of weeks, although it may be something minor like a break cable or a spoke or it may be something like a crank arm bending. A good shop will help you get it replaced for free or at the very least they'll sell you an upgraded item for a minimal cost, buying from a shop that just wants to make a sell will leave you high and dry.
2) the fork, a oil damped fork will make a much bigger differance than a xt shifter or a neat looking quick release
3) Disc brakes, some of the cheap disc brakes are no better than vee brakes but if you can find a bike with avid mechanical disc brakes or hayes hydraulic brakes in this price range you'll be glad you did, deore mechanical and hydraulic disc brakes are supposed to be descent too. I wouldn't bother with any of the other brands of disc brakes out there, my experience is that you get what you pay for, if they aren't a big name brand or if the same name brand is found on bikes costing several hundred dollars less they probablly won't work better than the equivalent vee brake, in many cases vee brakes are better. Don't let your decision revolve around this one part, vee brakes do work extremely well when set up properly and most modern bikes in this price range have disc brake adaptors on the frame and disc hubs, you can always add those later for a couple hundred dollars or less.
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
chicodude01 said:
...But you should really check out the giant warp...
If he wants to ride UP too, I think the Warp would be too heavy.

I say you lower or raise your budget. If you drop it to $500 range, you could get the Giant Iguana instead of the Ranier. The Ranier *is* a good bike, but if you don't know what you want, perhaps a full-suspension, then you might not want to spend the extra dough.
 

Kornphlake

Turbo Monkey
Oct 8, 2002
2,632
1
Portland, OR
For a first bike I always reccomend a hardtail. You'll be able to afford better quality components, especially the fork and breaks over what you'd find on the comparably priced FS bike. There's no sense in buying a bike that has full suspension but because of the cheezy component spec you don't feel comfortable using the suspension.
 

Spidey

Chimp
Aug 16, 2004
4
0
Sacramento,CA
Thanks everyone for all the replies so far, especially Kornphlake for that large bit of info. After riding a few more bikes, I'm considering either the Rainier or Gary Fisher Hoo Koo E Koo. I'm still open to any other tips or suggestions anyone might have. Thanks again.
 

Spidey

Chimp
Aug 16, 2004
4
0
Sacramento,CA
What type of riding is the P2 designed for? I was looking at a Jamis Eureka '03 that had a similiar frame style as the P2. Checking out mtbr.com, I'm guessing bikes with a really angled top tube are for jumps? The Eureka felt nice to ride up and down the street but I wasn't sure about trail riding with it. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this other than inquiring about why that type of frame is more suitable to drops than a conventional XC type frame? Sorry if that sounded really noobish, I'm just trying to absorb whatever info I can. Thanks.
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
p2 is more urban riding, less designed for XC. It looks like you want a more general riding bike. Something that you can use for years even after buying another bike or two and give you an idea as to which direction you might want to go. A hardtail XC bike is a good compromise between urban, XC (full suspension), DH... heck, throw some slicks on it and take it for a road ride.

I say don't just buy the bike, buy the LBS. Two years ago, I bought a XC bike, last summer I bought a roadbike and my LBS has be great to me. I've bought, experimented, and returned a lot of different items. They never give me a hard time, they often give me free services, they've helped me with warranty issues.

IMO, every XC bike listed in this thread is a good bike. Don't worry too toooooo much about it. Ride all the ones you like, especially if the shop will let you take it for a few hours to do a quick and easy trail ride. Buy the one you like, and keep riding :)

chicodude01 said:
I'm not trying to burn him, just want him to stfu.
 

s1ngletrack

Monkey
Aug 17, 2004
762
0
Denver
Take the Eureka over the P2 - the P2 is great, but not for all around riding. I rode a P2 after riding a Cove Stiffee FR and it felt tiny (it was a large) - great for what I used it for (urban/park), but it was like riding BMX on the trail.
 

Kornphlake

Turbo Monkey
Oct 8, 2002
2,632
1
Portland, OR
I rode over 20 miles on my BMX bike last week while my shock was at progressive being rebuilt. That doesn't mean that BMX bikes are the best for any one situation. I generally feel that the brakes on that bike are sub standard (of course they're not very good brakes to begin with) the frame geometry was okay for riding around one day but for repeated long rides I'd develop knee problems for sure. Singlespeed was kind of cool, not much differance in the long run there. I was only riding on paved roads and sidewalks in this instance however, if I were riding down steep hills with roots and rocks the head angle would have been way too steep, the seat tube is too short for efficient climbing and the top tube is just a little too short for anything but general banging around or it's given purpose which is jumping and racing bmx. I'd say the P2 is in the same category, it does accel in certain areas and it is capable of being pedaled on long rides but a generic XC geometry frame would be much more comfortable and efficient on long rides and wouldn't suffer that much compared to the P2 on dirt jumps and such with a few adjustments to stem lenght and handlebar rise.
 

fr-rider

Monkey
Aug 14, 2004
111
0
Albuquerque, NM
Spidey said:
Can I get some help narrowing these choices down? I'm looking for a mountain bike in the $6-800 range that I can ride trails with and maybe do some light downhill riding. I spent the last weekend visiting every bike shop in my area and looking at tons of shops online. Right now I'm interested in the Iron Horse Warrior Expert, Fuji Tahoe, Giant Rainier, and Kona Cinder Cone. Any input on these or maybe some suggestions on models fitting my criteria I may have overlooked? Thanks.
Consider the Kona Stuff...
 

hardtailer88

Chimp
Jul 11, 2004
90
0
Bethesda MD
Cool choice. I got my younger bro a ranier. Remember you can always upgrade parts. i originally had a jamis eureka and then upgraded every single part piece by piece over a year (frame last) and ended up with a $2500+ bike. Then as i got more serious built a dh bike and then an xc ride. Upgrading is awesome and is a good way to learn mechanic skills and about the technologies out there.
 

me89

Monkey
May 25, 2004
839
0
asheville
how am i a retard. is all you do talk crap to people i have better things to do than putting people down, LIKE RIDING
that post is how you are retarded.now seriously a p2 for xc oriented newb come on man i thought you knew something about biking.or maybee not. so thats why you got the p2.now its all comming together. you were a newb who didnt know anything about bikes and wont quite whinning cause you wanted a xc rig but you got a dj and urban bike. so you didnt want to be the only one so you suggested it to a newb. okay :eviltongu :eviltongu :eviltongu :eviltongu :eviltongu

ohh and the reiner is a great choice. friend of mine has had his for about 3 years and its been through hell and back. :thumb: