What is a good, solid mountain bike for not too much money?

Joseph P: What is a good, solid mountain bike for not too much money?
My family has just started going mountain biking at various parks and other locations and I realized my old bike is a little small. I need a full sized men’s mountain bike with full suspension and (preferrably) disc brakes. I am hoping to spend around $ 300.00 but if it’s worth it, I can spend more.
Any insight about a mountain bike around this price will be very helpful.
Thanks
Also, I found a cool Kawasaki mountain bike, but I don’t know if it’s any good.

Answers and Views:

Answer by Carl_the_Truth
If it’s sold at Target, Walmart, K-Mart, Toys R Us, it will be low end junk. $ 300 will get you an entry level mountain bike. I’d suggest you look at your nearest bike shops. That’s all they sell. And they’ll be put together by someone who knew what they were doing. Sorry, but $ 300 isn’t going to get you a whole lot of bike.

Answer by sfr1224
If you only have $ 300 to spend, stay as far away from full suspension, and disk brakes as possible. A $ 300 full suspension bike with disk brakes is a heavy, heap of junk that will not perform well on trails. In fact, it will be pretty much unridable on anything other than a nicely graded gravel road.

For a trail worthy ride, you need to go to your local bike shop and check out their hardtail offerings. Most likely, they’ll only have a bike with rim brakes at this price point. However, you’ll find these bikes will be much lighter, properly assembled, and have serviceable components.

At the bikestore, I suggest you look at brands including: Trek, Specialized, Cannondale, Gary Fisher and Giant. Personally, at this price I’d stay away from Schwinn, Diamondback, Kawasaki, etc.

Hope this helps.

Answer by †o†
Kawasaki doesn’t make good bicycle. Who cares if its cool if it brakes down on you on the trail. Trust me…it will. Check out your bike shop or www.craigslist.com.

I got a nice used specialized mountain bike from craigslist for a little under $ 200 and it has been great in trails.

Giant and Specialized and Gary Fisher are my personal favorites.

If you do get a used one take it to your bike shop and have them tune it up before you ride.

Oh, and you won’t be able to get a full suspention for $ 300 either, but personally I prefer a hardtail for trails.

And please buy it from people who actually know about bikes and how to properly put them together. Walmart and other Big box stores are just going to give you a cheap peice of china crap.

I suggest looking for used or going to a bike shop and seeing if you can get last years model hardtails for a little more money maybe a hundred or two more.

Good luck.

Answer by M V
The Trek 820 will suit you and is within your budget. I rode one for many moons. Go to a bike shop tho; they may have a used bike with better components.

Answer by phghb
although it is a bit over your budget i wold buy a specialized hardrock sport for £215 ($ 420) it is solid as a rock and i have had mine for 3 years and have had nothing wrong with it also you could go to a second hand shop which would be cheap and almost as good as new.