Strong frame. Components are great for the price paid. Crankset is excellent. Great entry level bike at a great price.

No lockout on the suspension.

A good singletrack bike for a great price.

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Trek 3700 and Specialized Expedition.

Great entry level bike. It handles city riding fairly well when not broken

Something is always breaking

Now if your a beginner like i was when i bought this bike (with no intention of using it every day) its a good value. I bought the bike about 5 months ago and rode every day, and i was not gentle with it, and it lasted great. That is up until a week ago when parts started to go. I ended up breaking the rear axle and the bearings in the rear gears, im sure it has a name but im still getting into this stuff, is shot for some reason and needs to be replaced. I will also need a new chain soon but i think thats the story with every bike. Anyway, bottom line is i am saving up for a new better bike. Happy shopping.

A strong frame, well-made by bike pros, topped off with useful components.

The geometry.

A surprisingly nice bike for $220.00. But there is an uncomfortable "scrunched" feel because of a heavy emphasis on an upright riding position. In the same vein, it is difficult to transfer power to the drivetrain because your center of gravity is too close to the bottom bracket. You feel as if you are sort of "pushing down" instead of a fluid circular pedaling motion. On hills you can feel this in your knees. If the bike is intended for casual road, or dirt road, riding this shouldn't be a problem. But this is not a bike that has geometry that would support aggressive or long distance riding, off or on road.
I purchased this bike for winter commuting and it has done what I wanted it to do, and I am EXTREMELY impressed at how well built this bike is. The welding is superior to bikes I've seen costing five times as much. The paint job is nice, the wheels and tires are sturdy and functional, the drivetrain components have worked flawlessly. It's a winner and has changed my mind about things made in China. But damn the American engineers who designed the geometry. What could have been a four star, twenty year workhorse of a bike is instead only suitable for casual riders wanting a relaxed upright position. I love the bike, I detest the geometry.
Just a last thought, and I should mention I ride a Klein Quantum most of the year, there is no justifiable reason for bikes to be as expensive as they are. There is no justifiable reason for bikes to be as functionally worthless as they are. Suspension is nice for downhillers, but is irrelevant, and potentially dangerous, for most bike riders. The bike industry is run by faddish children who, to be honest, don't really ride bikes all that much. They are, through overpricing and floods of doo-dads and gee-gaws, strangling American cycling.
End of rant.

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Schwinns

This bike is really a good value for the bucks, and you won't find better in this price category. Some other similarly priced bikes will have better components, but their frame will not be as good as this one. The rigid fork, as ridiculous as it might seem today, handles great uphills and on road sections. I have done some very hard riding with by bike, and the fork didn't even flex. The geometry, even if it's not as good as the Genesis, works great fot me. I rode about 2500 miles in one year with it, and nothing broke, proof that you don't need to spend 2000$ to get a quality mtb. I have no problems on road sections, where the tires are reasonably fast.

Honestly, I do suffer a lot on bumpy stuff and downhill and the only thing that keeps me riding this bike is when I realize that suspension forks didn't exist 10 years ago, and there were still thousands of happy riders back at that time. The transmission sucks on some occasions, but for $250 I couldn't really expect a bombproof transmission.

Untill I have enough money to buy a Supercaliber 29, I will keep riding this bike for thousands of miles yearly, even if sometimes I get strange looks from riders around for the lack of suspension fork. To me, the fact that you can buy such a quality frame for that little money is impressive. If you are a value conciencious rider on a budget and you don't care about the fork, this is your ride.

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Trek 800 sport

Good Riding Position, Solid Frame (I'm searching for something good to say here)

Crap components and transmission. Generally Fragile.

Seriously... The Gary Fisher Tarpon bike is trash. If you plan on doing anything close to trail riding or are going to ride your bike often spend some more money and get a real mountain bike (in the end it will save you $$ and frustration). I'm warning you DO NOT buy this bike. My ten year old CCM puts this bike to shame (in fact this is what I end up riding on trails most often since the Gary Fisher is always broken). I have had it for one summer and have broken the bottom bracket 3x, the rear axel and quick releases 2x, and the crank. Since I have had so many problems they have decided their supposed 1 year warranty no longer applies. Seriously..... if you want to really ride STAY AWAY from this hunk of junk!

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I also have older Schwinn and CCM MTBs

Great value for an entry level bike. This was my first "real" bike, and I have been extremely hard on it. It can sure take a pounding without damaging components.

The drivetrain is the weakest part of this bike. I have bent the chain and worn out the teeth on the front chainrings in one season. I have just purchased upgraded components for this reason.

I bought this bike with the intentions on doing light trails, but ended up getting into more technical riding. If I had known that I was going to be doing such aggressive riding, I probably woudn't have bought this bike. But it is a great value, and parts can always be changed to suit your needs.

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Trek and Specialized