[Rrsport]

Hello everyone I'm new to mountain biking, I'm now considering on buying my first mountain bike i live in Los Angeles and thinking of riding on palos verdes and the santa Monica mountains nothing crazy I'm not gonna be jumping of rocks or stuff like that. the bike I'm considering getting is the trek 4300 but I'm reading that the spinner 300 forks suck and hard to find replacement parts in the USA so now I'm thinking of the trek 4500 with rock shox I only have $800 for a hard tail. I'm 5'6 160 pounds please help me choose a my first bike or suggest something else thanks..

 

[jeffj]

The biggest nit I have to pick on the 4xxx series bikes from Trek is that they are about 2" shorter in the top tube than the 6xxx series frames (which are closer to a more 'normal' geometry for real mountain bike riding).

At the $800 pricepoint, you'll be into the nicer entry level bikes, but that means you'll be working with a fork that isn't super great, but will work OK, and the rest of the bike might be worthy of a fork upgrade down the line.

A couple bikes I think would be worth checking out for you:

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-US/bikes/model/talon.29er.2/7377/44106/

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCProduct.jsp?spid=52807&scid=1000&scname=Mountain

http://www.konaworld.com/bike.cfm?content=nunu

 

[Rrsport]

Thank you jeffj but don't you think a 29r is a bit to big for me just wondering I saw one at my local bike shop and it look real big for me..