[carnage]

im looking for some used Hard Tail Steel Mountain bikes to try out and hopefully buy one. im really only familiar with Konas for the moment but got no problem trying some other ones. im looking for something similar to my 2000 Kona Fire Mountain for my dad, any suggestions. i would prefer to keep it under $200, if that means its a project bike for the first few weeks thats fine with me.

 

[fred3]

By the time you build it up with good reliable parts you'd have been better off buying new. Still I'd check the for sale ads in the paper and the bike shops. You might get lucky. Steel though? Good luck. Must be some around. Have you done a google search?

 

[Manicmtbr]

www.marketeastplaza.com will yield you a nice steel Dirt Research frame for around your price. You can get a Columbus EL-OS frameset for $250 plus shipping. Good standard geometry that works well with a 80 MM or less travel fork, good construction, nice handling. The guy is the old distributor for the brand and he is blowing them out. He owned Yakota before Dirt Research. I rode one for a bit and enjoyed the ride. I kind of wish I still had the frame.

 

[JmZ]

www.marketeastplaza.com will yield you a nice steel Dirt Research frame for around your price. You can get a Columbus EL-OS frameset for $250 plus shipping. Good standard geometry that works well with a 80 MM or less travel fork, good construction, nice handling. The guy is the old distributor for the brand and he is blowing them out. He owned Yakota before Dirt Research. I rode one for a bit and enjoyed the ride. I kind of wish I still had the frame.

I checked 'em out a while back... like a couple of years ago. They had some good steel stuff there, but they were very firm on their pricing, and while E-Bay and places like Jenson/Pricepoint/NasbPerforSupergo out there it was VERY hard to justify what they were asking. I ended up going with other sources for my rides (built up multiple bikes at the same time.)

If you have to have the Yakota/Dirt Research then they did have some decent stuff, but don't expect it to be as cheap as a Nashbar or Price Point frame.

JmZ

 

[drunkle]

once ran across a guy selling an old bontrager steel bike for ~300. if it werent a 19, i'd have snapped it up... or at least, offered him 2 for it...

 

[CS2]

I checked 'em out a while back... like a couple of years ago. They had some good steel stuff there, but they were very firm on their pricing, and while E-Bay and places like Jenson/Pricepoint/NasbPerforSupergo out there it was VERY hard to justify what they were asking. I ended up going with other sources for my rides (built up multiple bikes at the same time.)

If you have to have the Yakota/Dirt Research then they did have some decent stuff, but don't expect it to be as cheap as a Nashbar or Price Point frame.

JmZ

Sorry about being so late to the party. I came across this thread while doing a search on "Dirt Research." The frames are being blown out on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.com/New-MTB-Columbu...ryZ98083QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Can't beat the price. Good luck

Tim