poor college kid took the advice of his buddies with the trek 490 and i ordered one...seems pretty solid for a 500 dollar bike...anyone out there got one and hate or love it?

I got a buddy who just got the 4900, he got disk brakes on his, and so far he loves it. I run on a 6500 and have beat that bike all to shit. Still holds up nice. The front shocks are entree level at best. Other than that it is a decent beginning bike.

Good luck with it

well i piced the bike up today and took it for a good 2 hour ride including some fire roads single trak downhills blah blah blah basically an all around good fun trial iwth easy and tough stuff(remember i havent been on a bike in 6 years) anyway i had a BLAST the bike seems to ride pretty sweet and seems to like me almost as much as i like it...i know the components are more entry level but i am more concerned about cheap durability(like my TOY) then i am high performance(once again like my toyota lol) anyway it was a blast

Trek is a really good brand. My roomate ownes 2 of them an 820 that he bought 3 years ago and has beat the hell out of it and it still performs pretty good and his newer bike a 6700 has had it for little over a year and has but some pretty good poundings on it and they both hold up great. I myslef just bought a Trek 4500 and love it to death, got it Sat. afternoon and have gone for a ride on it at lest once a day seance then. We (me and my roomate) do a combo of mountain bike riding and trials riding and if yall know anything about tirals it put a bike threw hell and these Treks hold up real well.
Justin<><

well i have been riding the piss out of that bike for about a week now and no major problems...i did mess my pedal up by clnging it off a rock super hard but nothing major..jsuta little bearing click...anyway so far so goood the bike kicks serious ass i really like it....thanks for the input guys:D

Sweet gald you like it and hope you have a blast with it.
Justin<><

Well its been almost a year, and still no major problems at all. My buddy just picked up a kona dog or some crazy whacky shit. That thing is badass, makes me hate my trek, although i spent about a 1/4 of what he did:D Anyway for a 500 dollar bike its holding up pretty well to a LOT of trail riding