I was thinking of picking up a mountain bike for single track, I'am curious as to what you guys think. I was thinking a hardtail with a 100mm front fork and disc brakes. What brand and model would you guys recommend. Also I wanted to keep it under a grand.

i just went through the whole thing of comparing bikes for under a grand and settled on a trek 9600, it has juicy 3 hydraulic disks, sram x-9 rear derailler, x-7 sram shifters, rock shox recon sl front fork, seemed like alot of bike for $890.00 it was a closeout though list is 1349

For new Giant and Trek seem to offer the best bang for the buck. If you are 'normal' sized, look on the used market.

There's nothing cooler than a Surly Pugsley. :smokin:

what do you guys think of the cannondale flash f3

If I was going to buy a hardtail, I wouldn't pay over $400 for it. Unless you are experienced and know that a hard tail with a short travel front fork is what you want, your going to upgrade to a FS soon enough.

what do you guys think of the cannondale flash f3



I very much enjoy both of my Cannondales, on the trail I ride an F5 that is a few years old and I picked up used for seriously cheap. It could probably use some upgrades on the components, but I don't ride often enough to dump money into something that works fine the way it is. And I like my Silkpath 400....it continues to give me great recreational and commuting use with little maintenance over the 7-8 years I've owned it.

Cliff notes: I like my two cannondales:D

Schwinn Homegrown off the used market
1999 and up have discs and you should be able to ang one from 200 to 500

i RECENTLY HAVE RIDDEN AND PURCHASED A fELT Q620 AND LOVE IT. ASLO GOT A CANONDALE F7 FOR THE WIFE. BOTH GREAT BIKES FOR UNDER $600 WITH GREAT BEGINNER COMPONETS