Originally Posted by
corrado33
A raleigh tokul 3 is $1000 with an air fork and a decent frame and OK components. Great reviews for that bike. More than most people will ever need.
Personally, at 5'5", I would not buy a 29er. Small bikes with large tires makes frame geometries weird. Aka there are compromises made in the frame geometry to allow for the bigger tires.
Looking at the trails around Vegas, a full suspension bike is overkill.
You can't have a budget of $900 and not look at bikes with "entry level components." You're in the "entry level" price range. That's what you're going to get.
This is all my opinion of course, and what I'd tell any of my friends. Buy what you like and ride the crap out of it.
The shop just found me a Giant Talon (hard tail) 2015 27.5 2 for only 880 "out the door", the 2016 model is 1,100 (no taxes). I think I'm going to go with this instead.. you are right, the trails I am riding probably don't need a FS, and I think the peace of mind of not knowing how it was ridden for 3 years is better...