balthanon

I am looking to purchase a new bike after I accidentally destroyed my current one (blindspot placement and a poor memory while backing up with my car) and am having trouble deciding on the path I want to take, though I am leaning towards a hybrid again. Possibly the latest version of my current bike, in fact, but I'm not sure whether I want to upgrade or possibly shift to an actual mountain bike based upon my usage.

Current Bike: Giant Sedona XL (2004); has held up incredibly well over the years with almost no maintenance (tire and seat mainly) and was a really good fit for me. It hasn't seen an extraordinary amounts of activity over that time, but it handled well and I really enjoyed all the "extras" versus past bikes-- disc brakes, trigger shifters, and front shocks primarily (i.e. quality of life enhancements that have some tangible benefits for me).

Price Range: ~$500; I can definitely afford more, but I am incredibly price conscious and suffer from buyer's remorse pretty easily so I need to have some concrete justifications in my head for why I'm making the purchase and convincing myself that I'm getting more bike than the average for my money.

The other issue I have is that the more expensive the bike, the more uncomfortable I am going to be leaving it locked out front of a business, let alone stepping into a fast food place quickly to order a meal without a lock.

Usage: When it comes to usage, if I am on my own I am almost always on a dirt trail of some kind by preference since I like to be under the trees and enjoying nature while riding. This is primarily hiking trails in the neighborhood (some fairly hilly), but I have several parks within range so I tend to bike to them rather than drive, resulting in a fair amount of road/side walk biking as well. Beyond that, there are also a number of paved bike trails in the area and if I am meeting up with friends or family, it tends to be on those-- I'm not in the best shape at the moment (and it was one of my first rides after summer started), but a 20+ mile ride earlier this year with my sister was fairly tough.

The other thing I have really enjoyed in the past few years though are the single track mountain bike trails that we have in the area and I try to do that when I have more time available to burn than average-- that is my go to past time if I feel like really getting out and spending a decent amount of time biking. I enjoy a certain amount of intensity in this and the trails that I ride, but I'm fairly cautious by nature after an accident when I was in college so I do tend to take it fairly easy on actual mountain bike trails. That is likely part of why I haven't had any problems with my Sedona on the trails to date-- along with the fact that we only have two difficult/black diamond trails in the area and I've ridden neither of them.

Location: Northeast Ohio

Myself: 6'4", 250 lbs; moderately decent shape, but I have just been getting back into exercising regularly in the last couple of weeks after at least a year. I do have some shoulder issues (and occasional wrist pain that is in the vicinity of carpal tunnel, but not quite that severe), but it hasn't caused too many problems when biking. The combination does make me leery of the more aggressive biking posture that a road or mountain bike might require though.


Thus far, I have done a couple of quick test rides around the parking lot/grass on some mountain bikes that were recommended by one of my local bike shops (GTs in the $500-$600 range, though I didn't catch the version) and another is getting a hold of some XL bikes for me to try for the new Sedona and a Roam from Giant. I've also had a Trek Marlin 4 and Raleigh Tokul 2 recommended potentially, though I haven't had a chance to test them anywhere. One of the GTs felt okay, but a little bit awkward due to the lower handle bars-- not sure if it would be something I would grow used to or not.

I'm primarily looking for advice from people who are more dedicated than I in this space and possibly some justifications for my purchase that don't come from bike sales reps that have a vested interest in selling to me.

hokiefyd 

Giant still sells the Sedona with disc brakes (Sedona DX Disc). It lists for $510 and includes a basic 3x8 drivetrain with Tektro mechanical disc brakes and an 80mm Suntour XCT fork. What may be an even better value is the Roam (Roam 3 Disc) It lists for $490 and includes a similar basic 3x8 drivetrain with Tektro mechanical disc brakes and a 63mm Suntour NEX fork with hydraulic lockout and preload adjustment. I have a Roam 2 Disc (sells for $600) and includes a slightly upgraded 3x9 drivetrain with Shimano hydraulic disc brakes (and the same fork). The difference in power between the mechanical disc brakes and hydraulic ones is pretty noteworthy.

balthanon

One of the bikes that I tried at the bike shop I went to had hydraulic brakes-- I forgot to actually check and see what kind of difference that made really as well. The fork is actually something I haven't paid a lot of attention to either-- is there anything in particular I should watch for on that? Or pretty much just looking for how well the suspension works?

One of the local bike shops is actually ordering another Sedona for me to try-- and a Roam interestingly, so it sounds like those were good recommendations. They didn't have XL versions of either of the bikes.

mwl001

Suspension forks add weight and raise the stem of the frame due to clearance needed. They can be really nice if you ride rough trails an extended period of time. However I'd recommend a fork that will lock out the suspension for when you are on smooth surfaces, since you do lose some energy as the fork compresses. Hydraulic lockout is nice since you can open/close while you are compressing the fork - mechanical must be non-loadbearing to lock (so dismount only). A nice carbon fork might meet your needs just as well and weigh quite a bit less.

hokiefyd 

At this price level, the suspension fork will be coil-sprung (vs. pneumatic). I would definitely prefer a model with a lockout (either hydraulic or manual) so that you can lock it on smoother surfaces or unlock it on rougher surfaces. The Roam has a hydraulic lockout, while the Sedona's product info didn't mention a lockout of any kind, so it's hard to say whether it has one or not. On the Roam, the lockout is on the right side, and the preload adjustment is on the left side. There's actually a smooth cover over the preload adjustment, so it appears to not have it...just pop the cover off and it's right there.

balthanon

Thanks to both of you-- I appreciate the advice. I'll check the fork lockout and make sure I pay attention when I'm looking at the bikes tomorrow now that they're in. That sounds like it could be useful for making that transition from road to trail and back again. I'm okay with needing to get off the bike to take advantage of it honestly, I don't do too many rides where I'm alternating between the two.


As far as weight goes though, I pretty much assume that a full steel bike (assuming they still do that-- everything I've looked at is aluminum) vs a carbon fiber bike would make next to no difference in the effort it takes me to get from point A to B because the weight difference is likely to be maybe 1% of the 240 to 260 lbs I'm bringing along with just my body.

hokiefyd 

Unfortunately, "mid grade" steel bikes have really left the marketplace. Some still work more with steel than others (like Jamis for example), but by and large, "steel" bikes are either cheap Huffys or more expensive Surly and Salsa and such. It's hard to find an honest, good quality steel bike in this price range anymore.

Regarding weight, it's more of a subjective thing than it is an objective thing. Heavier bikes tend to "feel" more lethargic or less nimble, but you're right in that a 2 pound difference in a bike is less than 1% of the total rolling mass of the bike and rider.

balthanon

So I haven't had much chance to get out and back to shopping around for my bike for a couple weeks unfortunately. I finally went out again today and found that the bike shop which sold the Giant's had apparently had a run on XL bikes-- they had almost none in the shop and all of the Giant bikes were sold out and wouldn't be in stock for a month at best. (Apparently they're transitioning to 2019 in the next month or so, which is also going to jump the price up significantly.) Given that I hit actual mountain bike trails, they were also reluctant to sell me a Roam or Sedona. Stopped at another shop that sold Trek bikes and they were willing to put together a Marlin for me, but it will be a week or two at least before that is ready.

As a result I stopped back at the shop which offered up a GT and road that again. I found it was a comfortable enough bike aside from the seat and was considering pulling the trigger, however, in searching I turned up the fact that Dick's Sporting Goods actually offers the same bike-- a GT Aggressor Expert. All told, it has pretty much everything I was looking for in terms of shifters, shocks (locking), and disc brakes-- hydraulic in this case, which is a nice bonus. Given that I am completely without a bike at the moment, I'm leaning towards that bike, but Dick's also has another version they call the "Pro" which seems to be on perpetual sale for $400.

$100-$125 less is a fairly significant difference, but it looks like this would be giving up a fairly substantial amount of quality potentially-- what I assume is a better fork, shifter, and almost certainly better brakes. Would it be safe to say that all of the below is worth the price difference? (I'm not a big fan of the neon red for the Expert and like the colors on the Pro much more, but that is a pretty superficial difference.) Based on reputation I'm seeing online, I suspect that the bike would be better tuned and put together by the guy at the local shop too.

Specs
Search Dick's GT Aggressor Expert
Search Dick's GT Aggressor Pro

hokiefyd 

I like the Aggressor Pro better than the Expert for a few reasons. And I've looked at these extensively, and plan to buy an Aggressor Pro as soon as it goes back down to $299. The Pro and Expert are more or less the same bike. The Pro has a Suntour XCT fork (low grade) without a lockout, and the Expert has an All Terra (GT house brand) fork, which will also be low grade, but the Expert does have a lockout on the fork. I think this is less important for MTB, but I could be wrong. In any case, either bike would be a much better bike with a better fork, and either one could be upgraded here. The Expert has combined brake/shift levers, with cable disc brakes. They have the same brakes, the Pro and the Expert, which are Tektro mechanical disc brakes. The feel is poor (at least from what've seen in the store) and I wouldn't expect them to be good brakes. For $60-70, you can upgrade to hydraulic disc brakes and, because the Pro has separate brake and shift levers, you can leave the shifters alone and not have the extra cost of buying new shifter pods.

Both of these bikes are entry level MTBs. The Expert is about $500. You can get a Pro today for $399, and have hydraulic discs on it for less than the cost of the Expert with its mechanical discs. Or, you can wait for Dick's next sale and buy the Pro for $299, and you could probably put hydraulic discs AND an air fork on it for about the same price as a base Expert.

And that's where I think the value of the Pro is. For about 500 bucks all in, you can come out with a bike that you really can't buy off the shelf -- a decent recreational level MTB with a nice air fork and nice hydraulic brakes. Bikes with these features typically run upwards of $700 or more. The rest of the Pro (like the drivetrain) is still recreational level components, so you definitely have to decide how you'll use the bike. For me, it's definitely at the recreational level (I don't race MTBs), and the Pro is a great option for me. But not so much at $399. I'm waiting for it to go back to $299. It looks like we may have just missed one (last week of June/first week of July), so it may be another month or so before the Pro is back to $299. For 100 bucks, I think it's worth the wait.

balthanon

(Wow, my last post got mangled. No way to edit it at the moment from what I can see either unfortunately. I might need more posts for that.)

I'm definitely recreational level as well with my mountain biking, so this feels like a pretty good fit for me as well. I'm not at the point where I'm going to be doing racing of any kind and don't really have any plans to get there.

That said, from what I can see, the Expert does already have the hydraulic disc brakes (though I imagine not the best quality), though being able to get a better fork would probably be worth the wait potentially. I may call and see if I can get the deal early if possible, because I am missing having a bike I can ride at the moment.

• Part (Pro) (Expert)
• Fork (SR Suntour XCT DS, coil spring with preload, alloy lower legs 80mm travel for 27.5, disc brake specific) (All Terra CH-525 HLO , 29mm stantions, alloy lower legs 80mm travel for 27.5, disc brake specific)
• Bottom Bracket (Cartridge Sealed) (VP Cartridge Sealed)
• Shifter Shimano (SL-M310, 8 Speed) (Shimano SL-EF505, 8 Speed)
• Brakes (Tektro Mechanical Disc W/ 160mm Rotor) ((F) Shimano Hydrualic W/160mm Rotor, (R) Shimano Hydrualic W/160mm Rotor)
• Brake Levers (Tektro Disc Brake Lever) (Shimano Hydrualic)

hokiefyd 

Yes -- I'm sorry -- I think I was thinking about the Aggressor Sport. That's the one with a GT-branded fork and Tektro mechanical disc brakes.

The Expert's Shimano hydraulic brakes are probably just fine. They're probably M315s or M355s, which are basic no-frills hydraulic brakes (my Roam has the M315s). That's what I'd install on a Pro if I bought one, and you can buy a set of the brakes for about 60 bucks or so. At $505 selling price, already having the hydraulic brakes is a plus. The fork is still somewhat of an unknown. I wonder if it's a Suntour XCT, *with* a hydraulic lockout, but only with GT/All Terra branding. Hmm...

balthanon

Hmm... I should call the bike shop to check on that tomorrow when they get back in, since they have one in and see if he knows more. Should at least be able to tell me a bit more about it. I just asked about the locking last time I was in.

What kind of fork were you thinking of installing that would leave it around $500, incidentally? I've been looking and there are a few on Amazon that look like they would be better than the delivered fork on the Expert just based on the travel if nothing else. Suntour XCR seems like a possibility.

hokiefyd 

Yeah, the Suntour XCR seems like a decent/basic air fork. Not top of the line, and we won't have that for 500 bucks all in, but it's a good start.

Another bike to check out, also at Dick's, is the Nishiki Colorado Comp. Interesting 27.5+ MTB with SRAM NX 1x drivetrain for $375 on sale ($500 today...but it should be on sale at the same time as the GTs). It still has a mechanical disc brake setup, but it comes with a better Suntour XCM 100mm fork (vs. 80mm on the GTs) with a thru-axle in the front (nice to have at this price point), and of course the SRAM 1x11 drivetrain, with a 30 tooth chain ring and a 11-42 11 speed cassette. NX is SRAM's budget 1x11 setup, but it's still an interesting bike for $500 regular price, and under $400 on sale. Bought on sale, one could swap a hydraulic brake setup on it and have a pretty decent 1x MTB for less than $500.

I'm sure we could get more opinions on this at a site like big box bikes dot com, though. In fact, I know we can -- there are some threads there on these two bikes. Happy hunting -- I'm in the same boat myself.

hokiefyd 

I've been thinking and looking more at these Dick's mountain bikes. Both the GT Aggressor Pro and the Nishiki Colorado Comp use a straight 1-1/8" external cup headset. This means that they can accept only straight steer tube forks, which are getting harder to find. Most mountain bikes (and even many of our hybrids) have used tapered steer tubes for many years now (1-1/8" at the top, 1-1/2" down near the crown). This means that upgrading the fork may be difficult -- as in, it may not be cheap because you'd have buy one of only a few models of straight steer tube forks left in the marketplace. The Nishiki is an even more difficult proposition if a fork upgrade is anticipated. Not only does it have a straight steer tube, but it also has a thru axle with boost spacing (110mm hub width). This fork is almost certainly custom-made to Nishiki's specs, and a straight steer tube fork with boost spacing will likely be difficult to find in the aftermarket.

If you look online, on Suntour's website, the only XCR with a straight steerer tube is the 24" wheel size. All other wheel sizes use tapered steerer tubes, which won't work on any GT Aggressor (or the Nishiki Colorado). It looks like one has to step up to the GT Avalanche to get a tapered head tube.

Food for thought if fork upgrades are planned. I'm re-thinking the Dick's route at the moment. I don't think I'd want to be locked into the OEM fork type. I've been keeping my eye out for a used MTB option, and will probably prefer that to one without a tapered head tube.

balthanon

Hmm... that is a good point, I'm thinking the forks that I saw on Amazon were misquoting their specs then, given that I saw at least a 29" XCR with a straight tube. Honestly, I'm almost leaning towards just getting the GT Aggressor Expert at the local bike shop and living with the fork on the bike at this point. The rest of the components were all quite decent, and the fork did at least have a lockout. If I don't get an alternative fork at the time I purchase, I'm probably not going to upgrade it at all in the future. I wouldn't really want to chance building the bike myself and that's going to add a fair bit of labor to the costs and I suspect there is a significantly better chance the bike is put together properly there.

I took a look at the Nishiki as well, and that does look nice, but I suspect I'll prefer the slightly larger frame the GT Aggressor offers-- that said, our local Dick's actually has a few available, so it might be worth at least going to see if I can take a test ride. I do absolutely hate the color orange though, so I might need to look into painting the bike if I got that one. Red I could live with, orange would need to go.

One of my co-workers actually found a GT Aggressor Expert for $335 on tweakcycles.com too... unfortunately, it had $200 shipping.

hokiefyd 

So I bought a bike yesterday -- a Redline Zander from Walmart. There's a pretty lengthy thread on it on the Big Box Bike forum right now.

We believe this bike is actually the 2016 Diamondback Overdrive. Redline and Diamondback (and Raleigh, and others) are owned by Accell, with frames made by Kinesis. The frame appears visually to be identical with the 2016 DB Overdrive and, with Accell's recent desire to move the DB brand more upscale, we believe they're re-spraying the 2016 frames as Redline frames. They have identical specs to the GT Aggressor Pro at Dick's -- Suntour XCT 80mm fork, Shimano Acera 3x8 drivetrain, and Tektro mechanical disc brakes. Actually, the Redline comes with Tektro Aries brakes (the GT's brakes are Tektro non-model brakes). It has an 8/9/10 speed freehub cassette body on the rear wheel and 27.5" tires. It's basically the same bike as the GT Aggressor Pro, but it's 155 bucks on Walmart.com right now. Here's a brief video on YouTube giving an overview of the bike:


The 2016 DB Overdrive sold for $500 new. Then DB was clearancing them out a year or so ago at $250. We think that they maybe had a lot of surplus frames that they started putting the Redline brand on them, possibly just to liquidate them. Prices on these on Walmart's website vary by size, from a low of $155 for the medium frame to a high of something like $173 for the XL frame.

I ordered the 18"/medium size, and it's $155 plus tax on Walmart's website. The head tube, like other bikes in the sub-$500 class (including all GT Aggressors) is straight. But I happened upon a couple YouTube videos yesterday showing how to fit a tapered fork into a straight head tube. A couple companies make headsets specifically for this purpose -- the lower cup is an external cup and is larger in diameter to allow for the tapered fork. That seems like a legit option. But also, I found scores of XCM and XCR forks on eBay last night with straight steerers that would work on bikes like these, and they'd definitely be an upgrade over a basic XCT fork, so that's an option. My plan for this bike:

Purchase: $155
Hydro brake upgrade: $60
3x9 shifters: $30
9-speed chain: $20 (I have a spare 9-speed cassette at home)
Subtotal: $265

$265 for a pretty decent XC hardtail that will run most reasonable single track at the recreational level. I could shell out another $150 for a straight tube XCR air fork off eBay have a pretty legit trail rig for well under $450.

All of that obviously requires labor at home...bike shop labor rates would quickly push the cost of these upgrades out of reach (might as well buy a bike shop brand then). But that's my plan for a budget MTB.

Do post back here if you buy one, and what you bought! I'll probably do the same with mine.

balthanon

Huh. For $173, that is worth taking a shot on-- plus it's Walmart. If the bike is terrible or broken, I don't think I've ever run across something they won't let you return.

Went ahead and bought a 22" for $164 plus tax (total was about $175.) They were doing the standard "only 2 left, buy now!" thing-- I'll be interested to see if they actually do sell out like bigboxbikes was predicting. I'll have to decide how much I want to upgrade-- the brakes seem like a good candidate (and it sounds like that would necessitate shifters too?). I'll just be happy to have something decent to ride again though at a price level where I'm not going to cringe if I need to supplement it (with an actual hybrid) or change it up in a few years if something happens or I want something with more heft. (Whether that is upgrades or another bike altogether.) At this price, I'm also not going to have too many concerns about working on it myself or with my father-- he built me bikes from scratch when I was a kid, I suspect he could assist again.

It's a shame I didn't see this on express.google.com-- I have a 20% off for purchases through them (up to $30) and Walmart is one of the stores that participates.

Thanks for the heads up on this! Definitely looking like a nice deal.

hokiefyd 

I got my shipping notice today, and I should get mine on Tuesday. The pictures folks are posting are encouraging. It sure looks like a Diamondback Overdrive ST -- down to the wheels, hubs, etc. The frames sure are identical, at least to the naked eye. Curiously, the women's version, the Zarah (which appears to be a duplicate of the Diamondback Lux), is not clearance priced -- it sells for over $400. It seems like too good to pass up at the current price (the men's version).

balthanon

Yeah, I found the thread over on bigboxbikes that you mentioned and was looking over some of the things people were posting. Definitely looks like a steal, which is the best kind of purchase.

Mine is currently scheduled to come on Thursday and says it has already shipped despite ordering it fairly late on a Friday, so I may even see it earlier potentially.

hokiefyd 

My Zander came today, and you will NOT be disappointed. I've written on this forum before about how impressed I am with my daughter's Raleigh Alysa bike. The frame welds are very nice, the paint has a beautiful metallic flake to it, the graphics are applied straight and are finished very nicely under the clearcoat. All of this is to be expected, but not necessarily at the budget bike level. Her bike was $329 a few years ago, and I'm very happy with it.

The Redline Zander, predictably, has the same high points. The metallic blue color is just beautiful. It has a deep flake to it and the clear coat is very nice. All graphics are straight and centered, and under the clear coat. Except for where the chintzy factory-installed kickstand was, there isn't a mark on the paint anywhere. The drivetrain needed some adjustment, but it shifts perfectly. The derailer hanger seems to be perfectly straight. The front wheel had a bit of a lateral skip to it, but it trued up well. All bolts are tight and the headset preload came adjusted correctly. The hub bearings were also adjusted well. The cheap no-name tires spin perfectly straight on the wheels. I'm highly impressed with this bike, as I suppose I should be. It's a brand new Diamondback Overdrive ST, but for $155.

My Giant Roam wasn't as good from the factory. I've had to take it back to the bike shop twice. Once was for a bottom bracket click. They tightened it, and it made it better, but I swapped in an old bottom bracket from a '90s mountain bike that I had in my parts bin just to see if that would fix it, and it did (and it's still in the bike). It's back to the shop this week for a freehub that has gotten loud. It always sounded dry to me freewheeling on the bike stand, but it's now turned into a dry scraping sound, and you can hear it when coasting while riding. So it's in for that. To be fair to Giant, these are supplier parts that went bad and not their stuff (Shimano BB and Formula freehub), but it's noteworthy to me that the $155 bike from Walmart.com appears to be in better shape, at least starting out. The bottom bracket (I think it's a VP) is tight and quiet and the freehub sounds much quieter (like it has lubrication in it!). We'll see how it does in the long term.

Some smooth tires and a nice carbon fork would turn this budget mountain bike into a real nice hybrid.

hokiefyd 

It's a good thing we got 'em when we did. Walmart.com is now sold out on every size. I don't know if they'll ever show up on another retailer's website, but the show is over, at least for now.

Some pictures, just to tide you over until tomorrow. :-) The paint is just beautiful in my opinion. The frame looks very well made. There are no sloppy welds that I've seen. Of course, they're not ground down and smoothed over like you'd find on a more expensive bike. The luster of the paint and clear coat is really nice in person. All the components work well together. The tires are low grade, but look like they'll do just fine to start out on. It has mountain bike geometry -- mine is only an 18" frame (seat post length), but the reach is longer than any other bike I own. So it's got proper geometry for its intended use. It's going to be a blast to ride.


IMG_20180808_125801851 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125812705 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125823804 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125839582 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125852064_HDR by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125919434 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125940925 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_125950580 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_130034510 by jnjadcock, on Flickr


IMG_20180808_130057069 by jnjadcock, on Flickr

balthanon

Mine actually came today as well, though I've only had a chance to get it out of the box and get the handle bars (loosely) on the frame. Looking good so far, but I am hoping this is actually a 22" like I ordered-- didn't actually think to go check the box and I'll probably do that in the morning. It seems smaller than I was expecting, but that it is without the front wheel attached or the seat post in. I'll probably get those in place tomorrow to validate before I really work on tightening things down. Given that they're out of stock, not sure what I'm going to do if the bike is a smaller model. Might keep it (assuming Walmart can't get their hands on another) and give it to someone else unless it's a decent fit anyway. Someone at 6'1" in the big box thread mentioned that 18" was a good fit for them, so as long as it isn't a 16" it may be workable regardless since I'm only 3" taller. (Albeit all in the leg based on what the guy mentioned for his inseam. )

I am going to need to look up some good videos on ensuring that everything is in good working order on the bike. My last bike, I never really did much beyond replace a tube.

Nice set of pictures by the way, almost a better view of the actual bike that I had in front of me when I pulled it out in my dim garage.

AU Tiger

Wow, that's lot of bike for $155!
And nice looking to boot.

hokiefyd 

It really is too bad these sold out so quickly. One could buy one of these and put a $100 rigid fork on it and a $60 set of hydraulic brakes and basically have a $325 Giant ARX. This bike is fun to ride, though I've only taken it up and down the road a few times due to schedule constraints (and the seemingly endless amount of rain we're getting in the mid-Atlantic lately). I'll take the rain vs. drought, but it has been awfully wet...

Anyway, yeah, I think it's a ton of bike for the money. There are a lot of things one could do with this type of bike...upgrade to nicer fork and do trails, go all rigid and do trails, go all rigid and make it a fitness bike, or of course go out and do trails as it is.

I'm becoming an Accell fan (Raleigh, Diamondback, now Redline, etc). I have one of those corporate discounts with Raleigh, and I think Diamondback has the same deal that you can somehow sign up for. Discounts on Raleigh's website are often significant, making Raleigh's bikes usually a very good value. I'll be paying more attention to the Diamondback brand as well...and to Redline...at least to see what they do with this brand. It used to be a BMX brand (and a respected one at that) before being purchased by Accell. They still have BMX stuff on their website, though they've also labeled some hybrids and mountain bikes under the Redline umbrella in the past. It'll be interesting to see what happens with it.

balthanon

Outside of humidity, we actually have some really nice weather right now in my area (northeast Ohio); mornings would be perfect to go biking-- just need to open up my schedule. Oh, and actually get my bike built.

I wonder if those corporate discounts would actually put some decent forks in range of a discount build outside of eBay or Amazon third party resellers.