Jno

Gconan

The possibilities are endless. Research.
Mtbr.

grubetown

1. Trail bike
2. LBS, Youtube, MTBR and Pinkbike

hig4s

My favorites that can handle some serious trail work and a bit of down hill are, in order, Evil Insurgent, Giant Trance, Santa Cruz Bronson, and Salsa Redpoint. But there are bikes I did not like that much that others swear by, and at least a dozen brands that are just as high of quality as those I listed. There are tons of great bikes and riding style and personal preference make a huge difference. Try to have him find brands doing demo rides on the trails.

PumpedUpKicks

LBS. Also, if you look online check if a demo tour and see if a stop is in your area and test ride some bikes. Facebook has these events listed too.

pressed001

If he wants to go both UP and down mountains I would suggest a hard-tail. This is a bike with only front suspension. A fully, or full-suspension bike is heavier for the up-hill hauls. They are also more expensive.

Given your region and the price range, I suggest one of these. Swiss made and so sweet. The TE01 is always an absolute pleasure to ride. It's like getting onto a horse that weighs only 7kg's.



The size of the bike frame is very important and here your friend must be careful. A bike shop is likely to sell him an incorrect size bike just because they want to get rid of their stock. How big is your friend?

Jno

Jno

Jno

Gconan

Aye, me neither. But that is why I left a link to a large MTB forum, to help with information.

Darth Lefty 

Well, here's what I think you need to know.

There are fully rigid bikes. Often single speed and steel.

There are hard tail bikes. These are usually a budget option. Mine is. I like it. They generally are what an average person who had a MTB twenty years ago thinks they are going to get. You can get a decent one around $1000 (US) or a really nice one $2000 or a really custom one $3000.

There are full suspension bikes. You can divide these by style of linkage and by suspension travel. The two main linkage styles are short links and long. Short link bikes are regarded more efficient pedaling and long ones are more "active". For cross country racing bikes have about four inches of travel. For enduro racing they have six or more. In between are average trail bikes. Mail order aluminum ones can be found under $1500 on clearance but $2000 is a pretty good starting point for a bike store brand at full price.

The fad in geometry right now is raked out front like a dirt bike, while the seat tube is very upright. Many bikes can take 27.5 "plus" tires or 29 inch regular width tires.

Nearly all bikes around and over $1500 will have a telescopic dropper seat post operated by a lever on the handlebar instead of a quick release on the saddle like the old days. They will also have 1x11 or 1x12 drivetrains instead of the old customary triple crank. They will have hydraulic disk brakes.

Frame material is mostly a matter of weight and price. Cheaper bikes ($1500 hard tail or $3000 FS) will be aluminum. More expensive ones will be part carbon fiber. Really expensive ones ($9000) will be mostly carbon fiber, even the linkages and the rims, and astonishingly lightweight. Steel is still available for hard tails and single speeds, generally sold with misanthropic marketing.

And whatever you think the trend is, you can find someone marketing the opposite.

pressed001

This is all good information from Darth. Whether the prices are expensive or cheap is really a perspective issue. Important though is the gearing especially when your friend wants to go both up and down the mountain on his new bike.

I am particularly confused with the new marketing behind the 1x11 speed bikes. These you will find have a limited size front chainring usually maxing out at 38 teeth. The rear is also limited to minimum of 11 teeth. Even though the largest rear cog is a big as a pizza, the other two extremes which I just explained will limit the bike strictly to the up-hill haul. If you hit the flat or the downhill, the gears lack dramatically. This is why I stick with slightly aged 2x10 speed systems. Anyway, what I can get behind is the new 1x12 boost systems. These have a 10 tooth rear cog which gets you the gearing range required for a CC bike. Just make sure that the front cog is a 38 tooth.

Regarding your friend's size, he's slightly taller and heavier than I am and I prefer size L bikes or a M with sufficient stem length. This is but subjective and dependent on the bike manufacturer. Simply put though, I think a size L would work for him in most cases.

Darth Lefty 

My y2k bike and my new bike have about the same bottom gear. The top end is definitely lacking two shifts but they were shifts that would only have really been used on paved downhill or with commuter slicks. Since mountain bikes are more focused on trails now and less on being do-everything bikes like they were in the 90's, those top two gears get sacrificed.

11 speed was very popular. I don't think people are really that sold on Eagle, but SRAM pushed it out so quick to the lower groups that seemingly every bike comes with it now. It does get you one more shift wider range, whether it's higher or lower depends on the ring size.

Also - 1x drivetrains remove one variable from suspension design. It was impossible to zero out anti-squat for three different ring sizes because there were three different torque arms. Now there's just one.

Jno