Recommendations for mountain bikes:

[Archaea]

As if the Archaea household does not have enough diversions, Mrs. Archaea just returned from her first weekend as a successful mountain biker, pocketing 400 bucks for her wins.

She did this on an ill-fitting borrowed, heavy bike.

Thus, while we are not looking for top of the line equipment, we are looking for an introduction to MBing. We know the best stuff has dual suspensions that can lock up going up the hill but become suspensions down the hill.

We want cross country bikes.

What are reasonable recommendations?

Mrs. Archaea, Mr. Archaea and Archaea junior wish to pursue this new endeavor to gain more overall fitness. I'm cheap but not easy, or maybe I'm easy but not cheap.

[bluegoose]

Sorry, wish I could help you here. I still ride a bike and heavy, and haven't researched much into MTB bikes or components. All I know is to make sure it has good front end and possibly full suspension. Your body will thank you on a rough descent.

[mtnbiker310]

My wife loves her Santa Cruz Juliana. It's essentially a women-specific Superlight, and really is quite light. With the pro-pedal shocks they have these days, pedal bob is minimal, if any, and it's a very smooth and peppy ride. The Juliana has been rated one of the top women's xc bikes for the past several years by Bicycling magazine. The price point (at least when we bought it 1.5 years ago) was quite reasonable for the bike & component spec.

For men, the best suspension designs have been the Santa Cruz Blur and the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR. I've got a Blur and love it (I have the original - they now have split the line into XC and LT models). You really don't have to lock out going uphill with those bikes. In fact, I've found it climbs better with the suspension active, because you can keep the power on while going over bumps, rocks, and loose stuff that would make you throttle back when on a hard-tail.

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by mtnbiker310

My wife loves her Santa Cruz Juliana. It's essentially a women-specific Superlight, and really is quite light. With the pro-pedal shocks they have these days, pedal bob is minimal, if any, and it's a very smooth and peppy ride. The Juliana has been rated one of the top women's xc bikes for the past several years by Bicycling magazine. The price point (at least when we bought it 1.5 years ago) was quite reasonable for the bike & component spec.

For men, the best suspension designs have been the Santa Cruz Blur and the Specialized Stumpjumper FSR. I've got a Blur and love it (I have the original - they now have split the line into XC and LT models). You really don't have to lock out going uphill with those bikes. In fact, I've found it climbs better with the suspension active, because you can keep the power on while going over bumps, rocks, and loose stuff that would make you throttle back when on a hard-tail.

I've heard of the Santa Cruz, we have a guy here who assembles those frames with componetry to match. Do you recommend XTR or XT with XTR blend, or are you a SRAM guy?

[mtnbiker310]

I've been happy with the XT components. If you look into the Blur, the XC is a little quicker-steering, lighter bike for true cross-country rides (fast uphill and downhill), which is what I like. The LT is a little heavier, a bit slacker geometry, tuned a bit more for 'all-mountain' (i.e. more downhill bombing than climbing).

[Archaea]

Originally Posted by mtnbiker310

I've been happy with the XT components. If you look into the Blur, the XC is a little quicker-steering, lighter bike for true cross-country rides (fast uphill and downhill), which is what I like. The LT is a little heavier, a bit slacker geometry, tuned a bit more for 'all-mountain' (i.e. more downhill bombing than climbing).

I don't want the downhill bombing as that's when crashes reall occur.