I have been riding bmx since forever but I have recently been getting into mountain biking after an experience at Austin's greenbelt. So, what would be a good bike for trails like the greenbelt and memorial park trails? I was kind of thinking of one the bigg'ns bike from gary fisher. Let me know what you think.

I ride the trails at Memorial Park and the Ant Hills here in Houston. I ride a Stumpjumper FSR, and can't be more happy with it.

PS...be prepared to get A LOT of differing opinions. Bike choice is a very personal issue.

I would recomend either a kona kikapu or kikapu delux $1k-2.5k(depending on amount you want to spend ) Or a giant nrs series bike $1.5k-3.5k Bay area schwinn sells the giants and third coast bikes sells the konas http://bayareaschwinn.com/site/intro.cfm http://www.thirdcoastbikes.com

I would recomend either a kona kikapu or kikapu delux $1k-2.5k(depending on amount you want to spend ) Or a giant nrs series bike $1.5k-3.5k Bay area schwinn sells the giants and third coast bikes sells the konas http://bayareaschwinn.com/site/intro.cfm http://www.thirdcoastbikes.com
Or you could get a cake from bike barn http://www.bikebarn.com:rolleyes: I hear their mechanics arent too good though.;)

I've been going to bike barn for several years (the Kirby location) and can say there mechanics are hit or miss. They have one who is pretty good (Kirby store again) and the rest are marginal. Largely the reason I've learned to build and fix my own bikes. The sales staff is not the best either.

I agree the FSR XC or the cake would be good choices. A 3-4" travel bike is really all you need for memorial park although the extra travel is nice.

I pretty much ride my trail bike now, but was very happy starting off with the shorter travel bike.

The only bike barn I would trust to work on my bikes is the clear lake one. There are only a few people I trust with my bike, Bret(bike barn), anthony (bay area schwinn), and dennis quick (third coast bikes). And myself of course.

If you come from a BMX background, more than likely you're gonna want to start jumping it, doing urban, hitting some drops. Look for an "all-mountain" bike--not an XC bike. Something like an STP or a Coiler. You'll be happier with it in the long run.