Hey all,
Well a couple years ago I quit riding simply because my bike was stolen. Before that I had been biking for about three years every weekend in local (VA, MD, and WV) trails, almost all single track, predominantly rocky, technical stuff.
So, I'm moving back up to VT and quiting paintball so that'll alleviate quite a bit of funds, and I'm really excited to get back into riding. I figure I have a budget anywhere between $1200-$1500, and am really looking for a solid, lightweight ht with quality parts.
Unfortunately my LBS is severely limited and how do you say, not to be trusted?, as they've been accused of some seriously shady business dealings in the past.
So unfortunately, I'm really up in the air in this one. I'm not sure if building the bike piece by piece would be as cost effective as buying a whole bike and improving from there.
I'm roughly 6'1 and 180 lbs, if that helps, and am really open to anything. Any help anyone could give me in pointing me to the right direction or sharing opinions would be of a huge help to me. My previous bike, the one stolen, was a Rockhopper Comp Disc, and it really was a dream riding it, however the quality of some of the stock parts were lacking.
Well a couple years ago I quit riding simply because my bike was stolen. Before that I had been biking for about three years every weekend in local (VA, MD, and WV) trails, almost all single track, predominantly rocky, technical stuff.
So, I'm moving back up to VT and quiting paintball so that'll alleviate quite a bit of funds, and I'm really excited to get back into riding. I figure I have a budget anywhere between $1200-$1500, and am really looking for a solid, lightweight ht with quality parts.
Unfortunately my LBS is severely limited and how do you say, not to be trusted?, as they've been accused of some seriously shady business dealings in the past.
So unfortunately, I'm really up in the air in this one. I'm not sure if building the bike piece by piece would be as cost effective as buying a whole bike and improving from there.
I'm roughly 6'1 and 180 lbs, if that helps, and am really open to anything. Any help anyone could give me in pointing me to the right direction or sharing opinions would be of a huge help to me. My previous bike, the one stolen, was a Rockhopper Comp Disc, and it really was a dream riding it, however the quality of some of the stock parts were lacking.