I ride Trek Nice bikes its light enough for me to carry with one hand with no problems

I think it's important to ride a high quality expensive bike as well as a $500 bike to see the difference for yourself. It definitely comes down to how much you're actually going to use it. When I was a teenager my best friend lived next door and was a semi pro mountain biker. He always had two of everything (mountain climbing belts, kayaks, bikes, etc) and so I always got to ride his backup.

What I remember about good bikes was how light they were (huuuge difference) which lets you sort of put the bike where you want it to go much better. Using bike shoes that attach to the pedals made a massive difference too, because you can get power on your upstroke. Totally different experience and worth it imo. Gears were the other thing, and I think the most expensive. If you get a set of great gears and derailleurs, it really makes a world of difference. Smooth, fast, powerful..

The only other thing I'd say is really necessary is a wicker basket and rainbow streamers. Must haves.

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/images/...id_Comp_xl.jpg

Bought a Boardman Hybrid last month after riding a Boardman HT for the last couple of years. It's a great bike. Very light, very very fast, strong, handles light trails (bumpy not rocky) fine, on the road it's a dream and stops like you hit a brick wall. Only thing I changed was swapping the seat off my HT as the one the Hybrid comes with is a nut crusher. Excellent bike for the money. :thumbsup

I'm going to tape a baseball card to my frame so it hits the spokes and makes that motorcycle sound.

:2 cents::thumbsup

I ride a Raleigh Matterhorn on the trails around Niagara - under $500. Good solid frame, front suspension has good travel and absorbs most of the washboards, comfortable (although I replaced the stock seat with a nice cushie one).

http://netconvert.net/raleigh.jpg

I ride this Raleigh now, the frame is from 1976, made in Japan, size 62 [!].
Nothing special or 'of-great-value' on this bike, except for a Shimano Redline 8 gear hub, but I LOVE it and it... I am going to buy another one because of this frame is Huge and its uncomfortable to use for me [6 feet ~ 180 cm].

Here's the next one I plan - finally I can afford it :pimp :
http://apro.bikemag.hu/browse/orszag...ss-l92054.html
This is a ~1400 usd barely used bike.

Probably stick with a nice hard tail at that price. Hydrolic rather than cable discs are very nice to have.

That being said I love my old Trek 7000 and ride it off in the mountains of BC every week... You don't need anything too fancy to have fun.

I got a Marin Muirwoods 29ER

http://2012-bike-images.s3.amazonaws...WOODS_29ER.jpg

http://www.marinbikes.com/2012/bike_...Muirwoods_29er

I think its going to be just fine for the 8+ miles of bike trails where I live in Desert Shores, and I've discovered a lot of other bike trails in nearby communities.

This bike has been fun for a couple of weeks and now I'm doing 11+ miles per day.

Going to upgrade to a road bike. I'm thinking Cannondale CAAD10 3-Ultegra.

http://cdn.cannondale.com/catalog/pr...ax3c_wht_9.png

50 mountain bikes.

Is this what you guys are looking for ...

http://www.likecool.com/Gear/Bike/Th...la-Trike_1.jpg

I have a friend who loves this company :upsidedow

A good one starts at $500.