the best advice ive seen on this thread is to keep the bike you have and ride the piss out of it! (and possibly yourself)
then figure your budget and see if you really need or just want to upgrade.
i got back in shape by riding the mtb as well, and my girlfriend learned last year on a 10+ year old, 35#+ yellow beast of a bike. it was heavy, and wouldnt win any beauty contests, and it was tall and hard to dismount in a hurry, but the geometry was sound, the bike was solid, it could take a hard crash, it wasnt expensive, and it was a great learning/training and even citizen racing on beginning and even intermediate terrain. she's riding a fuji team ht now, with a manitou sx ti fork...there's nothing wrong with older components, and they're less expensive than new stuff.
where are you in relation to laurel highlands (off laurel mountain road)? that place is a BLAST. trails for every level of rider, beautiful scenery, extremely technical stuff if you're in to that, cruisers if youre not. the guys at speedgoat are really helpful and knowledgable since theyre in the area.
whatever you eventually do, dont just put together a budget and then go buy the blingingest dual squishy you can afford. decide what kind of riding youll be doing--double track, xc adventures, bike paths, gravel paths, commuting, technical trails, trials, dh, free--and then look at the most
reliable frame, headset, bar & stem, seat, fork, brakes, derailleurs, cranks, hubs, rims and tires, all in that order, which you can afford and are appropriate to your riding. you can even get a hardtail frame designed for a suspension fork, and a suspension-corrected rigid fork, and ride rigid for a while. it does wonders for your technique and tracking, and you'll be amazed at what you can do when you finally upgrade to a suspension fork. for most riding, you dont need rear suspension, you need good technique, and starting with suspension makes it harder to learn good technique. get the suspension later...if youre amazed at what you can do with a good suspension fork after riding rigid, you'll be really psyched to find the kind of drops, hits and bumps you can point-n-shoot with f/s.
my ass always hurts after the first few rides. keep 'em short, and get a saddle with a cutout in the middle for the boys. regardless what else you have in mind, do your future sex life a favor and get a good comfy seat with a cutout!
dave, it's good to see a set of kookas still in service! mine were the old cnc milled variety and finally broke last year (ten years!)
. i upgraded to hones...they're nice but i miss the kookas, in a purple/blue mix with a red spider...i kept the busted kookas, theyre too beautiful to ditch.
also fwiw you can usually find xtr rear derailleurs on ebay for about 30-60 bucks. definately support your locals, as when it breaks youll take it to them if you cant fix it, but dont pass on deals like that.
places like universal cycles and speedgoat will let you build a bike on their website, then they put it together and send it to you. speedgoat is sorta local to you, at least theyre in PA, and theyre great guys. almost all the online stores have a brick/mortar storefront, they are local but can drop-ship or ship from their location, and shipping on a complete bike is less than sales tax on a complete bike. the locals also know the best places to ride and may be willing to show n' tell their favorite trails, or may have regular organized rides you can join, so if youre fat and outta shape like you and me you'll have others to help push you.
for the record, i'm riding a ten year old steel hardtail frame and headset, and until recently it had a 10yo stem and narrow bars, bb and cranks. it was recently appraised for an insurance claim (ups dropped it and busted a cromo fork and damaged the front hydro brake...idiots...) at thirty-five...so hardtail does not mean cheap, it only means a different style of riding.
stop reading this and go play
.
-sean
