by John Cane

Created on: May 13, 2010   Last Updated: May 18, 2010

When picking out a new mountain bike,  many people have a tendency just to look for a brand they know, or simply buy what their local shop is pushing.   But here are a few things things you should consider when you pick your brand. 

First different brands have different overall goals.  So what is the best brand for 24 hour endurance racing, might not be the same as for freeride mountain biking, or around town use.   So before we start picking brands lets me a little more specific about our use because different brands shine in different areas.

Around town and Light mountain biking.

The most common use for a mountain bike is actually not mountain biking at all, but commuting and riding the neighborhood with the kids.   Mountain bikes are great for this because they are durable and you don't have to worry about them mechanically.  For this use you will want to buy a relatively inexpensive bike so you want to select a brand that focuses on mid to low-end bike.   We should also make a note here that when we say "brand" we are typically talking about the frame of the bike,  the rest of the components are pretty universal between bike brands.  Because most people buying in this range cant tell the difference between the way different frames ride, what we are really looking at here is who gets puts the nicest combination of parts on their bikes for the lowest cost. I.e. which bike is the best value.

So lets look at some brands by group.

Pacific Bikes and Similar:  Pacific, Next, Schwinn, Mongoose, Huffy, Razor etc.  

These are basically your big-box store brands.  And largely fall into what we consider disposable bikes.  That is you might be able to get a season maybe two out of them if you don't ride much,  but in the end the cost of repairing them is more that you purchased the bike for in the first place.  One major problem with them is that the mechanics that assemble them are typically either not very good or are being rushed to the point that even if they were good they wouldn't be able to get the job done properly.  You also don't get the included extended service, so you will need to find (and pay) a mechanic to take care of the bike after the break-in period which is usually about the first month. These brands don't make the "best of" list,  but if you have rapidly growing child with no one to pass the bike down to, a disposable bike may be a

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