Brand new member here. OK, I've got it whittled down. On Wednesday I'm going to go to the bike store and buy either (and this is my order of preference) 1) Giant Yukon 2004 2) Raleigh M50DX, or 3) GT Avalanche 3.0.
I can get each for around $400. I just can't afford a more expensive mountain bike. So I'm going to get one of these.
The Yukon is normally around $499 but is marked down to make room for 2005 bikes.
Their components seem similar, except the Yukon has Deore on the rear rather than Alivio or Acera. Shifters are EF-35 for the Yukon versus Alvio MC20 and ST-EF29, respectively.
I like the color of the Raleigh, but that sounds so trivial.
