[Beastmaster]

Frankly, I'd steer away from it. There's been some reports that the folding mechanism lock gets rounded out and eventually fails.

I personally like the more well known (and well abused) bikes from brands like K2, Cannondale, GT, and others.

What type of mountain biking do you do/want to do? That (along with body type) governs what type of bike you get.

I, for example, use a K2 EVO swingarm frame that's set up for a moderate downhill type courses. I use this mainly because a guy my size (5' 11" and 260 lbs) will kill most soft tail bikes...especially the rear shock/spring and the front forks. I've already killed 2 rear springs...and I'm on a heavily upgraded third spring.

Or, for those who like lighter bikes, you can always go with a hard tail (no rear shock). My wife's Cannondale is a hard tail with a shock seat post. Of course, Cannondale makes great women's frames and my petite girl likes the lighter bike.

Wanna do tricks? Then you want what's known as a Freeride bike. You'd get at least a good 5-6 inches of wheel travel (huge for a mountain bike) with these.

So - what do you want to do with the bike?

-Steve