How old?

Look at Trek hardtails. For adult sized - 820 and Marlin 4 are in your price range. plenty of 24" and 20" wheel bikes in that price range too.

Also Giant will have something, but I haven't looked at their site.

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Thanks, 10yrs and 5'

Try bike nashbar. I just glanced over there right now and they've got some closeouts and sale bikes in the 300 to $500 range that would work pretty well.

Looks like they're doing free shipping on bikes right now too.

Last year, I bought a basic Specialized Rockhopper as my "beater" that I can hang on the back of my car, not care if it's raining and basically just abuse when it's not nice enough to ride my Tri Bike. It's a 29r with mechanical discs. Normally they are around $500, it was marked down to $425. I've beat on it pretty hard and it just seems like a solid bike for not a lot of money. I would not hesitate to recommend it to anybody that wants a basic MTB in that price range.

Specialized has a 24-inch MTB that is similarly spec'd out. I believe they call it the Riprock 24" and it's $500. Now that I think about it, that's probably what I'll get my son when he's 10 or 11.

You might imagine that things are more enjoyable on decent equipment. I just sold my wife's old hardtail (niner emd w/ xtr 2x10, reba sl, AC wheels, thomson, king... ...etc - solid spec'd bike) for $300. While it is probably closing in on 10yrs old it's damn sure better than what you'd be looking at new. what's my point? Lotsa nice used bikes out there looking for good homes.

The Scott Aspect series might be worth a look. I worked at a local bike shop part-time for a while and built quite a few of these. I can't recall the exact prices, but I thought they ranged from around $450 to $900.

The Norco Storm series also has some potential. The same bike shop I worked for started carrying Norco about a year ago and from what I've seen, they are a really nice bike at a pretty competitive price.

Jamis has their Trail-X, and the Felt Dispatch 7 gets close to your price range.

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Travis Rassat
Vector Cycle Works
Noblesville, IN
BikeFit Instructor | FMS | F.I.S.T. | IBFI
Toughman Triathlon Series Ambassador

I was going to say Trek 820 as well.

https://www.trekbikes.com/...kes/820/820/p/17027/

My son had one years ago and we were happy with it. Better than a Target/Wallmart bike but not an every day single track bike. He used to ride while I ran some local trails.