I've had great luck with Gary Fishers in that price range. They make a solid bike. I've beaten on mine fairly harshly. My only complaint is the crankset - but it's on the entire low-end range of the whole Trek family, and at 13 I doubt your son can put the kind of torque on it that I can.

Check out the Advance and similar bikes down in that range. I can't speak for the fork - I swapped out to go full-rigid. The bike's still comfortable even like that, so I'd say the frame is a solid buy. Components are nothing special to speak of, of course, but you knew that about the price point you're looking at.

Save yourself $400 and go to Wal-mart. You can get a nice disposable dually, to see if he likes it, and can find places to ride. If he gets into it and wants to upgrade give Kona a ride.

Check out mtbr.com classifieds. I found my son a used Haro with XTR for $450.00.

Specialized Rockhopper... but I'm with the other poster in recommending that you look at used ones on http://www.mtbr.com/market/ or at your state's mtb racing website.

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