I recently visited the Fruita Fat Tire Festival and got a chance to ride the Marin Rift Zone 3. The Rift Zone 3 is a 29″ full suspension trail bike. Designed around a 120mm rear suspension and 120mm fork the Rift Zone sits squarely in the short travel trail bike category.
Hardtails are how most people get on the trails for the first time. Whether it is a $200 Walmart bike or a $2000 XC machine you can learn something and gain valuable skills on a hardtail. However, around the $1000 mark there seems to be a tipping point where you get quality components and geometry that you won’t want to immediately throw away after a year of riding. In this round-up, we’ll share our top best $1000 hardtail trail bikes. There are a couple of criteria that were used in building this list. First, we allowed a little bit of wiggle room on the MSRP price knowing that sales, dealer incentives etc would allow you to obtain any of these bikes for right around $1000. Second, if the manufacturer specced the bike with a coil shock they were disqualified. Low end coil shocks do not yield a capable trail bike that can be tailored to rider weight the way an air fork can. Finally, if the manufacturer specced the bike with a 2x or 3x …
The bike maker whose namesake is where it all began, has announced a new line of aggressive hardtails that look like an appealing option for those who want to get back to their riding roots. The Marin San Quentin hardtails slot in between the already existing Alcatraz dirt jump bike and more tail/xc oriented Nail Trail. The San Quentin, is a 27.5″ bike in all sizes, unlike the Nail Trail that slides between 27.5″ and 29″ based on frame size. And, unlike many bikes you might compare the San Quentin to, this is 27.5 non-plus, which should help make the bike more agile. The San Quentin also receives a slacked out 65° head tube angle which should stabilize things when pointing the bike downhill. 425mm chainstays will keep the rear end compact and easy to move around. A vast majority of hardtails come specced with a 120mm travel fork. On the San Quentin 2 and 3 however riders will get an extra 10mm of travel with either Rockshox Recon or Revelation forks. The San Quentin 1 which …