New bike advice

Hey all.
I'm a little new around here, and new to mtb'ing in general. I'm
looking to get a new bike, and I'm way out of my depth. I'm wondering
if you lot could maybe provide a little advice. After much (MUCH!)
searching, I've narrowed it down to either the Giant XTC SE (special
edition) 3, or the Kona Caldera. Does anyone have specific knowledge
of these bikes, or has anyone ridden them, that would be able to shed
some light on which I should go for? I know it's hard to say which is
"best", but i'm looking for best all-round features, for fairly heavy
XC'ing.

TIA,
DSt.

Any suggestions on a mountain bike? I might do a little trail riding
but nothing to hard-core. I am willing to spend up to $600. Front
suspension would be nice too. Any suggestions appreciated

A perfect bike in that price range would be the Giant Iguanna. Check
it out at www.giantbicycles.com

(JD) wrote in message . com...
user0 wrote in message . ..
Hey all.
I'm a little new around here, and new to mtb'ing in general. I'm
looking to get a new bike, and I'm way out of my depth. I'm wondering
if you lot could maybe provide a little advice. After much (MUCH!)
searching, I've narrowed it down to either the Giant XTC SE (special
edition) 3, or the Kona Caldera. Does anyone have specific knowledge
of these bikes, or has anyone ridden them, that would be able to shed
some light on which I should go for? I know it's hard to say which is
"best", but i'm looking for best all-round features, for fairly heavy
XC'ing.

Beware of misinformation and bad advice from lamers who have only been
riding the same trail over and over again for a limited time and think
they are knowledgable. They love to use brand names in lieu of real
advice and glean most of their "knowledge" from magazines.

JD

Great advice! You have to be able to differentiate between advice
given by those who actually own or have ridden the bikes they comment
on, and those who trash bike companies just for the sake of doing so.
Then there are those who don't seem to know the difference between a
URT frame and a non URT frame

(JD) wrote in message . com...
user0 wrote in message . ..
Hey all.
I'm a little new around here, and new to mtb'ing in general. I'm
looking to get a new bike, and I'm way out of my depth. I'm wondering
if you lot could maybe provide a little advice. After much (MUCH!)
searching, I've narrowed it down to either the Giant XTC SE (special
edition) 3, or the Kona Caldera. Does anyone have specific knowledge
of these bikes, or has anyone ridden them, that would be able to shed
some light on which I should go for? I know it's hard to say which is
"best", but i'm looking for best all-round features, for fairly heavy
XC'ing.

Beware of misinformation and bad advice from lamers who have only been
riding the same trail over and over again for a limited time and think
they are knowledgable. They love to use brand names in lieu of real
advice and glean most of their "knowledge" from magazines.

Or a single picture from a website.