Top 5 VALUE Hardtails to Buy in 2024

hardtail mountain bikes represent many things to many people they're lightweight easy to maintain and can greatly up the fun Factor on otherwise mundane Trails but one of their most alluring traits is their price the lack of rear suspension and the components in manufacturing complexity that go along with that means that you can usually get a hard tail for about $11,000 less than a similarly speced full suspension bike these factors have led to a huge increase in their popularity over the last few years and nowadays there's more dial hard tailes on the market than ever before but just like their squishy counterparts no two hard tailes are made alike and that can make it difficult to find the best hard tail for you so in this video we've chosen five of our favorite hard tail mountain bikes all for less than $2,000 we looked at several factors when choosing the bikes on this list including the manufacturer's reputation and reliability frame geometry fit for the type of riding the bike is designed for modern features and of course part spec lastly keep in mind that this is by no means an exhaustive list of the great hardtails that are on the market so if we missed one of your favorites let us know what it is and why you like it down there in the comments now on to our first award which is the best allaround Do-it all hardtail mountain bike and the winner for that is the Trek Rosco 8 which lists for $1,999 and weighs 29.9 lb or 13.6 kg the frame features generous chainstay and down to protection internal cable routing iscg tabs and is udh compatible it's also available in six sizes extra small to extra large and can fit a claimed Rider height from 4' 9 all the way to 6'5 the smallest size extra small comes with 27.5 in Wheels but every other Rosco is going to come with 29in wheels moving on to the geometry and this bike has a pretty slack 65° head tube angle it also has a 74.7 de seat tube angle and in the size large has a reach of 4 470 mm a stack height of 644 mm and chain stays of 430 mm across all sizes speaking to the trail bike intentions of the Rosco it's got a 140 mm Rock shock 35 gold fork in the front I was impressed to see that the bike also comes with a pretty nice drivetrain with a sham NX shifter and cassette as well as a GX derailer it also comes with some strong and reliable four piston Shimano mt420 brakes a trans X dropper post with a 150 mm of drop on the larger sizes and some tubeless ready Bond Trager line comp wheels that have some pretty dang High engagement hubs which is rare to find on a bike at this price point lastly the Rosco comes with some pretty beefy 29x 2.6 Bond Trager xr4 tires all in all the smart well-rounded geometry paired with a pretty awesome part spec and the fact that you can pick up a treack just about anywhere in the world means that we're going to have to give the Rosco 8 4.5 out of five goats our only only real drawbacks here is that it is on the upper end of our price category and even with that you're not going to get the nicest Fork out there and that dropper post could have a bit more travel on some of those larger sizes but if you can afford it and you don't demand the most refined or tunable suspension products then the Tre Rosco 8 is a pretty solid option some other bikes to consider in this category are the canyon stoic 4 and the orbea ly h30 moving on then to our second award and that is the best CrossCountry hard tail and this one's going to go to the canyon exceed cf5 which lists once again for $1,999 and weighs just 25.9 lb or 11.7 kg and a big reason for that low weight is that this is the only bike on today's list to have a carbon fiber frame and that frame has some very clean internal cable routing it actually goes through the headset so if you're not into that you might want to look elsewhere and it also has a cool integrated seat post clamp that sits kind of underneath the top tube again making this bike very clean and sleek and really speaks to the CrossCountry racing nature of the bike and speaking of CrossCountry racing you really see that that is what this bike is built for when you start to look at the geometry the exceed cf5 is available in five sizes from extra small to extra large and they claim that can fit Riders anywhere from 5'6 to 6'3 every one of these bikes rolls on 29in Wheels and has a very steep head tube of 69° that's going to make the bike steer quickly which is great for technical climbing and quick passes when you're again racing cross country moving on to the rest of the geometry it has a 75° seat tube angle which is paired with a relatively short 455 mm reach in the size large the size large also comes with a relatively low 615 mm stack height and each size of the exceed is going to come with size specific change States anywhere from 425 mm to 435 mm to make sure the bike feels balanced regardless of your height so we we can see that XE racing there in the geometry and we can also see it in the part spec the biggest thing here is the fork it only has 100 mm of travel and that's brought by The Rock shocks Recon gold RL the exceed cf5 also comes with a 12-speed Dior drivetrain some two piston Shimano SLX brakes and a super dialed wheel set the DT Swiss Ln XC wheels these Tu bless ready rims are wrapped in some fast rolling 2.25 in schwabe racing Ralph tires that are also two ready lastly as you'd probably expect from an XC race hard tail the exed cf5 does not come with a dropper post all in all this is a purpose-built CrossCountry race machine at a pretty dang affordable price and honestly my favorite thing about this bike is probably the frame it's super dialed meaning if you wanted to buy a bike on the cheap and upgrade it as you go you shouldn't have any issues putting some really nice Parts on this bike and for that reason I'm going to have to give it 4.5 out of five goats my only real complaint is once again that it is towards the upper end of our price limit and then also the fact that yeah it's a purpose-built cross country bike that means it's not going to be quite as good on a trail ride or maybe just going out for a cruise with your buddies but if CrossCountry racing is what you're into it's going to be hard to beat some other dialed cross country bikes for you to check out under $22,000 are the specialized chisel and the polygon sine C5 but if you're tired of hearing about bikes that have 100 mm of travel and are designed to go up hills then you're going to like our next category because now we're talking about the best aggressive hard tail for under $2,000 and the winner here is the Marin San Quinton 3 which lists for $1,799 and weighs 32.8 lb or 14.9 kg a cool thing about this bike is that it's available in either 27.5 or 29in Wheels depending on your riding Style and what you want to do with the bike but for this video we're going to be focusing on the bike that comes with those bigger 29 in Wheels keeping things nice and modern the frame features fully internal cable routing and iscg TS moving on though to the geometry and this is where we start to see the true Enduro nature of this bike start to come out it has a 64° head tube angle and a very steep 77° seat tube angle this steep seat tube combined with the fact that it's pretty short means that you should be able to size this bike up if you want something that's going to be ultra stable for all your Enduro racing the size large has a reach of 47 70 mm a stack height of 645 mm and all the bikes across all four sizes small through extra large have 430 mm chain staks Marin claims that between those four sizes they can fit Riders anywhere from 5'2 to 6' 3 but now let's talk about the part spec starting at the front of the bike with the marzuki bomber Z2 Fork which gives the San Quinton 140 mm of travel drivetrain Duties are largely taken care of by Shimano with a Dior shifter and derailer and a sunra cassette slowing things back down again are some four piston trp slate Evo brakes and the bike does come with a dropper post it's going to get 150 mm post on the size medium and 170 mm post on these sizes large and extra large lastly these sand Quinton rolls on some tubless ready Marin rims lace to Shimano hubs that are wrapped in 29x 2.5 in Max's asagai Tires and these aggressive tires really speak to the fact that this is not your everyday ordinary hard tail it's meant to go hard and that Burly spec and the Burly frame geometry to go with it is why we chose this bike as our winner for the best aggressive hardil and we're going to have to give it 4.5 out of five goats the only drawback to the San Quinton is similar to that of the canyon ex seed we just talked about and that's that it's purpose built for aggressive riding and the hardcore geometry in Spec might be a bit of a hindrance on less technical more flowing Trails but if you are on the market for something that's going to go down fast than the San Quinton 3 is going to be hard to beat lastly a couple other aggressive hard tailes for under $2,000 that are worth your attention are the Rocky Mountain Growler 40 and that Ora ly h30 I mentioned a second ago our fourth category that we want to talk about today is the best budget hard tail for under $2,000 this one in particular cost just $1,100 and that is the canadel habit ht3 and at first glance you would never guess that this bike was just a hair over $1,000 it's got internal cable routing iscg tabs boost spacing and some nice custom chain State protection which all in all give this Frame a very high quality look and feel and again like the bikes we've talked about earlier means that if you want to buy this bike got an inexpensive upfront cost and upgrade it down the road you won't have any issues doing that the Habit HT is available in four sizes small through extra large and should fit Riders 5'1 to 6'5 each of these sizes rolls on 29in wheels has a 64° head tube angle and 76° seat tube angle and long 440 mm chain stays this means that the Habit leans much more on the aggressive side of the spectrum similar to the sand Quinton we just talked about than the cross country side so if you're looking for an affordable bike to ride gnarly Trails this one's going to be hard to beat lastly on the size large The Habit HG has a reach of 465 mm and a quite tall stack of 653 mm moving on to the part spec and at the front of the bike you're going to get 130 mm of coil sprung travel from Sr Suntour with the xcr Boost Fork I would have loved to see Canon del figure out a way to spec an air Fork on this bike to decrease the weight and increase adjustability but hey for $1,100 you can't really complain and speaking of not complaining the bike has some pretty dialed Shimano two piston hydraulic disc brakes and a microshift Advent X drivetrain another thing that's rare to see on an $100 bike is a dropper post and the Habit HT has one spefic specifically the trans X poost that has 120 mm of drop in the medium and just 130 mm on the large and extra large another big value boost for this bike is that it already comes with tubless ready rims specifically some WTB I25 rims lace to Shimano Mt 400 hubs you're not however going to be getting tubeless ready tires instead you're going to get a set of 2.3 in WTB breakout tires thankfully though tires are wear items and so once you wear through that first set you can go head and buy yourself some toess ready ones and not need to worry about replacing your rims all in all the high quality frame with modern geometry in standards on a bike that cost just $1,100 is relatively unheard of and for that reason we're going to have to give this bike four out of five goats it's a bit of a bummer that you don't get a longer travel dropper post that's probably something you're going to want to invest in later on as well as a airs sprung Fork but again for the price you really can't complain so if you're looking for a value pack bike for maybe your first mountain bike or your first hard tail then the canondale Habit ht3 is going to be hard to beat but there are a couple other good value bike options on the market for close to $1,000 those are the Tre Rosco 6 and the Norco fluid ht2 but now it's time to move on to our last category which is the best spec hard tail for under $22,000 or in other words which bike gives you the best parts attached to that frame and the winner is the common meta HT all Mountain race which lists for $1,900 and weighs 29.5 lb or 13.4 kg The Meta HT has been around for a while and is a bit of a legend in the aggressive hardtail scene this Frame comes with full internal cable routing chain State protection and is available in both 29 and 27.5 in plus Wheels The Meta HT is available in four sizes from small to extra large which commona Claims can fit Riders from 5'2 all the way up to 6' 7 the bike has a head tube angle of 65° a seat tube angle of 74° and some short 432 mm chain staks the size large has a stack height of 639 mm and a pretty dang short reach of 445 mm and this kind of speaks to the fact that commona hasn't done a big update on this frame in a couple years so if you want something to be a little bit more in line with a modern reach you might need to go ahead and size up for this bike now though let's talk about the part spec because that is after all the category that this meta ht1 for and we're going to start with the Highlight which is the fork it comes with a super Burly Fox 36 performance Fork it also has a full Shimano Dior drivetrain and some two piston Shimano Dior brakes another big highlight to the spec is the wheels and tires The Meta HT gets some spank spice rims with an internal width of 28 mm lace to formula hubs these tubeless ready rims are wrapped in some equally tubeless ready Maxis diss sector tires which are once again some of my favorites I think you can't really go with a better option for a hard tail they're grippy but they're still lightweight and fast rolling and make for a ton of fun all in all that high-end Burly Fork some really dialed wheels and tires and really honestly a well-thought spec across the board is why we chose this bike as the winner for the best part spec on a hard tail and for that reason we're going to have to give the commona meta HT race four out of five goats the frame is Iconic and beautiful but sadly it is starting to show its age with that shorter reach number so most Riders will likely need to size up the only other complaint I have is those two piston brakes which are a bit under gun for that big Burly Fork but hey that's a lot cheaper to replace than a new fork or new wheels so that's a wrap on our list of our five favorite hard tales for less than $2,000 like I said at the beginning of the video though there's a lot of other great bikes on the market and I'm curious to hear which one is your favorite you can let me know what that is is down there in the comments as well as if you have any questions on any of these bikes or really any hard tail while you're down there please go ahead and subscribe to the 99 spokes YouTube channel and lastly remember that bikes are for everyone have fun out there

Channel: 99 Spokes

Views: 183,302

Keywords: mtb, mountain biking, hardtail mtb, hardtail mountain bike, hardtail, hardtail party, trek roscoe, trek roscoe review, trek roscoe 8, trek roscoe 8 review, commencal meta ht, commencal meta ht review, cannondale habit ht 3 review, cannondale habit ht review, cannondale habit ht, cannondale habit ht 3, canyon bikes, trek bikes, commencal bikes, canyon exceed review, canyon exceed 5, marin san quentin 3 review, marin san quentin review, marin san quentin 3 29 review

Id: uCLhxUBM7Ng

Length: 15min 15sec (915 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 02 2023