>>1487561ah ok, i didn't read the whole conversation. in my opinion you should buy a nice brand new bike after doing a lot of research to figure out what you want. people cheap out so hard on the bike itself without realizing what they miss out on and how much it will cost for tools and various accessories, like a helmet and lights and so on. on a mountain bike you can probably get away with flat pedals but clipless pedals are nice to have and then you're looking at $100+ shoes to go with them. some bottom bracket standards are harder than others to work with, with GXP for instance you just need this type of tool and a couple of allen keys.
