Hold on, that sounds like what most riders want ….
So, to recap, you should buy a Kona Unit if you want to ride your bike hard and not worry much about maintaining expensive components all the time. The Unit has sliding dropouts too, so chain tension shouldn’t be an issue ever. Granted, this will depend on the conditions you ride in and how hard you ride, but aside from occasional checkups on your bearing systems and brake pads, maintenance should be a breeze. With hardly more complexity than your common dinner fork, the Unit doesn’t have a lot to go wrong. Maintaining the Unit, on the other hand, essentially includes looking at it briefly, possibly drizzling on some chain lube and then putting it in the garage. You do get a reasonable 32×18-tooth gearing set-up and plus-size tires on the Unit to soften the blows, but anyone who’s ridden a single-speed rigid bike knows the experience is akin to a strongly worded argument at best, and an all-out war of attrition at worst. As a singlespeed fully rigid mountain bike, the Unit will turn most trails into a marginally type-2 fun experience. The reasons to buy a Kona Unit form a bit of a paradox. We wish it had the 148×12 rear-end spacing used on the higher-end Pine Mountain 2 instead of the strange 141×9 quick-release that pops up on bikes at lower price-points-like the Norco Fluid and Giant Fathom below-but you can’t be too choosy at this price. The Pine Mountain’s steel frame and fork are paired with a 10-speed Shimano Deore drivetrain and Shimano MT-400 hydraulic disc brakes for unwavering reliability. Those big tires add cushion and give you more traction, which means less falling. Marin’s Pine Mountain is one such plus-size trail stomper. You’re better off either going used or looking for a fully rigid rig shod with plus-size tires if $1,000 is the top of your budget. They don’t perform well enough on the trail to justify their excess weight or poor reliability. And more importantly, those forks are generally crap. But you shouldn’t be doing so much spitting.
Spit inside a bike shop, and you might even hit a front-suspended offering from a trustworthy brand like Specialized or Trek for as low as $500. Spit in any direction inside a WalMart sporting goods department and you’ll hit a bike that comes with a suspension fork and costs a quarter the price of Marin’s fully rigid Pine Mountain. We’ll cut out the noise and show you the best options within the $1,000 to $2,000 range. But there’s also a veritable plethora to choose from. Lucky for you, bikes in this price range have made giant leaps in fun factor, capability and reliability in the past couple years. You’re looking for the very best diamond-shaped shredder under $2,000. You’ve checked your bank account, and you’ve done the math to figure out your price point. You’re locked and loaded and ready to buy the hardtail of your dreams.