radical_edward has nailed it...bullseye!
Good advice man.

giant

GOOSE wrote:STP + Me = Happy McChappy.

Yes, that too.

but the stp is a jump bike if he buys any of the above bikes this will be a good learning curve and they will be a good introduction bike which can go a little further and take a bit of off road and when thats past it and he knows what he wants out of a bike then go from there

get a kona stuff theyre like ice in a freezer its just meant to be

cheers guys, im really biking eith the idea of saving a bit of gas (damn subaru!) and to get fit for soccer.. its down to giant and specialized for budget reasons.. are SRAM components ok? giant is nice and light, smooth on the road.. BUT specialized is nice and strong and beefy! thinking il buy it and get some road friendly tyres.. then if i happen to crash on the weekend it may hold up a bit better due to being more solid? weekend jaunts will most likely be bottle lake/port hills etc. not really much jumping n wild stuff..

spech, good choice