At last I have come through the gauntlet of mountain bike buying, much scarred, but also much wiser!
I will try to briefly explain why I consider the Schwinn Rocket is a victory for me, and hopefully save other people much grief in choosing a "good" bike.
My experience in mountain bikes goes back to the early days of mountain bikes, but is based more realistically in the biking needs of four growing boys, and their middle aged parents. Like most I have largely purchased off-the-shelf box store bikes. Like most I have had more negative than positive experiences. I attempted over the years to upgrade to better bikes from the box store, but with little real world improvement. I have used bikes on the higher end, but cannot hope to buy such bikes for six people. What I wanted was a bike that would cost no more than twice what the box store offered. For this money I wanted a bike that offered at least twice the quality and reliability as well. What I found was the Schwinn Rocket... Read more

Finding a good quality mountain bike that won't cost an arm & a leg is a difficult task. I didn't know a lot about mountain bikes but wanted to replace my boyfriend's bike for Christmas. He'd had a Giant Iguana bike which he'd gotten for only $35 at a garage sale 10 years ago. The only thing he insisted on having was thumbshifter gears, not gripshifters because the bike would switch gears whenever he'd stand up to ride uphill. No doubt, Giant bikes are awesome, but new they were $1000 and up. This Schwinn bike seems to have all the specs he wanted/ needed: sturdy frame, thumbshifter gears, Shimano parts, 20" frame (large), 26" wheels, decent quality tires, a "guy friendly" seat, and easy assembly. Since Schwinn has been bought by Pacific Cycle, it's hard to say if this is a true Schwinn bike or one made by PC with the Schwinn label slapped on. It was difficult to find reliable sources of info on mountain bikes. Many mountain bike sites are geared for hardcore cyclists who... Read more

The good:
* This bike arrived undamaged, without missing parts, and with all sub-assemblies assembled properly. Final assembly was easy, and the gold swing-arm looked much better than the gray swing-arm in the photo. The suspension feels very nice, and the soft-tail makes a huge smoothness difference when riding. The shifters work well. I bought the "Large" size". I am 6' 6", and I needed a longer seat post, and a Delta Stem Rise to raise the handlebars (up three inches).

* A neighbor of mine who is more into bikes than I took this bike for a spin last night, and really liked it. He thought the handling was very good.

* I think this bike is reasonable value, and functions very well.

The bad:
* The right pivot bushing has excessive play. For those of you who may not know, these bushings act as hinges between moving frame sections near the rear axle. The back wheel wobbles slightly under side-load as a result. Upon removing the... Read more