I took a spill off of my mountain bike a couple of years ago, and still have the scars from the operation on my shoulder. My trusty Schwinn from the early 90s took it in stride, and other than a small rip on the seat, it was unaffected. Still…we have a Giant Sedona in the family, only a couple of years old, and it feels like a totally different bike. The Sedona has an aluminum frame, and while the bike feels like it’s half the weight of the Schwinn, it seems to feel a lot stiffer on the road, and more responsive. I don’t care for the “twist” shifters, but it still shifts smoothly. My Schwinn, this year, has been acting up–the thumb shifters were smooth, but I’m having a lot of trouble with the derailleur hunting for the correct sprocket, and I’m jumping between gears constantly. After 15+ years, I’m ready for something new.

A couple of years ago, I was out looking for a 20″ bike for my daughter, who had outgrown her 18″ bike with training wheels. While it was clearly outside of my budget, we went to a dealer that carried the Specialized line of bikes, and I found their “Hardrock” model in a 20″ size that fit her perfectly. I looked at some other bikes there, and was impressed by the Specialized models they had. Granted, most were outside my price range, but it was an eye opener to see how far bikes had come since the early 90s.

Drilling down through their website, I finally found a line of bikes that fit my needs…and it happened to be the Hardrock Sport. There are four models in the series, two with disc brakes, but the Hardrock Sport adds the trigger shifters that I’m used to. (My Schwinn has the Shimano 70GS shifters.)

As I still like the Giant line, I found that they make a newer version of the bike we have already. The Sedona® DX is not the cheapest in the line, but you have to move up from the base Sedona ST to get the aluminum frame, and up further to the DX to get the trigger shifters.  I’m anxious to test ride the Sedona and the Hardrock–I’ve found a local dealer that carries both.

There are other brands out there, and while both of these models are a bit out of my price range, they are still about what I’m looking for, and I’m open to others within the same price range.  Both are well-engineered bikes, so for me it will be a matter of riding comfort and usability.  I’ll post here again with my initial riding impressions.