Originally Posted by
Cataboo
I know gunnar makes steel mountain bikes.Surly's got the instigator or the karate monkey,things like that... Rawlands has a steel frame that can be built up as a mountain bike, but I think the top tube is going to be too long.
Marin used to make nice steel frame bikes, you could consider picking up a used marin,probably about a 14" frame.
I did some looking around the past year for small size steel hardtails.
Gunnar Rockhounds come in a 13" but the frame alone is $800. Used ones come up infrequently (I keep a constant watch on ebay for small steel frames [just too see if anything interesting pops up ].)
I ended up buying a new 13" Jamis Dragon complete for $1k. It was an '09 model at a pretty good discount.
Surly just came out with a hardtail frame for a geared bike (in contrast to the 1x1 frame for a fixed gear hardtail). I'm not sure how they are, but they look kewl.
Specialized Ruby
Gunnar Sport
Salsa Vaya Ti
Novara Randonee x2
Motobecane Fantom CXX (Surly Crosscheck)
Jamis Dragon