I'm looking for a hardtail. I was talking with DH last night and basically we're waiting to see what the lbs can come up with but I THINK we're going to go with a quiring bike. He's a local builder, does all the paint in house, would custom measure and overall seems like a good guy. Since he's local, we can go out and see facility. My husband felt good talking to him, he biked with him a couple times (OK, he was warming up before a race, DH was going all out to keep up ). It's a bit more than we wanted to spend, $1000, but after all the hassel it seems worth it and seems like a great deal. We can have any single or two color fade. It has me really excited, but I don't want to get too excited until we make a final decision.