This is a great value introductory mountain bike. Pre-assembly was well done making it easy to put together and Schwinn quality is reliable. I purchased this for my son who is going off to college and has gotten into riding the trails. This will last him quite a few years.

This fits my 6 foot frame perfectly. I live on the side of a mountain and everything is either straight up or straight down. Half gravel roads, half paved with lots of rough trails in between. The gearing is perfect for climbing straight up . Downhill on paved roads, you will run out of gears but you do have enough high gear to start a fast run to get you halfway up the next hill. A properly geared Gravel Bike is my first choice for the type of riding that I do. I do not need a front shock. My Mongoose Elroy Gravel Bike is perfect for my riding area but the low gearing is too high and needs an upgrade. The original 720mm bars are considered an advantage for fast, highly technical riding but I cut my bars down to 630mm, 24 inch because I never had a problem on these roads even with 450mm, 18 inch drop bars on a road bike. The bars are about 2mm rolled aluminum tube at the ends. Narrower also helps transportation and getting it into my tiny cottage. Unlike the Hyper Carbon 29 that looks like this bike, this Boundary has a real tapered headset. Shifting requires lots of force and is jerky but works. Make sure you downshift before you need it. I will see if I can upgrade to an Altus shifter system. The brakes are awesome. They use the larger rectangular pads. I never felt such good control going straight down sand covered snowy roads. (tires are not suited for unsanded snowy roads and icy trails). Actual measured weight is 39 pounds. Kickstand is awesome but is about 1/2 inch too short for flat paved surface. I will have to carry a piece of wood shim. The front fork seems almost useless on small bumps. Since I do not ride fast on difficult technical trails I would consider swapping this shock out for a lighter unsprung fork. Am currently shopping for Schwalbe Winter Marathon studded tires but are hard to find now. Am contemplating the Ice Spikers but they are overkill.