Buying my first real Mountain bike

Question
QUESTION: I have been riding a 60 dollar bike from walmart for a few years, and have since met a guy named Aaron whos dad works with my dad, he is an avid mountain biker, and lets me ride his when I go over to his place, I really like his Kona Dawg, but cant afford one with full supention, what are some good starter Hardtails, I will be using it for on road, off road, some light free ride (just tricks, no huge drops off of roofs), and mabye some trails, i want a bike that will be decent for most of these, or great for a couple of them, and my dad wont let me spend more than 375-400 dollars untill I know if im going to stick with mountain biking. If its important, im 6ft 1, and weight 140

Thanks
Marshall
ANSWER: Hello Marshall,

It is nice to have another new rider with us on the trails.
But it is hard for me to tell which bike is good for you, because i'm not into the US (I guess) market.
What I do know is that for example Specialized made good quality bikes in this pricecategory. But there is still a other option. Maybe there is in your neighboorhood a local bike shop who sell used bikes. Often you can have a better equipped bike with a better frameset.
Keep me informed about those bikestores if you wanted to.

More info on www.giant-bicycles.com of www.specialized.com

Take care

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you, I have been looking at specialized bikes, would the rockhopper, or hardrock be good, or are they low quality

Answer
Hello Marshall,

Those bikes are bikes for the beginners, but the frameset seems the same and is a good one too.
Further I'd prefer the Rockhopper series with the Dart fork from Rock Shox. Further if you want to ride under extreme conditions like rain, mud and dust/sand you will need more maintenance on these bikes because the drivetrain isn't that good. You can upgrade them if you have some saving money when they wear out, or save some more money and buy later in the year a new bike. I don't know how the prices seems to be from example Cannondale or a Giant?
Especially with C'dale you have a heck of a good basic frameset which is the extra money worth to upgrade this bike later. Think about that, and also maybe there is a local dealer who's selling this models out. Around June Cannondale launches the new summer models!!!

Hope that this answer your questions again.