If it's just riding with the kids then the specs won't matter as much because you'll be going slower? That said, and I'm generally clueless about mountain bikes so apologies if a daft question, but I always thought mountain bikes had super low gears to get up super steep hills. Obviously if you're doing flatter rides then a single speed will probably be just fine.
Yeah, maybe I mislead with my intro. The kids just have bikes from a toy shop, but we live now on hilly streets and near dirt trails. Nothing serious that we'd need legit bikes for (plus, they're too young for that), and I can't ride the bike I already have (at least, not with street tires and I think it's too narrow in the forks to retrofit), so I'd rather invest in a solid, dependable bike (i.e., hardtail single-speed off-road) as a catch-all "ride with the kids" bike.
And I don't want a toy-store crap bike, like BBJ said to avoid. Hope that makes some sense.
