I bought my first serious bike to a friend for less than 300 dollars. It was a "first class" bike, but 10 years old, so it had not disk brakes, but good old ge

I bought my first serious bike to a friend for less than 300 dollars. It was a "first class" bike, but 10 years old, so it had not disk brakes, but good old generation brakes. Simple hardtails and flat pedals are much better to learn MTB and much cheaper. In fact, if you can control your bike in the air with flat pedals a new world will open to you. You will be able to do bunnies, Bunnie hops and other tricks that are more important than spending money on a bike. If you know how to jump 1 meter height with your bike, you will run circles with a 300 dollars bike around anyone who does not in a 5K bike. If you are a pro, then sure, go for it, but odds are that if you are asking you are not.