ideas for a new DH bike

[guitar1234]

any thoughts on a trek 88?

Absolutely love my Trek. Rides awesome and is light due to thin tubing

Usually decent value but are hard to find second hand

[rider124]

Absolutely love my Trek. Rides awesome and is light due to thin tubing

Usually decent value but are hard to find second hand

There is a new one on here. it weighs 14kg. best build!
too bad its like the 6k mark. A cheep second hand trek would be amazing

[No Skid Marks]

The bike that Fabien used to 2 world champs victories was a production frame, even down to the tube thickness.

Didn't it have modified shock holes (lower, easy mod for anyone to do)to slacken it and drop BB. Also different floater position to do something weird(can't recall what, jacking or some mega squat).
Agreed but, Stabs were pretty underrated, I prefer them to the Operator to ride I think. Might be cause I don't own either and the stabs with floater are more forgiving.

[ajay]

There was a lot of talk about the quality but I have not personally seen evidence of the issues with the previous bikes, I can say though that as a DH bike they were not great all all. My mate had one that I used to ride when I didn't take my bike and it was shocking to ride, great straight line plowing but pedaling was very poor and the cornering was dreadful, you really needed to throw your body into the bike and it was not great also they were heavy.
I would highly bet that Fabiens was not a production bike.
I will note though that the model was the one bellow the one fabien used. I think while fabien still won on the frame they were not the best buy which made them unpopular as a choice.

You must have been doing it wrong :p Good angles, solid builds, pretty cheap to buy, and in my experience, rode damn well.

Fabiens bike was pretty well stock apart from some changes that NSM touched on, many of the top pro's bikes are slightly modified to suit their individual needs anyway. I'll maintain that it was a great bike and fashion had it over looked in this part of the world - note that a lot of dudes in the U.S and Europe were rating the Stab ^^

Anyway, we can go back and forth til the cows come home...

[SaabG]

live in Sydney mate

Well, if you're ever riding on the northern beaches you can take mine for a peddle. You won't be disappointed.

[driftking]

Treks are great. Not ridden one, but know a couple of very happy owners. How much do you want to spend? If you are looking for a great second hand (practically new) bike then PM me. I might be able to help...
On a different note, re Konas - the early ones were fantastic bikes. I had '08 and '10 models of the stab supreme, and the '10 in particular was brilliant. It's all about setup. It was stupid fast, cornered like a demon and was built well. The newer versions (operator) stepped it up significantly and are a fantastic bike. The bike that Fabien used to 2 world champs victories was a production frame, even down to the tube thickness.

You must have been doing it wrong :p Good angles, solid builds, pretty cheap to buy, and in my experience, rode damn well.

Fabiens bike was pretty well stock apart from some changes that NSM touched on, many of the top pro's bikes are slightly modified to suit their individual needs anyway. I'll maintain that it was a great bike and fashion had it over looked in this part of the world - note that a lot of dudes in the U.S and Europe were rating the Stab ^^

Anyway, we can go back and forth til the cows come home...

OK first up something that should have clarified earlier models I am referring to 2007 and before. They did start to improve greatly particular there top bike (fabiens) after that, I still think they were not the best for the money but they were on there way to a great bike and now they have got there current operator out which as we know is a big step up for kona.

To the point of this thread though :p treks are great the 2009 ones had big issues with strength, the rear chainstays were having problems with snaps/cracks near the welds and because they used very thin tubing to get the bike light people were getting a lot more dints in the frame. I would steer clear of this older model, however new ones were the issues were addressed are a good option, it has been tweaked over the last few production years and now they have ended up with this beast 9.9.

[moonman]

Didn't it have modified shock holes (lower, easy mod for anyone to do)to slacken it and drop BB. Also different floater position to do something weird(can't recall what, jacking or some mega squat).
Agreed but, Stabs were pretty underrated, I prefer them to the Operator to ride I think. Might be cause I don't own either and the stabs with floater are more forgiving.

You know NSM i'd not be surprised is Fab's ride did indeed have modded lower holes to change the ha/bb numbers. I found that with my '08 (DHX5) you could actually turn the lower shock chip around to slacken the thing even more. Standard in '08 was 64.7 - 65.3 ish from memory, but if you flipped the lower chip it went to 62.3!! It was just too slack and low and I didn't even try it. The later ones with RC4 were limited to the front (steep) hole because of the oversized reservoir on the shock. It didn't really matter because the bb was low and added stability, but man did it corner!! The brake floater mod was that Fab ran his floater in the lower hole which actually pulled the rear end down to counteract fork dive (mega squat). Later 2010's didn't have the lower brake mount so you were stuck in the high (normal) hole - it worked better anyway.

The bike that Fab won the worlds on in both '04 and '05 was a production '07 frame, which evolved slightly until the last incarnation of the frame in 2010, which was an awesome bike. Before that, I'm not too sure what they rode like, I was on different brands.

Sorry, didn't mean to turn it into a Kona thread, just kinda reminiscing... Ahh, back in the day!

[MtbDjRidaSachaz66]

Canadia

It's spelled as 'Canada'. Sorry for being a hardcore grammar nazi. But it surprises me how many people get that wrong...

Anyways, other than the performance and/or durability of the Konas, I think they had (can't remember what year models) the most disgusting paint jobs going around. Absolutely horrible to absorb a reflecting light ray from...

NOW BACK ON TOPIC.

Mate go for a glory - "best bang for buck". But if you've got plenty of money to throw around, then I'd say take that first guy's offer for the Santa Cruz V10. Loving the green on it too. Great for an upgrade I think.

[No Skid Marks]

It's spelled as 'Canada'. Sorry for being a hardcore grammar nazi. But it surprises me how many people get that wrong...

um, perhaps it's a joke.

[MtbDjRidaSachaz66]

um, perhaps it's a joke.

Ah ok my bad... :)