The time has come to committ

[thepotatokid]

I was in a similar boat to you about 12 months ago - I bought a Cannondale Rush frame and kitted it out like this.

It's a great option for a good fun xc-type bike, but they love a good downhill too. Unfortunately, they're not available new anymore, but I reckon that they would be a good option for you.

Dirt Magazine (UK) loved the Rush - and they're all about the downhills.... They said: "Now we don't all live in the mountainous areas of the UK - Wales or Scotland. For the vast majority of us that don't, the Rush could just be the perfect bike. It's agile, fast and handles superbly thanks to spot on geometry. The 110mm rear travel works deceptively well in flattening the trail buzz. If you ride plenty of forest singletrack, then this bike is the one".

 

[zed42]

Considering some of your earlier posts, are you sure you're not looking for something more like this:

 

[longxc]

I would recommend learning to ride your hardtail first, when you can ride that down a track like pork barrel then reconsider whether you need a 140,000,000mm of travel on you bike.

 

[steve24]

SC Blur xc carbon

I would recommend learning to ride your hardtail first, when you can ride that down a track like pork barrel then reconsider whether you need a 140,000,000mm of travel on you bike.

Last weekend i did a sighting lap (fri) of the solo track on my scott scale, felt quite good on the HT. Pork barrel is only a few meters of over rated track anyway.....

During the race i took out the scott for a lap while getting lights fitted to my blur xc carbon. @#*%@ !!! Compared to the blur the scott felt full ridgid. trying to ride the same speed i thought my kidneys would be hamered into mush by the end of the lap.
I told my crew to park the HT and make sure to keep the blur moving.

Blur XC carbon, over your budget but an awesome bike!

 

[longxc]

Last weekend i did a sighting lap (fri) of the solo track on my scott scale, felt quite good on the HT. Pork barrel is only a few meters of over rated track anyway.....

During the race i took out the scott for a lap while getting lights fitted to my blur xc carbon. @#*%@ !!! Compared to the blur the scott felt full ridgid. trying to ride the same speed i thought my kidneys would be hamered into mush by the end of the lap.
I told my crew to park the HT and make sure to keep the blur moving.

Blur XC carbon, over your budget but an awesome bike!

The point was learn to ride a clean line instead of ploughing through the rocks(riding a hardtail will help you learn to look for the smooth line), I found myself quite often stuck behind ppl on massive duallies riding bad lines.

 

[Shaman]

The point was learn to ride a clean line instead of ploughing through the rocks(riding a hardtail will help you learn to look for the smooth line), I found myself quite often stuck behind ppl on massive duallies riding bad lines.

To be perfectly honest and am not trying to be rude I dont think it really matters what your point was, you are posting in the wrong spot. There are already a heap of threads on here about the relative merits of dually's and hardtail's, not least of which is the very first "sticky" in the XC forum which would be a far more suitable place for your point of view.

'Australia' has made it perfectly clear that for the purposes of this thread he is looking for suggestions on bikes and his brief is that it should be a WW dually to be used for a combination of 24hr solo races and Marathons.

Perfectly reasonable request in my opinion and make him a target for baseless assertions about his riding ability. Methinks you might be assuming too much.

 

[zed42]

I think the point might be that Australia spends so much of his time giving shit to other people for their bike choices, that it's just too good an opportunity to return the favour. ;-)

And it's hardly a baseless assertion - it's pretty hard to go five minutes on this forum without hearing something about Australia's riding.

 

[Beechie]

One lap or many

I ride a Scott scale 10, and owned a Team Merida FLX and they both handle pork whatever, where ever fine, (and I am a scared rider) BUT for 24 HR and marathon give me the lightest fastest dually possible.
Australia's bike should be 10.5 kg with pedals, to be considered potentially fast. If not then stay with an 11.5kg+ machine and know that you are riding at a disadvantage to those ahead of you. I'm not superman so I need the weenie advantage in my mind.
Look at what the podium riders ride in the WSC 24 hour last weekend, check out their machines on sportograf photos - they are light weight racers not multi purpose longer travel machines.

 

[longxc]

To be perfectly honest and am not trying to be rude I dont think it really matters what your point was, you are posting in the wrong spot. There are already a heap of threads on here about the relative merits of dually's and hardtail's, not least of which is the very first "sticky" in the XC forum which would be a far more suitable place for your point of view.

'Australia' has made it perfectly clear that for the purposes of this thread he is looking for suggestions on bikes and his brief is that it should be a WW dually to be used for a combination of 24hr solo races and Marathons.

Perfectly reasonable request in my opinion and make him a target for baseless assertions about his riding ability. Methinks you might be assuming too much.

Fair enough, but not so baseless as he has mentioned on a few occassions how he rides and from those occassions I could be assertained that he could do well benefit from looking for cleaner lines.

I'm not saying he should buy a hardtail, but I would suggest he does some long rides on his current hardtail and then have a think about how its ride and handling compare with his current duallie.
Then think about where the pros/cons are in each bike and hopefully from that analysis he will come up with what he wants in his ideal bike and can go shopping with confidence that he knows what to look for in his bike to be.

 

[Australia]

Considering some of your earlier posts, are you sure you're not looking for something more like this:

Oh no, I've been caught and called out about the amount of time I spend in the roady section of the forum... How should I pay my pennance? (as much as it pains me to say it, I already have a bike that looks something like that)

Also, I've never trashed anyones choice of bike... I have merely queried the sanity (quite reasonably imho) of any individual who chooses to ride a Solo 24 with only one gear at their disposal (Just saying )

longxc will undoubtedly be surprised to learn that in the lead up to the WSC I was spending more time on my hardtail than my dually by roughly 3:1... most notably I did all but 2 of my laps at the Sydney 12 hour on the hardtail (plus half my laps at the Stromlo 7hr and RTE Del Rio 8 hr, and all my Saturday morning club rides - ever)

But in fairness, I have learnt a fair bit from spending so much time on the hardtail - most significantly, that I love dual suspension, but also that to take this style of riding seriously I do need a far better climbing machine (and spend some time training... mainly the training thing, but a new bike would help too)

 

[zed42]

Well I'm sure you've mentioned a number of times that all 29ers were horrifically ugly, but you seem to have reneged on that position, so I suppose we can let that slide.

And I also recall a comment about girls who ride rigid 29er singlespeeds automatically not being attractive... but I suspect that such girls aren't too concerned about the opinions of a boy who cries whenever anyone mentions singlespeeding. ;-)

 

[C Dunlop]

You already have a hardtail and a really nice duallie that pedals well and descends very well.

28lb = 12.7kg. Not light, but not that heavy. At your size you'll do better on flatter courses.

A $3.5k budget will get you less travel, but not anything appreciably lighter. Even with less travel, it isn't likely that you'll get a much improved pedalling platform.

How much weight can you drop from what you have. There are some good ~1500g closeout wheels for sale on the internets for ~$450.

I've done a lot of bike selling and buying after having mediocre big races. always been a mistake. clean your bike up, get it serviced and go for a ride in a few weeks. maybe shout yourself to some pretty new parts.

point is, to get what you're saying you want, you're going to need more than $3.5k

 

[Australia]

Well I'm sure you've mentioned a number of times that all 29ers were horrifically ugly, but you seem to have reneged on that position, so I suppose we can let that slide.

And I also recall a comment about girls who ride rigid 29er singlespeeds automatically not being attractive... but I suspect that such girls aren't too concerned about the opinions of a boy who cries whenever anyone mentions singlespeeding. ;-)

I abandoned my former position on 29er wheels when I saw the Santa Cruz Tallboy... dam near converted me on the spot!!! link here -> http://www.santacruzmtb.com/tallboy_carbon/#gallery.php

Allow me to correct your 'recollection' (I know this is going back a while... seriously how did any thread ever end up on that topic? probably best left unsaid) I said any girl that rode a Mountain bike scored an automatic 10 on the traditional 1 -10 attractiveness scale, however singlespeeders were subject to the Vicky Mendoza Diagonal (How I Met Your Mother Fans will be familiar, for others here is a link [rated PG] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zADosF3XoQ worth a laugh)

Cheers Craig, as always second hand is an option I'm giving very strong consideration to. There is a Merida I am leaning towards at the moment, which provided it fits and is in the condition advertised its going to be very hard to go past. Failling that, there is a high model Giant Anthem which looks the goods as well. (I'd shit bricks if I couldn't get what I was after for 3500 second hand!)

One thing that has peaked my interest is twist grip shifting (the last time I owned a twist grip shifting bike was only slightly more recent than the time I owned a Single Speed - aka a loooong time ago) would it be reasonable to suggest that they no longer require a whole ton of force to change gears - because that was my most significant memory about them

 

[0psi]

Might have already been said as I haven't read the whole post, but if you can strech the budget a bit, Niner Jet 9. Has to be the ultimate enduro weapon. I'm in a similar boat to you as I've ridden DH once this year and just sold the last of 3 DH bikes that I owned. Enduro time, and after lots of thought the Jet 9 tops my list.

 

[casnell]

One thing that has peaked my interest is twist grip shifting (the last time I owned a twist grip shifting bike was only slightly more recent than the time I owned a Single Speed - aka a loooong time ago) would it be reasonable to suggest that they no longer require a whole ton of force to change gears - because that was my most significant memory about them

Love my twist shifts, so exact and effortless and you can go up or down lots of gears at a time. Combined with an XO RD with a reasonably strong spring they are so precise.

PS, following this thread with interest...I have a 575 that is just a bit too AM for racing, and have a Yeti ARC I've been loving racing but kills me in 6-hours so I'm thinking of losing the 575 for a 4" duallie race bike or shock horror a 29er.

 

[Rodders]

I'm also facing the dilemma of making my 5" lighter or trying to to get a sub 11kg 4" duallie for under $4k.

I wonder when/if we will see the higher Aussie dollar translate to cheaper bikes/shipments. With bikes like the Anthems being sold out in stores and heavily back ordered I imagine the LBS will not need to offer a discounted price.

 

[.stu.]

I abandoned my former position on 29er wheels when I saw the Santa Cruz Tallboy... dam near converted me on the spot!!! link here -> http://www.santacruzmtb.com/tallboy_carbon/#gallery.php

I still can't decide which is sexier, the tallboy or the epic...

 

[Australia]

I still can't decide which is sexier, the tallboy or the epic...

View attachment 185792View attachment 185793

Tallboy by a long shot! The Epic has that ridulously downwardly sloping downtube typical of 29ers - that was the major reason for my former position on the aesthetics of 29ers

That Spearfish looks amazing, but I couldnt find the Australian price for them - can anybody point me in the right direction?

Also, how does Giant's Maestro suspension system stack up?

 

[.stu.]

Also, how does Giant's Maestro suspension system stack up?

Maestro is another 4 bar linkage similar to Santa Cruz VPP and Pivot's DW-link. Different to Specialized's FSR 4 bar linkage in that the 2 pivots on the chainstay are close together at the bottom bracket end instead of having one at either end of the chainstay. These all differ again from faux bar linkage systems that have only 1 pivot between the bottom bracket and the rear axle.

As far as performance goes, they all work very well if you spend the time to correctly set up the rear shock and the Maestro is usually better value than the others simply because it comes on a Giant.

 

[Australia]

is asking which suspension fromat is best going to start a war?

What if I defined best as giving 45% weighting to best seated pedalling efficiency on flats, 45% weighting to best seated pedalling efficency on climbs, and 10% weighting to pedalling efficency when climbing techy bits out of the saddle?