+-£2000 Full Suss XC Bike - any recomendations?

gammyknee

I am looking at the following bikes and wondered what recomendations are out there regarding any of the following bikes:

1. Specialized epic expert
2. Kona The King
3. Giant Anthem
4. Commencal meta 552
5 Gary Fisher HiFi pro
6. Rocky Mountain element 50
7. Trek Fuel ex9


Any thoughts would be appreciated

Gammyknee

miket-62

Wot about Scott???
I personally love 'em
Check them out
See ya

gammyknee

Which Scott would you recommend in the £1500-£2000 range?

DonnieMurdo

Commencal Meta5

Orange 5

Just my opinions

Dan67

Commencal 5.5 2

ANDE.B

Specialized stumpjumper FSR elite (£1,799) or expert (£1,999)
MBR's "trail bike of the year", and well, you can't really fault stumpy's...

Scubar

Id have to say the Trek , excellent spec and much more responsive to ride than the stumpy which i found to be rather sluggish.

Andy

The Giant Anthem 1 is in my opinion a great bike and good value for money. Would be worth a test ride as the head angle is very steep and may be too steep. Try one - see what you think.

I love mine.

Red Lemon

I'd go for Kona's King. The Epic and the Anthem are too race focussed for my liking, and I have no real experience of any of the others, above seeing a few of them in shops.

The best way I can describe the handling of the Kona 4" full sussers is to say that it's excellent, but doesn't take itself too seriously. i.e. It'll race with the best of them, but if you just want to mess around in the woods, it'll still be fun. The geometry is somehow perfectly balanced so the handling is both sharp and aggressive, but relaxed and stable. It'll be a race bike or a playbike depending on your mood.

supersonic

The Kona King is a superb machine with one of the best frames you'll find at this price point. Anthem is another contender, and for a liitle over budget you can get the base level Scott Spark. The Meta seems a bit too much bike to me, and frame is no featherweight at 7.2lbs.

Andy

Red Lemon wrote:

I'd go for Kona's King. The Epic and the Anthem are too race focussed for my liking, and I have no real experience of any of the others, above seeing a few of them in shops.

The best way I can describe the handling of the Kona 4" full sussers is to say that it's excellent, but doesn't take itself too seriously. i.e. It'll race with the best of them, but if you just want to mess around in the woods, it'll still be fun. The geometry is somehow perfectly balanced so the handling is both sharp and aggressive, but relaxed and stable. It'll be a race bike or a playbike depending on your mood.

Isn't the king 2.5inch travel?

gammyknee

Thanks for the advice so far. I'm testing the Giant Anthem 0 this weekend - out of my price range but they did not have an Anthem 1 demo bike. So far I have tested the Stumpy expert and Epic expert in two 45km muddy xc rides and preferred the Epic - more responsive, firmer, faster climber and equally as good on the downhills in my opinion.

Any thoughts on the Kona Hei Hei??

Cheers

nicolap99

Turner Flux

I had a Commencal Meta 4 before opting for the Flux.

Now the Meta 4 and 5 are both very well regarded by all, and rightly so.

The Flux is an all round better frame, I'd also be looking very closely at the Kona King - similar design etc.

Red Lemon

Andrew, the King is definitely a 4" bike for 2006 and 2007. It's the equivalent of the 2005 King Kikapu.

Gammy: The Hei Hei is an all out race bike, loaded with lightweight bits and with only 2.5" travel at the back. If you're not racing, I'd go with something else.

pinza1973

Give the Orange 5 a go i think you'll be pleasently suprised.

vintage

I had a similar quandry about 4 months ago. Being a bike geek I read a load of reviews both from English (singletrack, MBUK, MBR, What MTB) and German (Bike, Mountain Bike)magazines. I find German reviews are much more scientific than the UK counterparts and this gives an interesting angle. Looking at about 7 articles the Scott Spark was clearly the preferred choice in every review it appeared in. However the Rocky Mountain element, Santa Cruz Superlight (less so in german magazines), Spesh Epic, Giant Anthem, and Carbon Cannondale Rush all received good reviews.

As a result I test rode an Element, a Maverick ML7.5, a Whyte E5 and a Scott Spark at Rutland cycles. The element was a fairly average ride and despite the great paint scheme didn't really excite me. The Maverick was a very stable ride with near enough no pedal induced bob but I ddi not like the idea of integrated rear suspension. The E5 was a great ride but too expensive. In the end I went for the scott because even the entry level model (£2399 but got it for £2000) was more exhilirating than the £3.5k Maverick and as long as you don't mind using the tracloc lever from time to time as the terrain changes it is a remarkably versatile machine. It is not just a xc racer and is blindingly good fun in all suspension mode when pointed downhill.

Don't think I am just plugging the Spark because I bought one. I really wanted a Turner Flux but could not afford to shell out £3k+ needed to get decent componentry and had I waited a bit longer I may have bought an Endorfin Vp4 as they look great and use a true 4 bar suspension design. One was recently ridden to first place in the Mountain Mayhem women's solo category as well. If you want any of the german Articles I have read let me know and I will email them to you (about 10 bikes in each review). They can be translated using Altavista Babelfish

jordlr

Ive just got myself an ellsworth truth and think its an awsome bike. Its almost as light as my gary fisher ziggurat hardtail ive just given up on, has a lifetime frame and bearing policy and dosnt bob at all when i pedal....

Obviously you have to build it up yourself but you can get the frame for £1200 leaving you £800 to spend on bits.... If you can salvage the wheels from your last bike (assuming you had one) thats a good set up you can get...

gammyknee

Many thanks for all the great advice guys, after riding the Anthem on the weekend I am sold, does what it say's on the tin etc and my local bike shop could match the best web price I could find (which - murphy's law- will be lower by the time you read this) of £1599 for the Anthem 1 07. For Kona fans there is a great special on the 06 King at Keswick bikes

http://www.keswickbikes.co.uk/acatalog/ ... _2006.html


Time to hit the trails....

Red Lemon

Hope you like the new bike. In true MBUK tradition though, we want pics. Or it doesn't exist

vintage

All the best with your new ride. Great choice as well at a bargain price.

swallow

Rocky Mountain all the way - design hasnt changed in a decade - thats not because they are lazy at RMB but possibly because it works very well. Love mine.
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Red Lemon

Nice bike, but you're a bit late on this one. He already chose and bought a Giant Anthem...

gammyknee

[img]IMG]http://i190.photobucket.com/albums/z295/gammyknee/DSCF1439.jpg[/IMG]

Not exactly sure how to upload photo's but here goes...

The Beast 100km in - loving the xt/xtr combo, defn personally prefer it to sram x9/x0. Note the beginner downhill spd's - first time using spd's and have had the epiphany... Probably should have gone for egg beaters but these will do for now.

Cheers

gammyk[/img][/url]