Trail/all mountain play bike

Ridea

Im looking for a trail bike with between 4 and 5.5" travel that will basically fill the hole between my 4x hardtail and my downhill bike, as a dh rider I basically want a short travel bike that can go anywhere realy but I dont need excessive travel to do that, just a solid fun frame that i can 'rag' arround trails or anything that takes my fancy, you know the bike you always want to pick up first out of the shed cos' its just so much fun
to play about on.

At the moment iv been looking at four bikes realy...

Iron horse mkIII- not sure how it rides looks good on paper, but, 69degree h/a seems a little steep maby not for general trail stuff but when things turn downhill and I wana let rip then I dont know if Im gona have problems, I can also only slacken it by the height of a headset cup by running external rather than internal(half to one degree?).

Blur 4x- looks good but 66 degree head angle with full length pikes is insane, far too slack for a bike that small id imagine, id end up using less travel id guess and locked right down for single track.(guessing help would be great)

Trance with pikes? slacken it to a reasonable degree, but im not so sure how itd compare plus travel is a little short at four inches, help would be great again.

Prophet- great adjustability, travels a little long but, only by .5 not sure about the ride and how it compares but flexy rear end may cause problems, mx would be better but frame sets arnt avaliable and full bikes suck.

Help would be great, im so confused as to what will ride well and what wont, the ironhorse wont be avaliable for much longer so the quicker you guys can help that would be great.

Thanks
Adam

Sir HC

Commencal Meta 5
Orange Patriot
Kona Coiler
Specialised Enduro

Test ride as many bikes as you can.

As far as parts go, try and spec similar parts to your other bikes, so you can swap and change when you break bits.

My suggestions:

Forks: Revelations/Fox 32's

Headset: King
Bars: Easton/Raceface
Stem: Easton/Raceface

Cranks: XT (triple ring)
Pedals: Clips/Flats

Front mech: X-gen/XT
Rear mech: XT/X9
Shifters: XT/X9
Chain: PC991 Cross Step
Cassette: Sram PG980/XT

Hubs: Pro 2's
Rims: XM719 disc
Brakes: Juicy 7's/XT's

supersonic

GT Idrive XCR and 5 series worth a look too.

Ridea

iv already got my spec sorted out with tough but lightweight/ reliable stuff that i know works well but will build up to around 30lbs which i recon is about right. Although the orange looks near enough the same as the cannondale, im not so convinced, enduro, too much travel, coiler/coilair never realy liked kona, just dont know much about them herd that there quite good for all mountain bikes. rode a meta 5, set up more in xc mode but i hated it(bear in mind it was the steeper 5 not 5.5) it just felt too xcish and hard to ride, all over the place realy when I started to push it downhill, the problem im having is that if the meta is meant to descend well then i may well need to look at less xc ish bikes and more at slack angled frames like the blur. but the meta with the older short fox forks a longer stem and 28lbs build didnt do it for me.

ddoogie

I reckon the Blur 4X would be about right. If you get a U-turn Pike and run it at 120 or so it should stick at the ideal head angle, then slacken it for really steep sections!

I'd also take a look at a Transition Preston FR. Super short travel freeride bike. Its certainly no XC lightweight even though it has similar travel to many. With a decent fork it could build up to be a perfect rag around trail bike.