XC Bike, which one out of these?

jibbber

I am going to buy a bike soon, probably second hand (eBay, etc) and want to get a nice light and well spec'ed bike suitable for xc, single track and a bit of road biking. Good brakes and forks are a must, as I don't want to upgrade anything for a while, it needs to last. I don't ride overly aggresivly although I want the bike to be able to handle technical single track. The short list is between Specialized and Scott's range:

Specialized Epic
Specialized Stumpjumper FSR
Specialized FSR XC
Scott Genius
Scott Aspect
Scott Ransom Ltd

What is everybodies opinion on these bikes, any particular recommended models from these ranges, etc and what do you think is better over the "Brain" and the "Genuis" shocks?

toasty

The older Brain shocks on Epics got a few bad writeups due to the off/on way they worked, the new ones are supposed to be better. Can't really comment on the list as I'm blatently a fanboy but they'd all handle what you're after.

stu8975

Giant Anthem? although im a bit biased and addicted to mine

Scubar

Specialized Epic has a very stiff rear end ideal for very fast singletrack and road riding and would probably be the lightest out of the lot aswell. Test ride them all if you can and see which you like the feel of the most.

baccaman21

hey toasty... I used to live in Leam! Sux for riding round there though...

toasty

Indeed, it's one salvation is the fact there's a few options an hour away. My poor Stumpy has slicks + light on at the moment for road riding after work, poor thing.