New bike time.

ride_whenever

My scott was stolen a couple of weeks ago, and I'm thinking I might be able to raise enough cash from my birthday and Christmas to buy myself something new.

The riding I do is mostly AM I suppose, and I ride wherever I am at the time. But generally I ride over anything from steep technical climbs to 12' drops! I'm also a big chap at 6' and near enough 100kg, so any bike needs to be strong. I felt that sometimes I rode beyond the capabilities of 100mm of suspension so I'm looking at round about the 140mm mark for my next bike.

I don't really know a budget, my dream bike would be an ibis mojo with fox 32 TALAS forks., but I know that at 2.5K I'd be looking at an orange 5 pro, which looks like really good value. The issue that I have is that I'm not sure that I need full sus yet, and think that a hardtail, like my last bike, would suit me better.

I've been looking at a stiffee or chameleon with pikes but these will probably end up around 2k with 454 air u-turn pikes and a merlin wheelset and hope mono mini's.

I like my bikes a little unusual, or at very least to stand out from the crowd so if I can't afford a custom bike then I'd either like a bike with a really nice frame to upgrade the parts on slowly or an average frame with great parts for the price that I can move onto a new frame down the line. So i'd like some help for budgets around 750-1500 pounds, both hardtails and FS that fit my rather stringent criteria!

supersonic

Is that 12 foot or twelve inch?! Suppose it depends on the landing lol

First thing that springs to my mind is the Giant Reign series.

The Big Cheese

There are some great deals on 2007 Reign X's at the moment.....

ride_whenever

12 foot, it was to a very steep landing that leveled off, so the landing was pretty smooth. That was on 100mm RS tora's, felt amazing though, flying through the air with the greatest of ease.

I don't really know what to look for at this price point, as I've never bought an expensive bike but can see the savings of buying in one piece, so I'd really like a list of nice bikes to go and peruse at my leisure!

Father Faff

12' drop-offs is definitely all-mountain! I've just made the move from Orange P7 hardtail to Commencal Meta 5 AM full-sus and you can have a real lot of fun on a full-susser when the going gets rough and I've rarely used the Orange since. With your budget the Orange 5 is an obvious choice, the Commencal Meta 5.5.1, the Santa Cruz Heckler, the Reign, there'll be lots of people saying how wonderful a Spesh is though you have to wonder if they've ridden anything else, etc, etc.

GHill

I'm in the market for a similar type of bike and I've pretty much narrowed it down to two, either the Orange 5 S with a fork upgrade or a Commencal 5.5. Both seem to fit the bracket of go anywhere - do anything that I want.

My final selection is going to be based on demo rides (assuming I can get them) and I would advise the OP to do that too - you might not be buying the most expensive bike on the market but you are spending a decent wedge. You really don't want to be in the situation two months down the line where you realise the bike that looked so awesome on paper and in the shop just doesn't suit you.

ride_whenever

I totally agree with GHILL, and will be testing all the bikes on my final list, it is just a case currently of making that list...

Splasher

Bearclaw does 12 foot drops in the 1st sequence of Roam but because he lacks confidence he uses a 180mm bike.