confused - help sought. the usual.

thwillis

hey,
am in the process of getting a new bike. have been reading and researching for months, and have ended up confusing myself!

i am fairly new to MTB, but love it. i ride trails, and love singletrack, descents, rocks and am starting to hit jumps. my next bike i want to last me and be an all mountain machine that will be fine if i want to do some drops on it.
i also want a ride that has decent forks right out the box, and is a good climber.
i of course have a budget unfortunately, but with some sales on i have narrowed down to the following;

cannondale prophet 3
felt compulsion 2
marin rock springs
commencal meta 5.5.3
coiler deluxe

i think that is it. any advice from people who have ridden any would be great. have tried the felt, but only in a shop carpark, and i liked it but can find no reviews anywhere.

thanks
tom

1340jas

sorry I havn't ridden any of the above, but ask your LBS if they are having a test day at a local venue and try them back to back. I imagine all the above ride great around a car park but its a different matter on a trail.
The webs also a good place to look for demo days.

Happy hunting.

passout

Commencal Meta 55 is great.

I haven't ridden the others but the Cannondale stands out to me.