Prophet vs Cube Stereo vs Fritzz???

spittle
spittle Posts: 44
edited September 2008 in MTB buying advice
Currently - Kona Caldera 2005 hardtail.
Want a bike I can thrash around downhill, can take a little bit of a beating incase I don't take the best line, but also be able to ride uphills.

Anyway...

I've read loads of reviews on full suspension bikes and originally the Prophet 2 was in my short list. Then I discovered Cube bikes and reallised they offered a lot for the money with very good spec & reviews.

So I was leaning towards the Cube Fritzz with an excellent spec & reviews. I visited Zero G bikes in Bedminster, Bristol to get some advice and have a look at some bikes.

The only Cube in stock out of the few that I had been looking at was the Cube Stereo, the lowest model K18.

http://www.cube-bikes.de/xist4c/web/STE ... .htm#anker

The guy in the shop showed me the bike, we had a chat then he also pointed me towards the Prophet 2.

I'll summerise then maybe you guys could give your opinion (this was the gist of what I got from the shop):

Cube Fritzz (out of stock but can order in) -
Perhaps a bit too much bike, I may benefit from learning a bit of finess with other forks rather than going for the big chunky Fox 36s where I could just about plough straight over the top of obsticals. Not a lot more said about that.

Cube Stereo K18 (this was the bike I started looking at in the shop)
Nice bike, good for uphills due to multi pivot rear susp. Can be expensive to service due to a lot of pivot points and bearings. (they can also order in other models).

They also pointed me towards the

Cannondale Prophet 2 - they liked this one a lot. The forks were better. The bike perhaps not quite as good for uphill but still good. Single pivot make servicing easier.


Thas was the gist of what they were saying anyway, they seemed pretty clued up but I wanted some more opinions from people not selling something.

Options are:

Prophet 2
Stereo k18
Stereo Higher model (the one?)
or Fritzz? (the one)