Cannot make up my mind

twowheelmadness

I am currently looking to purchase a full suss bike. I am reading all the reviews there are going and its just confusing me even more.
I have between £1700 to £2000 to spend. my riding is varied as I like trailing, jumps, downhill and sometimes a bit of road if necessary.
I have been looking at the Stumpy FSR Elite and the Lapierre Zesty 314. As my riding is varied and I am riding more and more i think I need an all mountain or an XC bike that can do a bit of everything.
Does anyone have any good advice or recomendations that may help?

Anonymous

standard advice is to test as many bikes as you can, no-one knows more than you but its a lot of cash to spend and what suits one person may not suit you.

the 2 bikes you have shortlisted are well reviewed, i think the lapierre wins every test it participates in!!

toasty

As above, you can't go wrong with either.

The missus bought the Stumpjumper Elite recently, lovely bike. Really impressed with how drastic the weight difference between that and my Meta was to be honest. It's got room to go lighter as well, deore chainset, deore hubbed wheels etc. Talas fork gives a decent range of riding options too.

Have you ridden either? For that sort of cash I'd have a quick spin around at very least, with both of those you pay pretty much RRP everywhere.

twowheelmadness

Thanks to both of you for the advice. I have a planned test ride on the Lapierre and went to see it again today. The only thing I am concerned with the bike is the rear shock. Its set in one position, i think pro pedal, but does not have lockout. Hopefully the test ride will answer my question but if you know anything about that I would appreciate it.

GarryM

My experience (two day demo' of 714 and a short ride on a friend's 314) is that the smaller volume shock on 314 & 514 is a little firmer in the first inch or two of travel. The result is that the 314 doesn't bob much at all and the Zesty is designed not to bob anyway.

The propedal lever on the 714 turns propedal on or off - there is no lockout. Because it is softer for that first inch or so of travel, I could see you might use the propedal setting sometimes on a 714. I don't think you'd miss it on a 314 or 514.