Modern MTB bike types

Syrinx

I am a bit confused about modern mountain bike nomenclature, I have recently got back into the sport after a 10 year absence and am about to purchase my 2nd bike, I want something which can go up (for fitness) and down (for fun) hills but can also handle some reasonably extreme downhill and technical stuff, I went straight to the 'all-mountain' section of all the mtb manufacturers websites as I thought this type of bike would fit the description and it does seem to. I have now, however found that there is a type of bike called a trail bike which seems to fit the description even better, also are enduro bikes usable as a do-it-all ride? I ask this as looking at the Lapierre website I see that the Spicy is an enduro bike but it has the beefier fox 36 forks whereas the Zesty has the less beefy 32s and that is supposed to be the all-mountain offering. To sum up I am very confused and what would be best for the above mentioned activities : Zesty or Spicy?

supersonic

The types of bikes and riding have been discussed many times - be worth searching a few old threads out.

How extreme will the DH be? And how often?

captainsnappy

Only you know what the trails you want to ride are considered to be; Trail, AM or Enduro. You could always buy a Spicy and if you find it's overkill for what you want to ride, sell it at go for a Zesty or vice versa.

_Ferret_

I ride quite a few good downhills with my Zesty but then I only weight about 60kgs.
I know a guy who got a spicy for AM because he thought he needed more material to take the weight.
I also looked at the trial type of bike but I was encouraged to get a bit more travel and it was the right decision - besides in a few years the trail bikes will all have 130-140mm travel and the AMs 150-160mm.