Which aggressive AM/freeride bike?

Syrinx

Hi all
Having got back into mountain biking after a 9 year hiatus I am definitely starting to feel the vibe once again, at the moment I am doing just XC and trail riding to get my fitness levels back up to scratch but I will soon want to compliment my MTB arsenal with a burly all mountain/freeride machine so Ii can appreciate both ends of the mountain bike spectrum.
I have been looking at the Lapierre froggy and the trek scratch series, also took a sideways glance at the 2stage AM8, I want to be able to climb as a last resort but be able to take on pretty technical and 'extreme' (I hate that word) stuff, i.e drops and jumps. Any ideas what I should go for? Budget is up to 4K. Cheers in advance

Joe_Pineapples

I think a Cannondale Moto Carbon 2 would fit in there nicely, so would the new Ibis Mojo HD when it comes out. Both would be top end bikes that'd take up a fair portion of your folding.

cat_with_no_tail

Budget is HOW MUCH!!! Jeeeeebus you lucky bugger! Plenty of choice for that kind of wedge mate.

Specialized SX Trail II comes in around £3k
Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 is around £4k
IBIS Mojo (with the XT kit) just under £4k
Orange Alpine 160 with every possible upgrade is about £3.5k

I love the Froggy though. Lovely bike

What kind of bike you riding at the moment?

GHill

Obviously make sure you test ride before you buy, that's a lot of wonga to potentially waste.

I'd add the Specialized SX Trail and maybe the Orange Alpine 160 to the list. Would also check out the Santa Cruz line.

jools182

santa cruz nomad

or orange alpine

or maybe a yeti

bobpzero

nicolai?

Syrinx

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Budget is HOW MUCH!!! Jeeeeebus you lucky bugger! Plenty of choice for that kind of wedge mate.

Specialized SX Trail II comes in around £3k
Cannondale Moto Carbon 1 is around £4k
IBIS Mojo (with the XT kit) just under £4k
Orange Alpine 160 with every possible upgrade is about £3.5k

I love the Froggy though. Lovely bike

What kind of bike you riding at the moment?

I'm riding a carbon trance advanced at the moment, very fast but obviously no good for the rough stuff.

nferrar

The Froggy is nice (although the 518/718 have 160mm air forks which strikes as odd), I ended up with a 318 and have stuck coil Totems on it. It's not exactly a light bike (must be around 39lbs now) but it pedals surprisingly well.

The Scratch was on my shortlist to but couldn't be arsed to wait at the time, the 2010 Kona Coli Air looks good on paper to. Spesh SX Trail, Orange Alpine, SC Nomad/Bullit, Marin Avalanche (whatever it's called) all probably worth putting on your shortlist.

Lapierre t 400

what about a scott gambler

Joe_Pineapples

You could always take the more individualistic path and custom build.

Transition Covert frame,
Fox Talas 36's,
Hammerschmidt,
Etc etc . . .

fourcrossjohn

orange blood but upgrade all the extra finishing kit with the 2.5k you save

or huy a santra cruz v10

Steve_b77

Nicolai AM or FR, should come in at around 4k

fourcrossjohn

spesh big hit 1

cove g spot?

grumsta

Are you talking about big DH/freeride drops and jumps or just trail centre ones? The trance should handle some smaller jumps/drops just fine I would have thought.

Joe_Pineapples

A good, burly, 6" travel bike will handle a lot of big drops and still pedal uphill to a reasonable extent.
I did the Innerleithen uplift day on Sunday and as you would expect there were plenty of full-on cutting edge DH machinery, but there was plenty of hardcore AM/light freeride bikes there too, including my Orange.

Syrinx

That's exactly the kind of thing I want it for, mainly for drops & technical DH but with the added ability to pedal to the top (albeit slowly) to do it again !

ilovedirt

fourcrossjohn wrote:

orange blood but upgrade all the extra finishing kit with the 2.5k you save

Aren't orange bloods about 3k+?

Joe_Pineapples

Syrinx wrote:

That's exactly the kind of thing I want it for, mainly for drops & technical DH but with the added ability to pedal to the top (albeit slowly) to do it again !

You want 6" of travel, a bit of beef on the frame, a twin ring crankset and a good, big stantioned fork like a Fox 36 or a Lyrik. Chuck on some decent brakes and you've got a top bike that's versatile and above all else, fun!

supersonic

GT Force Carbon?!

http://s233299868.e-shop.info/shop/arti ... -2009.html

fatblokefromwarwick

Syrinx wrote:

That's exactly the kind of thing I want it for, mainly for drops & technical DH but with the added ability to pedal to the top (albeit slowly) to do it again !

With your budget & the above quote this immediately came to mind,

http://yeticycles.com/#/bikes/ASR7/

Joe_Pineapples

how much commission do you get on that one, Sonic?

jay12

if i were you i would build one due to a 4k budget. then you can get amazing parts for it and with thigs you like and also it will be unique to you

Joe_Pineapples

jay12 wrote:

if i were you i would build one due to a 4k budget. then you can get amazing parts for it and with thigs you like and also it will be unique to you

. . . and a lot of fun to build.

jay12

Joe_Pineapples wrote:

jay12 wrote:

if i were you i would build one due to a 4k budget. then you can get amazing parts for it and with thigs you like and also it will be unique to you

. . . and a lot of fun to build.

my next bike is going to be a complete off the shelf bike but i'm hoping the bike after is going to be a build project

JamesBrckmn

Spesh enduro pro 2010?

b45her

2010 reign X0 ,sex on wheels and smack on 4k

big_scot_nanny

fatblokefromwarwick wrote:

Syrinx wrote:

That's exactly the kind of thing I want it for, mainly for drops & technical DH but with the added ability to pedal to the top (albeit slowly) to do it again !

With your budget & the above quote this immediately came to mind,

http://yeticycles.com/#/bikes/ASR7/

Holy f**king Moly, that is the best looking bike I have ever seen. WANT!

Anonymous

Attack Trail. The ultimate machine.