3 Questions before purchasing

taffyracer

Going to buy a new bike for fitness and weekend fun with some mates who are into XC and I want something decent, previously has a Specialized Stumpjumper HT Comp and liked it alot, so similar sort of thing, budget is 2k and I have 3 questions

1. Is the weight penalty of a short travel full supension bikes such as the Specialized Epic worth it for XC work, i'm told the Epic is superb, I've had full susepension before and It was just too heavy, don't want to make the same mistake again?

2. Is CF much of an improvement over a decent Alu frame, I do fancy CF?

3. There's so much talk of 29er's now, should I be considering 29ers?

cat_with_no_tail

All 3 of those questions are entirely down to personal preference and build quality.

No one thing is better than the others, just different.

You may find you prefer FS to HT. You may not
You may find the CF frames you try are not as good as the Alu ones. You may not
You may like 29ers. You may not.

You will just have to ride as many as you can and make your own mind up what sort of setup you prefer.

Once you have a better idea of what type of bike you want (eg, an Alu, HT, 29er) people will be able to make suggestions as to which bike fits your needs.

taffyracer

Any question over bikes is always going to be subjective, what I'm looking for is opinions from people that have had similar dilemmas or experience and which way they went, i'm obviously going to try them but getting together the different variations in the same place is night on impossible so anyone have any insight to share?

cat_with_no_tail

ok then

Get a FS, carbon, 26er because that will be the best.

I think you're mis-understanding.

A Good FS will be better than a bad HT
A Good HT will be better than a bad FS
A good FS vs a good HT will be better for some people and not for others. It will also be more expensive.

Carbon frames can be very stiff or very flexy, which do you prefer?
Alu frames can be very stiff or very flexy, which do you prefer?

Both Carbon and Alu can produce very strong, and very light frames.

29ers tend to be slower to accelerate, but easier to maintain speed
29er wheels tend to be heavier than 26" wheels because they are bigger (obv)

You'll not find anyone able to make the sweeping generalizations you are after because no-one other than you knows what you'd feel best on.

taffyracer

FFS, i think you're missing the point, we're talking 2k bikes not shite, they'll all be decent, what I'm asking for is for people's experiences not for someone to tell me what's best, I want to understand the merits of each option before I ride them

supersonic

I agree with a lot of what Cat With No Tail has said - you asked some very general questions, so could only be answered generally.

Only people who have ridden the bikes in question will be able to give more specific answers.

Personally I own a carbon Zaskar and a alu Zaskar. I wanted the carbon one as it saved 0.75lbs in weight, and offered a softer ride at speed, plus is tougher than an all out race bike. The alu frame is stiff and direct. With the Spesh, it could be the other way round! I prefer a hardtail for XC, but love my heavily built short travel mongoose for shorter, tougher rides. This again reinforces the personal aspect of these decisions.

I think the best thing to do is test them, then report your findings. All could be the perfect choice, depending on how you weight their aspects.

cooldad

Simple really.
Full sus is better.
If you fancy carbon, buy carbon.
29ers are very fashionable.

So you need a 29"carbon full sus.

idiotdogbrain

1. Define "too heavy for XC"? I have a fully rigid 26lb Marin and a 30lb-ish FS Giant Trance. For pretty much everything off-road I prefer the Trance, and I don't consider 30lb heavy. Some consider anything over 25lb heavy.

2. I think that the CF vs. Alu debate is more down to personal preference and how each material has been used in the frame in question - you'd have to ride them to see how you preferred the difference in ride characteristics.

3. Sure, why not - but again, you'd need to ride one to see if you liked it.

taffyracer

The problem with riding them all is finding a shop with them all to ride and riding properly, not just a peddle up the road......so I bought a 2010 Epic Carbon Comp and a Rockhopper for my son......thanks for the help

cooldad

Nice bike. Good choice.