Which full suss XC race bike?

bigdavevw

Hello, i,m looking to buy a new full suss XC race bike for local XC and endurance races. At the moment i have a 2011 Trek Elite 9.7 18.5 with everything upgraded to lighter components. Its about 22.5lbs.

On my last race it was quite a bumpy track and i felt i was being held back due to having a hardtail, i,ve had a sore back all week too.

So the bikes i,m thinking of are

Trek Top Fuel 9.9 ssl
Giant Anthem advanced 29er
Spesh epic 29er carbon one
Trek Superfly 100 carbon

I am open to other bikes but i feel i have picked out some of the best ones here.

I,m still unsure about 29ers i am reasonably fast on a bike, but i,m not the most powerful of riders, i,m 5ft 10 and 9 st 8. Do you need to have quite big legs to push the big wheels? is a 29er full suss over kill for xc races? should i stick with a 26er full suss?

any info would be great

Dave

tbikeradar

Get a Whyte 146 X

tofu21

Get out and try them. That's the only way you will know. You are looking to spend a lot of money so you've got to get it right.

Stu Coops

Anthem, as for your size there are some tiny girls in the pro ranks riding 29r's

hard-rider

The Scott Sparks are quite light XC race bikes . The 29ers are starting to show up at quite a few events here.

bigdavevw

Cheers for replies guys, yea i would love to try some of those out, i have sent an email off to a local bike shop about a demo spesh and giant. Not too keen on Scott bikes tho, my mate has had a couple and i dont like them.

supersonic

The Anthem and Spark would top my lists - the latter is bit slacker than the norm for added stability, and did very well in the WMB trail bike of the year. 25lbs stock for the Spark 35. What don't you like about them?