XC FS 29er sought. Advice needed

richa

My name is RichA. I am a roadie. There, I said it.

I am looking to race XC next year. TransAlp, TransPortugal or similar.

My current MTB is a 15-year old rigid and so I am in the market for a XC bike. My (limited) reading suggests that a FS 29er XC bike (100mm travel) is the way to go. My budget is from £2k to £3k if 'required'. [I am 5'10, inside leg 32"]

But could do with some advice as I can find very few reviews comparing different bikes. So...

1. Is a FS XC 29er the 'best' option?

2. What is the advantage of carbon? Lack of weight? Stiffness? Both? Is it worth stretching to a carbon frame.

3. What are the options of the above. How do they rate? So far I have seen:
- Spesh Epic Comp / Carbon Comp 29er
- Giant Anthem X / Advanced 29er
- Scott Spark 920 / 930
- Cube AMS 100 Super HPC SL 29
- Lapierre XR 529/729

[Trek Superfly & Cannondale Scalpel Alu get average reviews?]

Anything else?

Many thanks for any advice.

njee20

You need to ride some and see what you like best, there is no best bike, I'd take all reviews with a pinch of salt!

Personally of your list I'd probably have the Epic. Anthem's have a big following, but IME are relatively heavy for the money (although that's far from the be all and end all), the Spark requires regular use of the TracLoc to make it ride as well as some of the others, and I have no real opinion on the Cube or the Lapierre.

If you can stretch to a carbon Superfly 100 I'd keep that in the mix, but again, just try a few.

Carbon is generally lighter and stiffer, I'd say to go for it (at the expense of shiny components) if it's an option.

Levi_501

njee20 wrote:

If you can stretch to a carbon Superfly 100 I'd keep that in the mix, but again, just try a few

My thoughts

pilch

+1 for the epic, comp comes in a little hefty though, I bought a '12 carbon comp 2nd hand then swapped out the heavy bits, really pleased with it

richa

Thanks for the advice. I will have another look at the Trek (had read an average review on BR).

Stu Coops

Take a look at the Canyon website much more bang for your buck the only downside is you won't be able to try it out until it turns up as they don't use retailers hence the huge savings, lots have them and extremely rare to hear bad reviews on them. Going to get one myself next January when the 650b's start rolling out

njee20

Thanks for the advice. I will have another look at the Trek (had read an average review on BR).

All reviews are subjective, all of 'em - journalists, shops, your mates. There are too many personal nuances for a review to be really indicative of whether a bike is good or not (within reason, obviously if there are serious issues they may give you a steer). I'd not exclude anything solely on the basis of a review.

richa

Stu Coops wrote:

Take a look at the Canyon website much more bang for your buck the only downside is you won't be able to try it out until it turns up as they don't use retailers hence the huge savings, lots have them and extremely rare to hear bad reviews on them. Going to get one myself next January when the 650b's start rolling out

Big fan of what canyon do. But their short travel FS is 110mm travel (much of a difference?) and only comes in AL (no CF) so isn't quite as good value as some of their other offerings.

http://www.canyon.com/_en/mountainbikes ... al-29.html

richa

njee20 wrote:

All reviews are subjective, all of 'em - journalists, shops, your mates. There are too many personal nuances for a review to be really indicative of whether a bike is good or not (within reason, obviously if there are serious issues they may give you a steer). I'd not exclude anything solely on the basis of a review.

Reviews are bound to be subjective. But the advantage of a magazine review is that it is (hopefully) written by someone who has ridden many bikes for many years. Even if I test all the contenders (and many LBS charge £50 for a test) I will have only ridden a few bikes for a few hours.

I don't know what a FS 29er is *supposed* to feel like. I don't know a good front shock from a bad front shock, etc.

I suspect none of the bikes on my list are bad bikes. They are all probably very capable (and I don't suspect the bike will be a limiting factor). So really want to make sure that I don't get a dog, and ideally I can be steered towards something pretty darn good.

njee20

I suspect none of the bikes on my list are bad bikes. They are all probably very capable (and I don't suspect the bike will be a limiting factor). So really want to make sure that I don't get a dog, and ideally I can be steered towards something pretty darn good.

You won't, as you say, they're all decent bikes. So try a few and buy the one you like. What someone from a magazine likes is totally irrelevant.

junglist_matty

I dunno about what the FS 29er is like, but my FF29 is brilliant, very fast indeed, probably not the best *fastest* for racing though.