2016 Cube Attention SL 29er VS 2017 Giant Talon1 27.5 which would you choose?

cglets

In the market for a new XC hardtail. I am 5'9'' and 160lbs. I ride in the Canadian Rocky Mountains at an intermediate level 2/2 or 3/3 for difficulty/technicality scoring. I am wondering what some experts thoughts on deciding between these two bikes would be. I have access to both for very similar price point. Each is linked to the URL's below.

https://www.cube.eu/en/products/mtb-har ... lack-2016/

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/int/talon-1

The Rookie

Of those two, the Giant, it has a much better fork (single most critical component), and only really loses out on the headline grabbing rear mech of the cube which is rather wasted with Deore shifters.

cglets

So based on the specs of these two forks, the suntour epixon is a much better air fork then the rockshoxx recon silver tk solo air??

http://www.srsuntour-cycling.com/bike/f ... -5355.html

https://www.sram.com/rockshox/products/ ... ilver-tk-0

The Rookie

Absolutely it is, it has larger diameter stanchions (stiffer) and they are aluminium (lighter as well), the damper is also better (the TK is a very basic damper) giving better suspension control. The Epicon is broadly similar to the Rockshox Reba which is 2 steps up the ladder from the Recon silver in the lineup.