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I'm thinking about getting a short travel full susser to compliment my enduro and hardtail. The enduro is too much bike for most of the riding I do and I'm thinking a frame with 110-125mm travel will be great fun for general riding. i want to keep the hardtail for playing in the woods and winter.
do you ride both of your full sussers, or does one gather dust in the shed?
As a compromise, i'm thinking i could get a short travel frame and build it up and then swap the bits over to the hardtail for winter.
I don't want to end up with a bike that gets ridden twice a year......
Yes but it's a 75:25 split.
Once I owned a HL Turner 5 Spot, Intense 5.5 and Merlin Oreas - all at the same time. The Turner and Intense are both the same travel bikes but ride very different. I sold them both and bought an 08 Yeti 575 hoping it would have the best bits of both those bikes - sadly it didn't and some time later I got another HL 5 Spot. I did ride them all, even the FS bikes each week but it sort of did my head in seeing so much money sitting there not being used while I was out on the other bike. I then got an injury which sorted the problem out for me.
Ride them both, they will bpth have good and bad points on the trails you ride so use the one that suits the trails you ride on that day.
Geez man haven't you learnt the golden rule of mountain biking.
The required number of bikes one should own is N + 1 where N equals the number you currently own.
I've got two and the bigger travel bike only gets used abroad and in the Lakes - I race on the shorter travel on. Most of my recreational riding is on a HT - so few trails really need FS.
I've got an Epic and two Enduros (an S-Works and an SX) and they do all get used. I find I go through phases of which one gets used the most - at the moment it's the S-Works.
Had a Trek Fuel EX8 (4") and Spesh S-Works Enduro (6"), pointless - never knew which one to ride...
Sold the Trek and bought a Giant XTC Carbon HT
Sold the Spesh and Giant frames, and bought a steel 456 frame.
Then bought a 456Ti frame, that was nearly 2 years ago.
Wouldn't have 2 (mtb) bikes again, unless I was into something that needed a specialised bike - say DH or 4X.
For a good few years, I had an intense uzzi sl and a tracer. The tracer was hardly ever ridden and the frame now sits in the loft. It's a real shame. I now have one ht and one full suspension. The split is much more even now.
Got a 2011 Pronghorn PR6 for racing purposes, 21LBS carbon with lots of fancy bits.
Got a 1999 Marin Attack Trail as a fun bike. Big forks, big tyres, big brakes, 35LBS.
I only ride the Marin for one or two weeks a year now, on my trips up north, but I've had it since new, used to race XC on it (with smaller brakes, tyres and forks!) and have many happy memories on it, I will never sell it, so even though it sees less than 20hrs use a year I'm keeping it.
So yes, two full-sussers does make sense if they are really different. Most of my riding is on a rigid SS though...
Have you considered a 29er HT in lieu of short travel fs- Ive hardly used my trek ex 8 since having my swift (and in fact have just had a lynskey pro29er on the basis that I will have one ss and the other as a gearie and sell the full sus).
29er ht here, that's made the 5" bike redundant. Will probably end up with two 29ers, a 1x10 ht, & a rigid ss. Would love to try something like a RIP9 or Ventana El-Ray.
Not a fan of the clown wheeled oap bikes 😛 In all seriousness 29ers do not fit my riding style at all. I like to jump off everything I can and pull wheelies
YEah! I have a Cove GSpot that I ride when I want to have fun and a Zesty that I ride when I want to keep up with fast people who want to race up every hill. I also have a Cove STD that I ride for lift/van assisted. The split is about 70:25:5 (Gspot:Zesty:STD) at the moment! It'll be 90:0:10 in winter when I'm not guiding.
got 2 DH bikes and ride both and another 6 other bikes. I do have one bike that gets ridden way more than all the others put together tho
Nah, selling off my stocklist at mo, hopfully to end up with a ti456 and prophet with a set of small n big forks.
When I had two, yep, I did.
The closest I've had of two full sussers is a 4" Giant trance and a 7" marin quake. if anything else was to be added to that it'd be a hardtail.
Got a Pronghorn PR6 carbon (100mm) and a Pronghorn LT Trail (160mm).
The 100mm one is a total animal when it comes to climbing and handling, but it's rather steep head angle (and the fact that I have the stem inverted) makes the descents a bit mental. So much so that I've sold the 100mm forks and got some RS SID XX WC 120mm to go on it. Having said that, since getting the 160mm one a couple of months ago and being amazed at how well it does everything, I can't see many reasons other than racing for using the carbon Prongy.
Hardtail, Sub-5, SX Trail
Ridden pretty much in that order of frequency. (hardtails being the bike to ride when it's muddy)
I don't "get" sub 140mm full sussers, aren't they just hardtails with more to go wrong?
The SX has just replaced my big hit so it's setup for DH duties, I doubt that even lightened up it would be as much fun to ride all day as the orange though.
ive got a cannondale and an alipine, i ride the alpine for more heavier riding and use the cannondale for more xc long distance rides but the alpine is fine for xc still its just a bit heavier to slog up hills 😛
120mm/120mm FSR Stumpjumper IMHO as the Spesh blurb says best for most of the trails most of us ride most of the time-not niche but very competent-lightest of my three ideal for long XC rides.Tend to use this on any new routes then go back with the 456 or El Guapo whichever suits best
155mm/170 mm Titus El Guapo - use for big days out and more DH orientated rides-harder on the ups but better on the big downs,smooths out trail centre fare a bit too much though
Steel 456 with a 120mm-160mm adjustable fork-great for jumps
Rotate them all on my local trails,whichever is cleanest I'll ride!
Yes, though probably 65/35 useage, as I just adore the one & love the other.
Prophet and Superlight in my case, different animals.
HT hasn't seen use in years, no idea why I bought it really.
All my local trails can be ridden on a rigid, and are by other ppl, but I don't care and am having fun.
Also planning to rebuild my longer travel Gemini too soon.
I didn't when i had a Cannondale Raven alongside the 575. The Raven just was a bike, possibly due to older geometry. Switched it to a longer travel hardtail, 456 then 456 carbon and i use both bikes more evenly.
Got 2 full sus here, a Santa Cruz Nomad and a Turner Flux. Both get ridden on a regular basis depending on the terrain being ridden. So the answer to your question is yes. Probably ride the Turner the most out of the two.