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Over 20 years of mountain biking now and i have to admit to myself that i've been a bit of a fashion victim when it comes to bikes and marketing (and opinions on here) have influenced me far too much. For a few years i rode on a cotic soul that was clearly too small because "flickable" was the trend. Well enough is enough! My current bike is a Codeine 29r and its great but the long, low slack thing matched with carbon enduro lust has had me looking at some very nice bikes for next year (Mondraker Foxy, Orbea Rallon etc) and the desire to "size up". But last night i had a good long go on my mates Spesh Enduro 29r (current model) which ticks all the above boxes. And i hated it. It felt dead and having to put in so much effort just to get it to come alive over drops, roots and singletrack was a real pain. I always held the view that more is more as long as it wasnt too heavy, but no longer, i was certainly overbiked in terms of both travel and geometry and had a real drop in enjoyment because of it.
Not sure why i'm posting this, just felt the need to get it out there if anyone else has had the same experience.
I think i'm the opposite to you, having ridden my 120mm HT in Samoens this summer, i positively believe i'm under biked. Sometimes. But i love it.
As you say though, it was the wrong tool for the job. If you were riding the long/fast/steep/whatever trails the cool aid is aimed at I imagine you're view might have been different?
It's Kool-Aid (somebody had to)
Sounds like you'd need a 'trail bike' rather than some enduro beast. I rode my HT for years before finally going FS a couple of months ago (still 26er, it ain't dead yet). My legs are def feeling the benefit, but i do miss the simple enjoyment of a burly HT
I'm running 145mm rear with 160mm fork now and plenty happy with that.
Yes it is Kool-Aid. My bad!
I'm sure if i spent my days blasting through steep rock gardens then i would have felt different. But i'm a UK rider who spends most of his time in the peaks / lakes and even though for some of that stuff (the Beast at warp speed) it would have been better for the other 90% of the ride it would have been a drag.
Why not go for the Electric Kool-Aid?
IGMC
Thats actually quite a good joke! Take a bow.
There's always been fashions as you rightly point out. And people who are more into bikes than biking.
Unless your riding is the same as whatever's cool this week, your ideal bike will be a bit different.
Some stuff gets refined in a way that helps everyone (My 140mm FS 29er with disc brakes and a dropper now weighs about the same as my 80mm HT 26er back in the late 90s, and pedals fine), but the latest extremes won't suit everyone.
That said, I'd be interested to see how you'd find an Enduro with faster tyres on...
Here in pedant's corner its different; Jim Jones poisoned his followers with grape flavoured FLAVOR AID. That feels better now I'm off to lurk on the guardian comments section for some feel good pedantry
the Beast at warp speed
To be fair the first time I rode my Pitch down there it was a revelation compared to having to pick my way down on the hardtail. I don't think it's really fair to say a bikes bad because it's capable of too much though. I've still got a decent off Mam Tor on the Pitch etched in my memory as a sort of Zen moment when it all just worked and I absolutely flew down the trail.
Would I like a new 140-160mm travel bike, absolutely, although I'd budget for quite a lot of petrol and holidays taking it places that would get some proper use from it. Slogging it round local loops wasn't so much fun.
Different bikes for different things, as always it's where are you prepared to make that compromise.
For the last 2 year's I've tried to be in the one bike camp, a relatively progressive geometry 130mm 29er. It's done everything, I trail ride on it most of the time, it's done 2 alps trips, I've raced DH on it, I've raced regional, national & EWS enduros & it's been great. But it's slowly morphed, due to the wide range of riding I do into basically a heavy 130mm trail bike to cope with the abuse. Then I cracked it!
Now it's been built back up to a 25lb trail bike, and it's like a rocket ship again. And probably scary to race the sort of thing I usually do.
But it's ok, I build up a Sentinel, as I'm off to race the last 2 rounds of the EWS this year, aiming to do a couple of big races again next year and spend a few weeks in Whistler on it. Even looking at it, it's massive.
Taking it round my local, it's sluggish and cumbersome. Makes it all hard work. But, put it on something rough, steep or fast (or all of the above) it's great.
Enjoying having 2 bikes again, rather than battering one!
I have a Banshee Prime with Lyrics and 2.5inch tyres and a hardtail with Pikes and 2.3 tyres for exactly this reason.