Before spending nigh on 2 grand I'd be inclined to get a demo bike & cane it round somewhere you are familiar with or can push it to it's (or your) limits rather read too much into what some hack makes of it. Last bike I bought I came to regret after a few months only after I'd had the chance to ride round my regular haunts despite it getting a 10/10 MBR rating and being a vast improvement over what it replaced.
I did read somewhere that MV's are selling well & some shops are having trouble in getting hold of them.
I've a shopping list this year that has Orange 5 or similar (Marin 140/Commencal etc.) on it but only after I've ridden them back to back. Great excuse for a weekend away
Yeah, test riding is the plan, I know cheltenham well, and leisure lakes have a lot of the bikes.
I need to shorten my list as to what I want to test ride thou. The more information I have the better value for money my purchase will be. Also, I don't really know what I am looking for ride wise, I just have to try them to get a feel for it. This is my first full sus.
I'd say either the stumpy or the mount vision, both of which pedal so well that you don't really gain owt going 4", but you do gain on the descents by having 5", not to mention the fact that both (particularly the MV) can descend well beyond what you'd expect of an Xc biased 5" bike.
I own an '03 enduro (130mm) and even at that vintage the fsr rear end pedals extremely well, easily holding more than it's own with a lot of todays frames, and still better than some of them too, so I concurr that the fsr rear end is a tried and trusted system that pedals and tracks with the very best of 'em.
Demo them both, as soon as I read the brief those sprung immediately to mind. Those new marins are alledgedly very good indeed. (really want a wolf ridge meself!)
Edit:
Oh, and as for the HT in the peaks thing, if you know how to ride one they are quite viable, only potato alley catches you out, all the rest can be laced good and proper on a HT. Take the 115mm forked inbred out there at times, no problem at all.
I'm also interested to see what prices are like on '08 bikes as next years models come into the shops. '09 bikes are likely to see a price hike but I'm not sure whether dealers won't feel the need to discount older models that much as the price difference is made up by a hike or whether they have to because no one's got any money in the current climate.
I love the carbon Rush, the bottom bracket is fairly low (actually only an inch lower than the Prophet) but it's such a quick bike for cornering and climbing and is more than up to the challenge of 'all mountain riding'.
For the money between the 2 it would have to be the Carbon Rush
But before you bye I'd recommend finding a short [3 feet should do] steep ramp [45 degrees ish ] at the LBS make sure its a little slippy and ride a Swing arm bike up it from rest and then try a 4 bar/horst link.
Yeah, test riding is the plan, I know cheltenham well, and leisure lakes have a lot of the bikes.
I need to shorten my list as to what I want to test ride thou. The more information I have the better value for money my purchase will be. Also, I don't really know what I am looking for ride wise, I just have to try them to get a feel for it. This is my first full sus.
You will know. It test rode the Cove Hustler and Santa Cruz Heckler, by the end of the ride I just knew which one felt right.
Now I know that's mostly down to build kit, but why experiment when one feels more right than the other.
