All my riding is xcountry, trails and single track. Am treating myself to a new bike and am down to one of the following: GT I-Drive 5 3.0 2006 or a Scott Reflex FX-25 2006
I would be grateful if the members of the forum could give me their views on which would be the one to have.

Neither

There's better out there IMO. What's the budget?

I agree, far better for that price range

I like my i-drive 2.0 replaced F.O.C. with a 1.0 frame after i broke it ;-)
Then again i have sistamaticaly replaced everything on the bike as i bust bits or as they wair out. if your prepaired to do that, Go for it as its the same frame across the range the only original bits i have left are the stem grips and bars and forks would have still had the shock but i damaged it ;-(

You really need to strech to the 2.0 if you can as it comes with a better shock and decent forks as IMO these are the bits that make the bike athough im tempted to replace the foxes with pikes when they die (hopefully not too soon)

the Hayes Soul are a poor brake really as the have only one moving piston so you need to adjust the static pad regularly to keep the brakes working, My 2.0 came with julies which are Ok but are a bit on off in feel they are now on my kona HT with them being replaced with M4s

but i like the way mine rides and i find myself riding faster dafter stuff than i would on a hard tail however this has made me ride my hardtail faster and off stuff i wouldnt have concidered in the past. at teh end of the day ride both bike if they are the ones you like and make your own choice and dependent on how much you use it bare in mind that you will have to replace bits on any bike you buy if you use it as intended but if you like it sod what anyone else thinks as your the one riding it and if it works for you..... Enjoy

Oh and its worth mentioning www.evanscycles.com (for example) have a sale on the 06 gt range to make way for the 07 stock so you might get a better spec bike for the same money..

Thanks for that folks
Budget is 1K max.Iiabdtitbtshiw AKA Andy, thanks for the tip off but that is where I intended to get it from unless an LBS would price match

Got mine form the evans store in Castleford couldn fault them when i broke the frame they had the bike back within 2 weeks