Bike that climbs well and descends awesome

S

SnorkBoard

Member
I have an old Transition Vagrant (Freeride/DoItAll HT). It doesn't climb all that well and is pretty heavy for whats basically XC.

I think DH would be the most fun but around here its all XC trails, and all the good DH sections you have to climb first.

I haven't been looking very hard but the Specialized StumpJumper FSR seems nice but really expensive, I think I should probably be looking at used for my price range anyways.

Any other suggestions?

 
Protip though: never make the assumption that a locking rear shock fully locks. It still absorbs a fair amount of your momentum.
 
fuck, I keep accidentally clicking reply before i'm done writing.

anyways if you are riding stuff that is more XC oriented, I would go with a 29er with around 120 to 140mm of travel. just stuff off the top of my heard are the Trek Rumblefish, Specialized Stumpy FSR 29, Ibis Ripley 29, Scott Genius 900, Transition Bandit 29 or Covert 29.

Go to multiple shops and compare different bikes and sizes to see which one fits you and your riding style best.
 
this is hardly a great climbing bike..

Regardless, my FSR stumpjumper is great but I wish it had a bit more girth fr downhill charging. The new Camber looks like it's primetime for both though
 
Yeah have fun sending your shock out to Colorado every time their "patented" double chamber rear shock starts leaking...
 
+1 for the Specialized Enduro. I ride one and love it. Takes on everything and handles a lot of abuse. Not the best thing for climbing but does the trick. Adding a lockout would be ideal. I got a used 2009 model and have ridden it for 3 seasons with no intention to switch and just changed the normal wear and tear bits

There are lots of similar bikes as well
 
if you have a well designed rear suspension then you wont even need to lock the rear out. I have a santa cruz tallboy lt and it is awesome in all situations (it is a 29er so less maneuverable than 26ers) but the vpp suspension stiffens up through the middle part of travel so really I only use the first bit of suspension when climing. the VPP suspension also articulates up and then foreword so its great for climbing.
 
I have a Rocky Mountain Slayer 50, which kicks ass at downhill and climbs well too. Around me we have some Huge rides with lots of vert and the bike does well on everything, and then i can turn around and ride it on the dh course. its 6+" of travel with a 3 stage pro-pedal in the rear (doesn't lock), nice slack geometry, and with the seat up the climbing angle isn't bad.

I was in Moab last week and put about 50 miles on it in 3 days of riding including a technical 20miler with about 2500' of ups and downs. I was pretty worked from the bike and the ride at the end of that one, but my old bike (a Specialized FSR xc pro) couldn't have handled it and I probably would have been hiking a broken bike back to the truck.
 
bianchi-2011-oltre-pro-team-road-bike.jpg
 
Spesh Enduro and Jekyll's are the best all-around bikes i have demoed, both are bundles of fun. Wish I would have spent more than a day on them
 
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