did you just say "freeride" and three inch travel in one sentence?
haha, i ride a 46 lb bike, and i ride that bitch everywhere, badass XC trails, Badass DH stuff. in fact i just rode some gnar XC yesterday. XC is a blast, but so is downhill. picking one desipline of biking is a stupid move. if you ride everything, you gain the skills aquired by those desiplines.
ROAD=Endourance
DH= high speed handling skills ( i was smokin my buddies on XC race bikes, cause most of the trail we rode were rock gardens, and the handling skills ive learned from DH really helped me out)
Trials= Slow speed technical skills and blance.
Dirtjumping= air sense and, duh, jumping confidence
XC= pedaling, climbing skills, puts all the other learned skills to real world trail applications.
mountain biking is a sick sport. shit, biking is a sick sport. if you just ride one discipline, your missing out, and you wont be as good of a rider. (shit, last time we saw guys on SICK trail bikes walking a awesome part of the XC trail, and it was nothing too technical, but super fun). so yeah, theres so much you can do on two wheels (or one), and dont just pick XC, ride them all! as for a bike, let me go back and reread your post, and do a bit of research, ill point you in the right direction
i looked on google but all i could find was 3D Animation porn-sxmarty6
ECS headwear, hit me up!