I'm shopping for another hardtail 29er to go out and have fun on.
I previously had a scott scale (17.2" cs) that was superbly fun. Arguably the fastest bike I've ever ridden. It was a hardtail, though, and I'm an FS guy, so I sold it and got a 650b cdale rush, which I'm very happy with.
Now I've got a kid on the way, so weekend DHing is gonna be done for a while. I'm debating replacing the dh bike with another HT 29er since I enjoyed riding it so much. Now, however, there's a bunch of super-short CS 29ers that are marketed at exactly what I want to do...go out and have fun. Of particular interest is the Kona Taro (16.5), but the honzo is up there too.
Gauging from my previous experience with the scale...what would I give up with the taro? It will likely climb a little bit worse, but if I'm out of the saddle anyways, will it be noticeable? Is the taro a capable XCer, or do I have do "rally" in order to enjoy it?
I previously had a scott scale (17.2" cs) that was superbly fun. Arguably the fastest bike I've ever ridden. It was a hardtail, though, and I'm an FS guy, so I sold it and got a 650b cdale rush, which I'm very happy with.
Now I've got a kid on the way, so weekend DHing is gonna be done for a while. I'm debating replacing the dh bike with another HT 29er since I enjoyed riding it so much. Now, however, there's a bunch of super-short CS 29ers that are marketed at exactly what I want to do...go out and have fun. Of particular interest is the Kona Taro (16.5), but the honzo is up there too.
Gauging from my previous experience with the scale...what would I give up with the taro? It will likely climb a little bit worse, but if I'm out of the saddle anyways, will it be noticeable? Is the taro a capable XCer, or do I have do "rally" in order to enjoy it?