Play bike

get a hardtail and go ride seatac


Nothing teaches you how to jump better than a hardtail

Almost all hardtails made these days are pretty much the same bike.....12.5-13" BB, 15+" chainstays, 69ish degree headangle. The biggest differences are really just in sizing.

I just got a diety cryptkeeper than I'm really digging. But if you've got a good relationship with a shop somewhere, I'd just see what they can get for you among the brands they carry.

I'm a little partial to steel because it doesn't quite ding your ankles as much as aluminum but that's a personal thing.

yeah steel is way to go! any brand would work well.

You might want to checkout a Santa Cruz chameleon . There great do all bikes . I bought a chameleon a couple of years ago and love it , heck I ride it more than my dh bike . How's life going in Seattle ?

get a steel hardtail, you can find deals everywhere. ride it everywhere including the dj's, best tool to learn riding skills for sure.

Don't go with a do it all hardtail. Screw that. Get a dj oriented frame and just ride pump and dirt. It will improve your technique a lot. Dartmoor if you want cheap and light. 26player won't be bombproof if you crash a lot but most people don't kill them and the prices and geo on them are amazing. If you want something more burly go steel or something like a banshee amp or that ugly morpheus (supposedly it's uber bombproof)

I recently bought a rampant frame and it is such a fun bike. It can handle the dh but since i know it wont plow like my v10 i just play around on the way down and just enjoy popping of small stuff etc. I can ride it for 3h+ trail rides no probs than head straight home to do some dj, it is really versatile. I do think a 4x4 is what your after a hardtail will be harsher to ride anything but packed dirt and i think 4' gives that little extra forgiveness o the trail which will make it a fair bit more pleasant to ride longer.

giant stp's are good bikes, and if you aren't too tall can be pedalled with a huge seatpost. they can dirt jump pretty damn well, not like a super compact steel DJ bike but probably 90% as capable on DJ's. you can find killer deals on them. I got my stp 0 new for under $600(craigslist). I had it for a while but there was too much overlap with my other bikes. the newer one '10+ iirc with the tapered head tube is super rad and well made, but the older ones are great too(what I had, '08 I think). more on the trail side of things than the stp would be a chameleon and those are great bikes that can shred dirt jumps or do a big xc ride. they will beat the hell out of you on XC though, STIFF frame. sounds like you want a hardtail with a 1x9 setup and a 100mm fork.

HAB said:

Yeah I'm not looking at getting a true do it all hardtail like a TransAm or whatever. I'm just talking about a DJ/4x style frame that's roomy enough and has a little bit of a seat tube so I could plausibly jack the seat and pedal it a little if I felt like it. Say like a Transition Bank as opposed to a SuperCo.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. Keep 'em coming.

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yeah ride the dj bike everywhere, down to the beach, to the beer store, to the gym, at the dj's, etc. Draft roadies on short sprints, it's fun to pop manuals at 20mph riding behind weekend warrior roadie pelotons

current dj bike is a black market mob with marz dj1, got it brand new on craigslist, there are deals to be had. maybe even a fully like the specialized pslope would be cool too.

I have an 2011 STP and a 2013 Mission 4x/Dreamliner. I love the Dreamliner as I can take it anywhere and ride it like a big hit bike, a trail bike or a dj bike.

If you are interested I have a 2011 Specialized P2 or P3 (the alloy one) that I'm selling complete for $450. It's been converted to single speed. I'm about 2 hours south of you.

BmxConvert said:

If you are interested I have a 2011 Specialized P2 or P3 (the alloy one) that I'm selling complete for $450. It's been converted to single speed. I'm about 2 hours south of you.

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Buy this




now

I have had a steel .243 racing dj bike for a long long time now and I can say that I am happier with it, even though it is by all standards now a beater, than any other bike ive ever owned. Buy a steel dj bike, put light, semi slick tires on it and dont look back. Sometimes simplicity is the best option. Also, a steel ht frame is cheaper so you can spend a bit more on parts that matter like wheels.

That being said, I've been playing around with the idea of getting an old blur 4x and putting a reverb and some light wheels as a wicked playbike. I would say that if you already have 2 other bikes, go for a dj bike.

I'll 2nd the idea of getting a dedicated dj'er. You might want to have a couple of seatposts/ seats for it if you're gonna want full leg extension on a bike w/ a short seattube like a Bank, though. But for the fun factor, it's tough to beat.

ricod said:

That being said, I've been playing around with the idea of getting an old blur 4x and putting a reverb and some light wheels as a wicked playbike.

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The gen2 sx was really similar geo wise to the blur 4x, and the sx I used for a trailbike was super fun. Do it!

gen 2 as in the one with the checkered red and black paint job?

Yeah, altho mine was black/ white with lightning instead of checkered.

And this is pretty weird - a google search for specialized sx 4x images brings up the picture from the for sale ad that I bought my sx from, back in '07.