[Bicyclist]

EDIT: DOH! I'm just a little late. I guess I should've read the whole thing...

 

[HaveFaith]

Cool sounding RFX. I wish my bike had a 66.5* HTA. Oh well.
I ended up getting a Nicolai Helius FR off the classifieds here. It is in between the M and L RFX, which was what I almost bought. But the Nicolai came out on top for the following reasons:
5 Year transferrable warranty
Better quality welding
Significantly lighterweight (includes fancier butted tubes/stays)
Needle bearings instead of bushings
More adjustable w/o additional hardware
Speed Holes

The Nicolai and the RFX were both roughly the same price, both had DHX Air's, both were anodized, and both were reputed to have stellar build quality and great CS.

I made a thread about it in the freeride section, it's pretty fun. I have it in 5.5" travel mode right now, w/ a 67.9* HTA and a 5.7" fork. It weighs somewhere in the low 30's (no clue where), and is quite possibly the most fun bike I've ever had - it's certainly the fastest overall. I wish the geo was able to be more slack w/o the rear tire rubbing, but I'm thinking about swapping out the tire for a smaller one so I can get it down to the low 67's in HTA, or keep it at 67.9* in 6" mode. After riding it thoroughly, the only bike I wish I had considered more would be the Nomad/6.6. But then again, they're going to be a little more cumbersome with the 1.5"-2" extra travel. I like being low to the ground, it makes cornering easier, and difficult situations more stable, and makes me feel safer (since I'm not too keep on hurting my healing wrist again so soon).

Your characteristics of an ideal ride are inline with mine, and I ended up with an 06 Prophet 4X. 67.5HA and low bb with 5.5" F&R. Even though it is single pivot, it pedals awesome, has a plushtastic rocco and the carbon lefty is sick. It corners like crazy, and with the thru-axle rear i can jump and hit drops with no worries. That and being at 31lbs. +/- I really cant complain.

 

[erikkellison]

Sounds cool, and that you like it alot. The only problem I woudl have had with it is that it won't pedal like a Horst on imperfect terrain. That's why I didn't want a SP - they just have issues with pedaling uphill on bumpy stuff (all bikes pedal well on fire roads). I know that the closer you get the pivot to the BB, the better the pedaling, but also the worse the wheel path becomes, and the pedaling never gets as good as a proper linkage. My local hill dictates that I get something that allows me to pedal well on uphill trails over bumps. If it had a proper linkage, I'd be all over it - I just heard about those carbon Lefty's, and a T/A rear is always good (I have a 10mm T/A on my bike). My only gripe that our bikes share in common is the low bottom bracket. Great for smooth stuff, crappy for rough stuff. I can't pedal through very rough stuff without damaging pedals/cranks, but worst of all (so far) is that when I lose a foot off the pedal to a stunt of some kind, the other pedal is guaranteed to rest on whatever object I am trying to navigate, making a recovery impossible. It's very hard to ride a stunt of any kind with one pedal dragging!

proper: VPP, Maestro, DW, Horst, FC2, ICT, Canfield parallel.

 

[auntesther]

giant is coming out with the reign X that would be perfect I think, 6.7in and more sturdy. also have you thought of ellsworth? dropnzone has a demo one at the shop. the moment w/6in travel.

I have been on a Reign for a bit more han a year and really my only gripes with it is the lack of shock options ( the shock clearence is severely limited on the regular Reign ) and I wish the HA was a tad more slack.
The Reign X looks to be the answer...can fit a DHX ( air or coil) and the HA is about 2 deg more slack than my current Reign. Beyond that, my reign has served me really well...on fr type of stuff to long epic rides with tons of climbing. With a reasonable build, mine is about 31 lbs ( 521's, Hone cranks, 36 Van RC2, etc). Nothing on the bike is what I would term "light" but the overall package is both durable and very rideable.
Plus the Reign X is pretty good price wise...1100 MSRP with a headset. I would def check that out

 

[TCP21]

you want one of these they are sick

 

[erikkellison]

you want one of these they are sick

I already got a bike... read the thread?
That does look cool though, really cool actually. Not your average Faux Bar!

As for that Reign X, that thing does look cool. If my Nicolai disappears off the face of the earth, I'll probably look one of those up. It was high on my list until I found out about HTA and shock fitment issues, both of which have apparently been resolved. Tempting!

 

[TCP21]

ah nice, i like nicolai's but i like my cowan instead