[Pexy13]

Greetings!

I've been mountain biking for the past few years and I put around 1000km of trail riding on my bike each year which slowly put my 400usd bike into dirt.

I love biking and so I decided to buy a proper mountain bike this time. Buy one cry once type of deal.

I know I want an modern (aggressive) hardtail which I can pedal uphill and also have a blast and fun going down on flowy trails but also not to feel like an XC bike over the more steep and ruff stuff. My budget is 2600USD. For now I narrowed my choice down to 4 bikes.

The bikes are:
2022 Vitus Sentier 29 VRX - https://vitusbikes.com/collections/sentier/products/vitus-sentier-29-vrx-mountain-bike-2022
2022 Sonder Signal ST XT - https://alpkit.com/products/sonder-signal-st-xt
2022 Trek Roscoe 9 - https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/mountain-bikes/trail-mountain-bikes/roscoe/roscoe-9/p/35118/
2022 Rose Bonero 3 - https://www.rosebikes.com/rose-bonero-3-2693547?product_shape=Sandy+Taco&article_size=M

I can't completely decide which one to get and they are all similar in terms of geometry but each one has it's own pros and cons(spec, fork, rims, overall weight...)

I would appreciate your opinions and thoughts so feel free to speak your mind. If you also have a new recommendation please share it with me I might have missed something. Also keep in mind that I am 179cm 70kg (5feet 9inch, 154lbs) and live in Croatia Europe.

Cheers!

 

[MikeD]

Pipedream Sirius?
How I reasoned mine.

 

[Pexy13]

Pipedream Sirius?
How I reasoned mine.

Am I mistaken or this is a frame only?

 

[HardtailHack]

That Rose looks pretty rad excluding the internal cable routing, I'm not really an aluminum frame person but some with thinner or curved stays do ride okay.

On-One is just about to release their Huntsman frame and if you can tolerate sliding dropouts and build quality that is probably not on the same level as a Trek etc it's probably a solid bike.

You could go close to getting a Meta with an Ohlins for for that money I think but the reach may be a touch short and I'd want a 130-140mm fork on it.

Commencal META HT AM OHLINS 2023 im Test

➤ Test: Commencal META HT AM OHLINS ✓ 17 MTBs in der Kategorie Trailhardtail bis 4500 € im ⇄ direkten Vergleich.

bike-test.com

 

[Pexy13]

That Rose looks pretty rad excluding the internal cable routing, I'm not really an aluminum frame person but some with thinner or curved stays do ride okay.

On-One is just about to release their Huntsman frame and if you can tolerate sliding dropouts and build quality that is probably not on the same level as a Trek etc it's probably a solid bike.

View attachment 181614

You could go close to getting a Meta with an Ohlins for for that money I think but the reach may be a touch short and I'd want a 130-140mm fork on it.

Commencal META HT AM OHLINS 2023 im Test

➤ Test: Commencal META HT AM OHLINS ✓ 17 MTBs in der Kategorie Trailhardtail bis 4500 € im ⇄ direkten Vergleich.

bike-test.com

The rose does look good. The only thing that kind of bugs me whit the rose is that it doesn't have parallel-ish seat stays and top tube so it doesn't look that comfy and relaxed but I'm not sure if that effects things. The meta with ohlins is quite a bit more expensive than the rest and the frame is apparently very stiff (hardtail party review)

 

[HardtailHack]

I just saw that the Rose color is "Sandy Taco", that is awesome!

Yeah the Commencal does look like a pretty stout frame, I hate super stiff frames.
SolarisMax would probably suit-

 

[Pexy13]

I just saw that the Rose color is "Sandy Taco", that is awesome!

Yeah the Commencal does look like a pretty stout frame, I hate super stiff frames.
SolarisMax would probably suit-
View attachment 181617

That Cotic looks great but I think it's a bit too long for my style of riding because I would prefer a more lively bike with shorter chain stays insted of a longer and more planted bike like this one because I'm not a big guy.

 

[MikeD]

Am I mistaken or this is a frame only?

Well they have a boutiquey set of build options under "pick-n-mix" but I wouldn't go that way. It's pretty much a ground-up build, yeah.

 

[FlipSide]

From what you describe, the Kona Honzo ESD would be perfect. Not sure how much it is in USD, but it may be a bit above your 2600$US budget.

Chainstays can be setup very short, HA is slack, Reach is long, frame is comfortable. I have one and it's the best bike I've ever had. My enduro bike is now only used for lift-assisted riding and very gnarly/fast trails.

 

[englertracing]

One with suspension.

 

[HardtailHack]

That Cotic looks great but I think it's a bit too long for my style of riding because I would prefer a more lively bike with shorter chain stays insted of a longer and more planted bike like this one because I'm not a big guy.

Ragley may also have something that would suit, they are a bit sorter on the reach from memory.
I am 6ft and I think my reach is now down to about 660mm(mulleted) and I find that a bit short for me but the wheel is way out in front as the HA is 62deg.

 

[6thElement]

I think my reach is now down to about 660mm

Didja mean 460mm reach perchance?

 

[HardtailHack]

Didja mean 460mm reach perchance?

Yup, wonder where I pulled 660 from?