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Need help on bike selection

JMP

Chimp
Oct 5, 2005
7
0
Near Olympia, WA
Hi all,
I used to ride everyday up to 2yrs ago when my bike got jacked. I'm finally in the position to spend some money on a good rig. My last bike was a hardtail XC. Towards the end I was breaking parts weekly doing freeride stuff on it. Used to dirts jump BMX and ride motocross. I want to buy a legit freeride bike but am not sure weather to go hardtail or FS. I will be doing most of my riding in Capitol Forest near Oly, WA for any locals that might read this. There will be a lot of climbing and logging road peddling and the massive amount of suspension on some of the FS rigs is driving me towards hardtail. I will however be going to Whistler/Northshore/Bellingham/SeaTac reasonably often. There are spots in the woods in my backyard that I can build board track, jumps, and reasonably big drops. Basically I'm worried that if I go hardtail I will be held back from going as big as I possibly can. I've been told that getting a cross genre bike, such as a Kona Coiler might be the way to go. Any and all information would be much appreciated. Feel free too contact me through email , personal messages, posts etc.. Thanks!
 
May 12, 2005
977
0
roanoke va
if you go for the full suss your dirt jumping will suffer but it can be done. you know the pros and cons of a HT vs fully; bulid skills vs forgiving. go for a preston or howler or symalar. coiler will stand up to the abuse but the geo is a little steep for FR. i like my gemni 900 for DH/NS shuttle trails to dominating XC rides (decents at least.) and drop the travel down for DJ and park/street.
 

pangeist

Monkey
Mar 18, 2005
327
0
Santa Barbara
Having personally ridden in the Capitol Forest on a hardtail DJ style bike, Coiler Primo, Stab, Stinky, Transition Dirtbag, and a few others. I wouldnt be able to recommend one bike for all the trails. On Greenline 6 and Trail 30, I would recommend the Dirt Bag, Stinky, Or Stab in that order. Some folks love to bomb trails others like to relish in the technical difficulty and take more time and dial their riding, If you are more into speed go more DH, if you are more into a challenge stick to a more versatile rig like Dirtbag or a Coiler if you like a bit more of a challenge. A hardtail in the forest would be doable however not the most fun, as far as I am concerned. Some of the lood trails would be far more doable aboard a 6" bike or less if you are a hardcore XC kinda guy. The terrain is so up and down that a 7" bike is fun on the down if you dont mind paying a bit on the up. As far as going to SST, bigger is definitely more fun. But for the DJ's forget it. SOafter all this BLABBER I will suggest this, get two bikes! Yeah I know, thats not what you want to hear, but after all my experiments with one bike for all I ended up with four. Thanks, PM me if you want to ride some stunts or urban and I have a shuttle rig so............
 

JacobDW

Monkey
Feb 22, 2005
271
0
Manassas, VA
I own a Ditbag and it is such a sweet ride, it fits me perfectly and is so manueverable in the air, I dont regret a thing about the purchase AT ALL, AND their customer service is awesome, totally awesome guys....