I don't know where you are in Colorado, but you should be able to rent or test ride some bikes to find out if you want a hard tail or dual suspension and 29 or 27.5 wheels, and single vs. double chain rings before buying.

It depends on where you are and if you are going to be hitting close trails or driving. I was down in the Littleton area and a hardtail was great bc most of the trails were smooth and I liked riding to the trails or throwing slicks on and heading south when the roads were poor for road riding. Weekends can get crazy in the area so be aware of that as well. I would go run some of the trails you think you will be using most of the time. IMO getting as lightweight full suspension would be awesome but that is expensive.

I sold my old Specialized Stumpjumper 2 years ago but I'm in the same boat as you, looking to buy soon. I'm getting back into mountain biking and will be doing more Xterra races and offroad duathlons going forward. I just did an Xterra in Waco, TX as a relay, where I swam and ran and my buddy did the bike. My buddy is a Cat 1 mountain bike racer so I naturally peppered him with questions for two days about bike selection. Around central Texas we don't have a lot of fire road-type riding, its alot of windy single track and a lot of super technical limestone ledges, roots and creek bottoms. I also looked around at the bikes of the mid to upper level caliber racers at the Xterra. Here are my take-aways, based on all that plus my own prior experience mountain biking.
1. I'm not going back to aluminum or alloys again. Too heavy.
2. I'm going to get full suspension for sure. The reason is it keeps you in contact with the trail so much better to enable you to climb anything. Hardtails bounce and lose contact and grip. Plus the full suspension bikes are obviously more comfortable.
3. I'm going carbon for sure. Weight is the main issue here. I will travel with this bike to New Mexico and other mountainous environs but even the climbs in Texas can be extreme for short distances, so this is a big factor. My old Stumpjumper was a hardtail aluminum frame and it was just heavy.
4. Everybody uses disc brakes now. Mountain biking was the lead on this before road and tri.
5. My likely buy, based on all my research, is probably the Scott Spark. Not sure of the exact model, but something like this one: https://www.racycles.com/...spark-920-bike-11165. If I pay sticker, it's a little over $3,000. I'm told that towards the end of the calendar year is a good time to buy because the shops try and move inventory to make room for next year's models. But this bike is one of the more popular ones so I doubt it will be discounted much.
6. Everybody, and I mean everybody, is using 1X front chainrings. There is a practical reason for this, in that you only have to worry shifting your cassette on terrain that is constantly changing. I can't speak to the mechanics of it, but it seems like the gold standard for competitive mountain bikers these days.
7. Lastly, I was amazed to find that mountain bikes can cost as much as the high end triathlon super bikes, in the$10,000+ range!!

Hope that helps. Good luck,
-Doug

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It is the mind itself which builds the body.
-Joseph Pilates

This great. Thank you everyone. Sorry I should have specified. I am working in Denver but live out in Golden. I have a trail right behind my house on one of the mesa.

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2020 Team Zoot MTN

I'd check your local REI. Our REI store has demo days at the Valmont bike park where you can ride a couple different bikes in a short time period.

I'm in the same neck of the woods as you (north Golden, near N Table Mtn); I ride hardtails exclusively, more because it's what I have than for any other reason.

That being said, there's a lot of trail you can ride in the area on a hardtail without regret - North Table Mountain, Bear Creek, Green Mountain, Centennial Cone, Colorado Hills open space trails, etc. that are right near or in Golden. Even stuff like White Ranch and Apex are accessible on a HT, you just work more and have to pick your lines.

In the end, it really depends on your objectives - do you want more XC-type riding, or are you more gravity driven. If the latter, then FS seems to be the choice. But I have a lot of fun on my hard tails and just hike-a-bike the stupidly difficult sections as needed.

Golden Bike Shop and Peak Cycles in Golden (not knocking any others, just have direct experience with those) both have demos and are good shops to talk to and try out bikes. Hit me up if you need any other info; I'm not claiming any expertise, but can certainly talk about my experiences.

FWIW, I did my first couple of xterras on a used hardtail that I've riden all over Utah. I just bought a full suspension bike but a couple of years ago I wasn't sure I was going to be mountain biking a ton so I went the budget route and bought the used hardtail. Yes, the full sus is nicer but I had a ton of fun on that hardtail.

I had taken a hiatus from mountain biking for aboout 15 years. Went from a 26" hardtail with 80mm of ft suspension and rim brakes to a 2017 Scott Scale 940 hardtail with discs and 100mm ft suspension with remote lockout.

I feel that for my riding style that was more than enough bike, I ride in new england and I ride everything, the traction, braking, comfort, speed is so much better than the bikes of 20 years ago.

The Scale 940 is a XT equipped aluminum frame, Fox float fork, tubeless wheels. It retails for 2 K, I paid 1800.

I dont regret not buying a full suspension.

 
Find a demo day for a manufacturer and go try a bunch of different bikes. See what you like best then start looking.

Don't be afraid of a good hardtail, they are very capable bikes. There is a trail I ride frequently that is a downhill flow trail. I have ridden it many times on my hardtail, one day my hardtail broke so I rented a full sus carbon bike. Ran that trail 5-6 times that day. I then went back a few weeks later with my hardtail and set a PB down that trail on the hardtail.

I would take a hardtail with a dropper post over a full sus bike with no dropper post.

I found some demo days and rode a bunch of bikes, it was fun and informative.

Go demo a Yeti, their HQ's are located in Golden. Last MB was the Giant Anthem. I just got the Yeti ASR and I love it! They make nothing but mountain bikes. Lots of suspension options to choose from... you can find some used ones too. My $0.02.

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Colorado Triathlon Company, CO2UT 2021, Crooked Gravel 2022, Steamboat Gravel 2022

Don't do it. I demo'd a Yeti SB 6 and I'll be picking it up this weekend. Seriously, go for the full suspension. The less suspension you have, the more your body will have to soak up the bumps. While it's true that less suspension will force you to hone your skills, there's something to be said for letting the bike do the work.

Mountain biking is going through a major resurgence right now because the newest bikes are much easier for a newbie to ride and also there has been a major change in the trail building approach over the past 5-10 years. My LBS says they sold more 5X more mountain bikes over 3K than all road bikes this year.

The new full suspension bikes with accompanying larger tire sizes make it easy for anyone to essentially just pedal over all kinds of terrain without respect to their body position or finesse that used to be required to ride a mountain bike in the era of hardtail front suspension.

The new trail systems with flow trails and highly groomed/ bermed turns make it really fun. In Europe the rage right now is the e-bikes with motor assist so that you can ride 30-40 miles a day without feeling wiped out. It is bringing new people into the sport.

I ride all the time at Kingdom Trails in VT which is probably one of the most well known trail systems in the US. It has 100+ miles of marked, groomed, terrain. They are getting over 100,000 visitors this year up from 80,000 something last year. Every weekend there are over 1000 people there.

As I ride there I see lots of families and overweight chinless dudes who are new to MTBing but they all are riding these 150mm trail bikes and they all think they need them.

I am glad there are a lot of new people coming into mountain biking because it is a healthy outdoor sport. However with that said I don't really agree that you need full suspension as a must. If you have 4-5K to spend I would dip in, but you can still get a very good bike for 2K in a hardtail. It will be much easier to ride than mountain bikes of the past. The tire and wheel sizes of the newest hard tails has totally changed the way they ride. I have ridden my hardtail 5+ hour days many times this summer and I feel good after.

I would let the terrain you ride dictate what you want not just go for one or the other.

I'm thinking that if I was to get a hardtail it would be a plus bike.

Tire sizes are like pendulums right now. We went from regular 2.0s or 2.1s to Fat bikes, then back stepped to Plus sizes, then our 2.1s went to 2.2s on wider rims, and the flavor of the day for 2018 is 2.35 tires.

Plus tires are losing spec for 2018 because many still feel that they are too heavy and hard to move around for trail riding, and the more DH /Enduro guys feel that they are not rugged enough.

My 15 year old daughter is a very avid rider and needed a new mountain bike, I ordered her a hard tail with 2.35s. I think it will fit the bill.

I know what you mean about tires right now. Interesting enough that Scott bikes removed all of their plus bikes from their website.

I was on 2.1's for quite a while until I got into Xterra and then went to 2.25 with a shallow tread. When I was raced in Georgia last spring it seemed to me that there were a lot of people on 2.1's but my observations were limited.

The trail I raced on in Versailles IN could have used a bigger tire than I had, I thought it was really bumpy, think small rock bumpy and I feel more deflection in the tire would have helped me. I'd like to go there with a plus bike on a non-race day and see how it handles.

I haven't been on a fat tire bike because I don't think I would ride it enough but I will take a look into 2.35" tires, I don't know if they would fit on my bike(s)

jaretj

Zero reason not to go full suspension these days. I prefer 29'er shorter travel efficient bike like the Pivot 429 Carbon for racing.

Oh, I have a full suspension bike now, my new one should be in by Tue/Wed.

It's just if I was going hardtail, I'd be looking at a Plus bike.

I'll echo what others said, "go demo some bikes" - especially Yeti as they are in your backyard. I rented a Yeti SB5 when I was in Salida recently and it was, by far, my favorite bike I've ever ridden. That thing handled the Monarch Crest trail like a boss. When I first got back into mtb a few years ago, I bought a used hardtail off Craigslist to see if I'd like it. After riding that for awhile, I realized I needed a full suspension and sold the hardtail and bought a cheap used Giant Trance for a little over $1K. I made it into a 1x system with a dropper post and love it. Now, I wish I could afford a nice Yeti or even a smaller travel 29er for Xterra type racing, but that will have to wait until I save up some more cash.

I live near the east coast and have always used 2.1 to 2.25. I was going to be going on vacation for a few weeks in the rockies (and bring my bike) so I decided to go for a bigger tire since I was not going to buy bigger suspension. I went to the 2.35 Maxis Ikon and the difference is quite magical. The tires are about .25lbs each heaver than my old ones, but they grip so well on everything. They seem to absorb bumps much better than my old tires ever did. I've decided to keep them on my bike full time. The added weight is more than made up for in my ability to make softer landings, grip corners better and roll over things much smoother.

Best investment ever.

This is a great idea! Thank you everyone. As of right now I am leaning towards a hardtail only because of the price. I am going to check out Yeti since they have a demo day Sept 29th in Vail!

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2020 Team Zoot MTN

Except for cost. You basically pay double to get the equal bike in FS that you get in hard tail.

I'd vote hardtail and make sure you get tubeless ready tires or those goat heads over by Golden will eat you alive. I've purchased two Cubes and had them shipped to the US. Best price point for an XT bike with decent shock and they are both 2x. Both were 29s given rider's height, one with a Reba and the other had a lower level fork but frame is carbon. The bikes are fairly light and good for high school mountain bike racing. We rode the Frisco course last week and the hardtail was fast and no problem on a few steep loose climbs. Only thing I'm adding is a dropper seat.



https://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/cube-reaction-gtc-sl-2x-red-n-flashorange-550971?currency=5&delivery_country=191

Don't forget weight and maintenance on the shock and linkage.