Coming off back surgery so looking for some squish to my ride. What is everyone riding besides a Specialze epic?
Coming off back surgery so looking for some squish to my ride. What is everyone riding besides a Specialze epic?
Turner Czar.
If I had not wanted to spend that kind of money then it probably would have been a Giant Anthem X 29er.
Funny, turner Czar is already at the top of my list, I used to have a Flux (pre DW Link). So I take it that it climbs great,is light and as a slack enough head angle to double as a trail bike as well?
I see a lot of Trek Top Fuels around here.
The new Cannondale Scalpel is very nice IMO 
Lots of good choices out there. I’d round up a top 5 and then pick based on spec, price, and, most importantly, color.
I’ve been racing Xterra on a Scott Spark for the last 2 years and I loves it. It’s the carbon frame version and has suspension lockout which is handy for those climbs on smooth trail. Was spendy but worth every penny to me.
I just had a chance to demo a Niner RKT, that bike felt super fast.
never like Niners steep head angle
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Salsa Spearfish. Love the bike.
I actually gave up MTB and Xterra because of back issues. If things continued on the trajectory they were on I was likely headed towards surgery. My doc recommended giving it up which I reluctantly did. Knock on wood I haven’t had any issues in quite awhile. I brought up full suspension as a possibly and he shut that down also.
Good luck. I missed it in the beginning but my back doesn’t bother me anymore. I’ll take that trade any day.
IMO, (for whatever that’s worth) dw-links “pedal” the best if you have your shock setup properly and don’t want to futz with locking/unlocking/locking/unlocking… …etc. The newer Top Fuel models with the Reaktiv shocks are pretty nice (as much as I don’t want to admit it). Some of my friends LOVE their Sparks but holy dashboard clutter.
Allegedly the niner Rkt (mentioned earlier) is very nice but like mentioned below, I’m not a fan of the steep HT angles.
for reference, I’m on Pivots (LES, 429 sl and the new switchblade is in the shop. med 429 trail hitting the market soon). If you’re tall and really long legged, you may not like the steeper ST angles.
that being said, it’s pretty hard to go wrong these days as most everything is pretty damn solid.
Ahh the spearfish.
I actually had a chance to ride one a couple of years ago and it did indeed ride extremely well.
Do you have the Carbon or Aluminum?