Summarised background –

BMXer who took up MTBing
Likes to Pedal
Likes to mess about
Likes to jump everything
Regularly does XC rides through to DH to going as big as i can on jumps

Have had a full “quiver”, HT, trail bike and DH bike.

Something that feels fast enough for XC normally has rubbish GEO for mucking about and is too delicate.

A trail bike that gets used across XC and trail riding, either ends up being too flimsy for sending and mucking about, get jealous of my mates on bigger bikes on testing stuff, or gets to burly to be efficient and have fun on mellower stuff.

Done the enduro bike thing, rubbish on the XC, robs most of the fun trail riding, climbs okish, but actually takes the hammer of sending and mucking about.

DH bike was too much for 95% of the “DH” i rode in the UK.

Latest thing im getting frustrated with is got some nice light, fast wheels on the enduro bike, lighter tyres, was feeling pretty efficient and fun, do some senders, turns out i cant ride lighter tyres, they just burp.

WTF do I do?

Can a orange four take some hammer?

The answer is to sell all of them apart from a 5 /6 inch solid full bounce. Something like a Five. You then have no choice in what you ride. The bike is strong enough not to break; you will probably break before it falls to pieces. Problem solved.

I think you probably do just have to accept that there are compromises to be made, always.

I did what was basically a road ride today, but it had some sections that were tumultuous rocky stepped descents., and I was carrying overnight bivvy gear in a rucksack. Solution: long travel 29er hardtail. Everything was pretty terrible, but I was out on the bike.

🙂

I use my enduro bike for most things now- I think for XC results vary a lot from bike to bike, making something that’s good at the big stuff is relatively easy I think, but making something that also works for XC and simple stuff defeats most manufacturers.

(in my case, a remedy 29 but ymmv)

I’m in a similar predicament, albeit I’m not ‘sending stuff’ I’m a more wheels on the ground rider.

In reality, one well sorted hardtail is all the bike I need, but I have:

26″ Zesty
29″ Scandal
Older CX bike with big slick tyres acting as road bike
29″ rigid genesis fortitude (sharing wheels with the Scandal)

I’m always pondering which bike to take, umming and aahing. I think I just need 2 bikes in reality. A full sus – Cotic Flare, and a nice steel 29er that can run rigid or with sus forks.

Get a 29er SS Rigid. Then you’re NEVER on the right bike.

Lets face it, XC/Light Trail are pretty much incompatible with Enduro/DH.
Regardless of the frame, the tyres and suspension setup that work for one, just wont work for the other.

I’m an old BMX/dirt jumper/downhiller and I’m currently using a Cotic Bfe as my only bike.

I’d now like to get back on a more modern bike with a bit of bounce so I’m trying to arrange a test ride on an Airdrop Edit.

Not at all swayed by this video…
[video]http://vimeo.com/159327697[/video]

I only have one mountain bike now and that’s a Good Thing. I’m never worrying about being on the wrong bike, so I just get on with riding. I suppose it depends where you ride though – pretty much all my rides involve something quite tech. If I only rode at Llandegla, I’d probably get frustrated by being ‘over biked’.

Surely what you need is a burly shorter travel fully sus? Something that’s stiff enough to take abuse without fear of it snapping, and allows you to plough through whatever you want, but still retains a bit of pop for tamer trails. Orange Four sounds like a reasonable shout, although I’ve never ridden one. Transition Scout/ Smuggler? Nukeproof mega Tr?

Are you averse to 29er?

Just traded in the smuggler. Was pretty good, but got into a battle with the wheels, getting wheels that had the right feel at an acceptable weight was a losing battle i never won.

Was awesome for raw speed and some sends, was a bit cumbersome for jibbing.

WTF is jibbing?
Anyhoo, I probably ride similar to yourself. I’ve a 140mm front travel hardtail which I use for most local stuff, it can easily handle biggish drops as long as theres a hint of a downslope and doubles no problem since its got 140mm more travel than my BMX… I’ve also got a 6″ travel full sus that is ace for less groomed trails, bigger gap jumps with less of a downslope etc and is still fun for xc rides. Both are 26″, both run 25mm wide WTB rims and both are great fun.

What about a Transition Scout?

Got a Process 153 for big days, uplifts, alps and if im feeling sensitive trail centers. Then I have a 29er rowdy Ht for scaring myself at trailcenters and generally mincing around doing xc-ish stuff.

Put Procore on the enduro bike so it can’t burp? That’ll add some wheel mass but will still roll quicker than heavier tyres with more hysteresis loss.

I like my Spitfire on everything but I know you jump much bigger than me and I’ve yet to burp an Exo tyre on a Flow EX pumping berms.

The Smuggler is well known for bot being great at jibbing.
I think as some people have said a burlyish hardtail would be best, enough travel to get you through rough stuff but since it’s not a full sus it climb efficiently-ish.

Sell all bikes, buy one, get out and ride, and stop worrying!

I have an 26″ orange five! It is the perfect bike for all the trails I ride, because it is the only bike i have! I never worry about over/under biked because there is no alternative!

Swapping bikes frequently does have this negative effect though – my hardtail and full-sus have near identical builds and similar geometry but the former is a few pounds lighter, has a steeper seat tube and obviously doesn’t bob (though the Spitfire is great compared to most 140mm bikes in that respect), so when I’m freshly back on it it feels sprightlier uphill – and vice versa. But after a few rides I forget!

Something has to give. You really can’t cover all those styles and desires.
From what you say it seems like jumping and speed are what you want, so something shortish travel but built burly. Transition Scout seems ideal for that.
As for tyres and wheels, you either have light stuff that breaks or heavy stuff that doesn’t. There is no magic secret – heavy wheels and tyres and pedal harder bitch 😉

I approach it from the other way round. Pick the bike you fancy riding and ride that. It’ll dictate what sort of trails you ride, how far and how fast. That’s for local rides, anyway. For an uplift day in Wales there would be an obvious choice.

I also get a perverse kick out of being on the wrong bike, that helps too!

Any single bike will be a compromise somewhere, though, won’t it? My Pitch is running 170mm Lyriks and I still use it for bridleway bimbling and smoother XC rides – I just run a bit more compression damping in the forks/shock and a bit higher tyre pressures and accept that it’ll feel a bit slower. That said, I don’t like hardtails and have never had a properly fast XC bike, so I suppose it’s easier when you don’t know what you’re missing!

FWIW, a buddy of mine (I think you met him once, were test riding his Kona Entourage) has a carbon S-Works Enduro 29er and he does everything from epic all-dayers to (almost) full-on DH on it. Light and fast enough for the former, strong and enough travel for the latter.

BMXer who took up MTBing
Likes to Pedal
Likes to mess about
Likes to jump everything
Regularly does XC rides through to DH to going as big as i can on jumps

Sounds like me (albeit a younger , less handsome version 😛 )

I got this a few months back and it’s perfect for the riding you describe. 140mm travel is spot on for DH stuff imo. It’s superfast on the flat and regular trails, eats up rooty, rocky stuff with ease, pops off everything and as it’s so rapid, big sendery jumps are a piece of piss. Suprising nimble in nagery stuff too. Only thing it doesn’t do that great is dirt jumping – i had a wee play this lunchtime at the local jumping spot – seemed rude not too as i was passing. A dirt jumper it isn’t 😀 No problem clearing the jumps but it’s a bit of a monster. Keep the tyres in the mid 20’s and it’s all good. Deffo worth a test ride if you can arrange one. I think you’ll love it!

Cotic Rocket Max 29er.

Most of the rides I do I “can” ride on any of my bikes (cx, ht singlespeed, 130mm 29er)’ the average speed is nearly always about the same, the speed for a given section is significaly different. There is. A lot to be said for being on the wrong bike, nothing like getting down a sketchy decent on a cross bike.

Stevet1
WTF is jibbing?

View this post on Instagram

Cant wait to get back on my 5010 and do silly stuff – old clip but this one fired me up

A post shared by Josh Lewis ⚡️ (@loosedoglewis) on Aug 25, 2016 at 5:22am PDT

jibbing?

kiksy answered that question quite well. Is that the deanfbm in the vid?

I am not in a position to help with your bike choice.

A long travel hardtail would tick most boxes most often I reckon, and only having one bike takes the ‘dilemma’ out of fetching it out of the shed. I’ve done the different-bike-for-different-stuff thing and it’s balls. One bike- ride it, break it, fix it, ride it some more. More riding, less deciding 😀