Is there a bike out ther which covers these styles of riding?

Yes, it’s called “any mountain bike you choose”.

😉

Always going to be a compromise, assuming by freeride you mean big jumps/drops and by XC you mean long days in the saddle?

Many good trollsing.

Spesh Enduro….and it just happens I have a 2008 frame for sale! can even add forks and wheels.

Alternatively, the Lapierre rigs seem to be popular at the moment.

Nomad Carbon? 160mm with option for 170mm fork, get the lockouts right and your away. The Commencal AM that Remy Absalom raced in the mega looked spot on though he had a lot of talent.

Simple answer is probably a 150/160mm Steel HT

Catered to my riding. Like to do around 3-4 foot drops, decent size gaps, jumps. Like to cover around 20 to 30 miles xc

it’s not the bike it’s the rider at the end of the day. I’ve got a friend who raced the Ten at Kirroughtree last year on his Remedy as his race hard tail ( scott scale) was kaputt. He finished 7th overall beating a lot of the Jeyboy Xcore racers (to be fair he is also a very fast Jeycore racer) So if you’ve got the legs you won’t go wrong with a remedy. But for us average joes there’s no real deal I’m afraid. I own a Remedy but it’s not as fast as his, but neither is my Kinesis XC pro 3 or my fuel ex!

my bottlerocket.

650b FS MoonOnaStick?

I reckon the build will need to be based toward the burly end, but maybe have adjustable travel to get the thing back uphill.

I’ve just got a Marin Quad Trail (older version of the Wolf Ridge) which is meant to be this sort of thing. It definitely needs persuading getting up-hill but loves descending. Thank Fux for pro pedal!

The lapierre froggy I am about to sell 😉

I saw someone who raced Muckmedden on a Scott Voltage FR, complete with dh-carcass Minions. I’d have died tbh.

What you describe just sounds like a job for any good quality, hard-use 5 or 6 inch travel trailbike. There’s millions of them, so I recommend <bike I own> and slag off <bike I’ve never ridden>

orange something or other
anything foreign

I may have done as northwind suggests

General All Mountain bike basically.

Loads, but I’ve got a Nomad so I’ll say Nomad 😉

and to slag off – Orange. Just because it’s the expected thing to do 😛

Lapierre Zesty

Just replaced mine, but it really is an awesome piece of kit. Gallops uphill and was unreal DH

It’ll take all the jumps and drops you can chuck at it

Pretty good value for money as well

Like to do around 3-4 foot drops, decent size gaps, jumps. Like to cover around 20 to 30 miles xc

150mm HT then

I ride a trek remedy 8 2011 and it will happily do everything you have described

Trailstar, job done.

Saying that I’ve ridden xc on my Bullit w/boxxers and it was still alright. Got it up Snowdon and around a lot of the xc stuff at Whistler. Works better with a travel adjust fork for the climbs though.

Catered to my riding. Like to do around 3-4 foot drops, decent size gaps, jumps. Like to cover around 20 to 30 miles xc

I agree that pretty much any 150mm tral bike would do all that.
I recommend <commencal meta> and would like to slag off <erm, a mondraker?>

DrP

Before you decide- what car do you drive?

What the man needs is an Orange 5. It’s best all rounder by far…….
I’ll just sit back and wait for the inevitable love/hate posts.

I have been offered a Giant trance x2 for trade to my Whyte 905 would that do the job or am better holding out?

I was originally looking for a orange 5 only because I saw a lot of them at trail centres, but now looking through some of these has given me a decent list.

Just gota hope someone buys my whyte or wants to swap

I was originally looking for a orange 5 only because I saw a lot of them at trail centres,

This must be a Troll!!

Get a nice steel HT with some big forks

A troll?!?! Nice 😀

My mate rides an orange crush which is a pretty decent bike but I just fancy a change from a hardtail, especially to get over the techy rockie bits a bit faster without my arms collapsing.

I think holding out for a swap may be the wrong idea, for sale may be my way forward – only issue then is to decide what to get?

Theres gotto be a top five in this list for what I need

From the SC Stable the Blur LT/Heckler/Nomad
Specialized Enduro
Commencal Meta
Trek

Have a trip round some demo’s

specialized pitch or enduro
orange 5 or alpine 160
marin attack trail
lapierre spicy
santa cruz heckler or nomad
mondraker dune
trek remedy or slash
saracen ariel
nukeproof mega

The list could go on and on, but any of the above would do, depending on which way you want to bias your riding? Ideally set up with 1×10 and a proper chainguide, wide bars, shortish stem and two sets of wheels (one lightweight and one for DH.)

Accept that you will sometimes want more/less travel and just get on with it.

I have an orange alpine 160 which is used for pretty much everything, but on big DH days or holidays I am having my coil shock tuned and offset bushes added (air shock the rest of the time.)

All mountain bikes will do what you want but they are not meant/built for full on DH; i.e big drops and jumps.

Worth having 2 wheels sets. Maybe 2 cranks as well so you can swap between a triple and a single + chain device.

The Remedy is a good bike. Do climbs to challenge XC and then blast down a trail worthy of a DH bike. Enjoy both.

enduro with 2 sets of wheels here. Pedals really well for longer rides and I just put the heavy wheels with 2.5 sticky tyres on for visits to the downhill tracks

What’s your budget? Second time I’ve posted it this morning but I’d be very tempted by this.

http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=214

Nukeproof Mega

@Jedi, and my Bottlerocket 😉

astura you mention the Trance x2, this is what I’m leaving behind for the Quad Trail 140. When jumping doubles or drop offs (not big DJ sized ones!) I was beginning to bottom out and I don’t ride as gnarr as you have described. They are amazing bikes: light weight, Maestro is excellent etc but the mud clearance is slim (for larger rubber) and they’re not built for thrashing. Reigns are a bit closer to what you’ve described or perhaps the Reign X in terms of Giant.

I did add a smidge more air into the shock but then the active nature of the suspension was diminishing to allow it to take a bigger hit.

As said, you’re groping around in the All Mountain range of bikes. I spotted the Reign X2 2010 for £1199 at Paul’s H E R E . My DH lite wouldn’t warrant it but it sounds (unless you’re exaggerating) like you could do with the beef. Coil suspension and Maestro sounds like a good compromise to me!

Oh yeah, and as mentioned: what’s the budget?

What’s your budget? Second time I’ve posted it this morning but I’d be very tempted by this.

http://www.yt-industries.com/shop/index.php?page=product&info=214

Wooooooo. I like!

Not normally a fan of such “team” style graphics, but that is awesome value. Any reviews kicking around (google is disabled on my laptop 😉 )

Transition covert, especially as there is a carbon one coming..

Heres mine. Yummy.
RP23 is good 95% of the time, otherwise I have a coil van rc which I use for more gnarly days..
(I also have a dh bike.)

My budget is really what I make off my WHYTE around 750. I have just been offered a orange 5 2006 for trade with he whyte.

This is spec for orange:

Front Fork: Manitou Nixon 160mm – 20mm bolt through axle
Rear Shock: Manitou Swinger
Headset: Hope 1 1/8″
Stem: FSA 90mm
Bars: Kona 800mm wide
Grips: Nukeproof waffle
Brakes (front & rear): Juicy seven
Shifters: SRAM X9
Drivechain: 3 x 9 Shimano
Crank: Shimano deore XT
Durallier: SRAM X9
Pedals: GT alloy flatties
Seat post: 27.2mm x 350mm On-One
Saddle: Kona
Seat clamp: Hope QR (gold)
Front Wheel: Mavic 721 with Hope Pro 2 Hub & Maxxis 2.35mm super tacky st high roller tyre Rear Wheel: Shimano with Shimano Hub & Maxxis 2.25mm advantage tyre
Front wheel rotor: 200mm
Rear wheel rotor: 180mm

My whyte is
Large frame
Frame: 905 fitted with clamp
Headset: FSA Sealed
Fork: FOX RL 120mm 15mm QR
Stem: Thomson Elite
Bars: Truvativ stylo race bars
Grips: Lock on Whyte bar plugs (lost 1 bar plug)
Brakes: Avid Elixir R 160mm R/F
Front Hub: Shimano 15mm QR
Rear Hub: Shimano XT +QR
Cranks: Truvativ Stylo
Cassette: SRAM PG 970
Rims: Mavic 317 32 Hole
Seat Post: Alloy Micro Adjust
Seat: WTB Silverado
Shifters: SRAM X9 2010
Front Mech: SRAM X9
Rear Mech: SRAM X9 2010
Tyres: Maxxis High Roller 2.1
Pedals: DMR V12

Do you think this would be a good trade?

All mountain bikes will do what you want but they are not meant/built for full on DH; i.e big drops and jumps.

Erm, that is exactly what a true all-mountain bike should be capable of: I used my Banshee Rune for all of the above and it was brilliant, just a shame about the pivot issues (the only reason why I’m not recommending one here).

I guess it depends on how fast you want to get up the hills, but something like an Enduro, a Nomad, Orange Alpine, Covert, Spicy etc would be ideal.

I ride a heckler at the moment running 2×10, fox 160mm talas forks, built pretty burly I can ride pretty much anything on it!! But if money was no option I’d have either a carbon nomad or a yeti Sb 66!

Not sure how your whyte compares to the five, but the five would make for a pretty good bike with some changes. Don’t know much about manitou’s, but pretty sure those forks would jack up the fron end quite a bit. Can they be reduced? Stick on a shorter stem, maybe change to 1×9 with chainguide and it would cover most bases.

All mountain bikes will do what you want but they are not meant/built for full on DH; i.e big drops and jumps.

I also very much disagree. Point of a all mountain bike is that it’s a mountain bike, it’s capable of mountain biking, ie trips to the shop, trail centres, xc rides, DH, freeride, big mountain riding.

The rider will be giving up a lot of the time before the bike.

My big bike is a 160mm “all mountain bike”, i wouldn’t really question using it anywhere. I’m hitting 25ft+ gaps, 10ft+ drops on it, without ever thinking the bike is beyond its comfort zone. The same goes for any DH track i’ve ridden (alps, llangollen and many others).

I think that the problem is how they’re marketed. A serious amount of DHers i know, once the penny dropped how capable a 160mm bike is, have got 160 bikes and the DH bike gathers dust.

Exactly! The big difference between a DH and AM bike is that the former has slacker geometry which is totally descending focused and a few more inches of travel, which will save those critical seconds in a DH race.