right then, wanting a full sus bike, around 28lbs or lighter if possible, between 120 and 140mm travel with around £2000 to spend and have a short(ish) list that goes something like the following in no particular order:

Marin mount vision 5.7
Trek Fuel EX 8
Commencal Meta 5.5 Pro
Specialized Stumpjumper Elite
Gary Fisher Roscoe 1
Lapierre Zesty 314
Kona Cadabra
Boardman FS Pro
Giant Trance X1
Cannondale RZ 120 2
Cannondale RZ 140 6

Should i save a bundle and get the Boardman? Anyone got any thoughts on the Magic Link on the Kona? Should I be looking for bolt through forks or not worry about that? Are there some really bad bikes in that lot that I should avoid? Which would be your pick of that bunch? Are there any i've missed?

Help me with my troubles in finding a £2k full sus complete bike.

Go ride the bikes on your list, you may hate a bike I might like, but the list looks fine.

as above, you have to try for yourself but as far as missing bikes, the obvious one for me would be the Orange 5s?

Orange 5 is off my list because I am not going to pay £2k for a complete bike that 'only' has Recon forks! If I had the parts to build my own bike i would think about the frame but as for a complete bike – nah!

You've got some quite different bikes on there.

Why the Marin Mount Vision 5.7? That's a more XC bike, why not up the travel for the same price and get a Marin Wolf Ridge 5.9….most places selling off the 2009 for £2K.

Lapierre Froggy if you can find one reduced in your size.

you can upgrade to fox 32 for a ton? (maybe a deal to be done – I dunno) I personally don't ride a five and not sure I'd get one meself but I would definitely be considering it

Lapierre Froggy if you can find one reduced in your size

now that is a strange suggestion compared to the OP's list

now that is a strange suggestion compared to the OP's list

Well I thought I'd give food for thought…Nothing like bombing down the biggest hill you can find! 😆

"Why the Marin Mount Vision 5.7? That's a more XC bike"
2010 ones have a 68.5 degree head angle. No its not silly slack like the wolf ridges, but slacker than many of the others on the list
A Wolf Ridge is also a mile off of 28lbs too

I don't know what the weights are like, but perhaps consider an alu. scott genious. (140/150mm I think)

mm froggy is not in the same boat… Think you could not go wrong with a Zesty the stumpy or the Trek. For weight and all round reviews the Zesty would get my vote, almost got a 514

hardly 120mm to 140mm – and I wouldn't want to pedal it UP the hill in the first place

I'm in a similar boat to you at the moment – I am just interested in:

Stumpy Elite
Fuel EX8
Zesty 314

and am not considering the Orange 5 for the same reason – poor spec compared @ £2k compared to the others in my list.

I think you need to whittle down your list a bit or you'll be spending all winter testing bikes and not buying one – guess that's what you're trying to do here though? Isn't the Trance X1 nearer £3k? With the X2 coming in about £2k??

I had a fuel ex8 2009 and couldn't fault it – everything I threw at it was great fun, from Thetford (my regular) to welsh trail centres.

Just one word of warning Bontrager rims and tyre combinations! A bit of a pain really. See other threads on here but they can be a bit tricky getting the tyres on and off. Its only a minor point but annoying enough to mention.

Having said that I haven't ridden any of the others so can't really comment further.

Good point Stumpy01, X1 is out of budget so guess the X2 it is then

Froggy (?!) you having a laugh? I want a 120-140 bike that i can pedal up as well as down so i think 180mm travel bike is out of the question too.

RE the Zesty and Fuel EX, I have never heard anyone have anything bad to say about either of them – apart from MrBen100's comments above.

try hotlines, they had some ex demo VGC lapierre's for sale at silly low prices, think the 514 zesty was £1300 so you could get a 714 for your budget!!

I want a 120-140 bike that i can pedal up as well as down

Poof 🙄

Poof

Yep!

Ok then I'd go with the Zesty. Or any greatly reduced 2009 Lapierre you can get 🙂

Yeah – friend of mine bought some Bontrager wheels & getting the tyres on/off is a nightmare. I guess it's because they are tubeless ready, so have tubeless rims on them, but come with normal tyres/tubes.

Similar concern with the Zesty 314. They come with Mavic Crossrides and a mate of mine (brother of the above) had loads of trouble with them (he bought them as just a wheelset), includung non-standard spokes meaning getting a new spoke meant ordering a whole pack (of I think, 12) and the shop not being willing to buy them in and just charge him for the spokes they used (which is fair enough).

Cube Fritzz/ stereo?

out of that list my choice would be the zesty i reckon.

I don't ride an FS, but most my riding buddys do. And while I agree the Orange is expensive, they are cheap to run.

All I've (yes me, not him…) done for a buddys 5 in 2 years of ownership is a couple of regreases and assorted chains/cassetes/pads – while others with Metas', Stumpys and previous FS's of my own have required much expense on bearings/pivots/brushes etc.

Also look at Oranges' ST4, although only 4" its quite slack and trailie?

What would you two dissing the Recon say if I told you I rode an ST4 with a Recon, various Fives with Floats/Vanillas and Meta with a Fox Float and the while the Float was better on the Five than the Recon on the ST4, the Recon on the ST4 felt better than the Float on the Meta?

Could you not bring yourself to live with the Recon if it actually rode better due to the frame driving it?

Honestly though, the Recon did feel like a better fork than a Fox float when it was being driven by an ST4 vs a Meta… food for thought regarding spec driven purchasing…

For where you ride the less bearings the better. Those Lapierre's look ace. but there seems to be a lot of moving parts.

TREK Ex is easy the best out of that list…. Not only build quality but customer service… 2nd to none.

Rims and tyres problem is not a problem once you have done it a couple of times and get your style sorted! First couple of times for me was HARD but since I ditched the worlds worst tyre levers (PARK) and got some larger flatter ones it is easy.

I ride a 2010 Ex9 after upgrading from 2009 ex9 and it is Fab!

I could build you a Chumba XCL for around 2K with Fox forks 🙂

bit like this…

GaryLake – not sure if your post is aimed at me regarding 'dissing the recon' (I mention above dismissing the 5 because of it's spec).
For me, it's not just the fork but other bits too. The Five S comes with Deore front mech & SLX Rear mech, Deore Shifters, RF Ride cranks etc. whereas the Stumpy Elite for example comes with SLX front mech & XTR rear mech, SLX shifters & I think the crankset is Shimano un-named, but last yrs XT from reading on different sites. It also has the TALAS fork and seeing as I seem to use the U-Turn on my current Reba's quite often, I think I would find it useful.

It's probably not the best way of whittling down a shortlist, but my original list did include the Orange Five & the Mount Vision 5.7 as well. But I wanted to get it down to a few bikes that I could realistically test ride and make a decision on. In the end I compared specs (rightly or wrongly) and the Mount Vision and the Five were crossed off the list.
The Specialized makes it to list because my current one has been great and I would have no qualms getting another one, so long as I am happy with it once I've test ridden one.
Hmmmm, perhaps I should hire a Five from Rutland water (only costs £20 for 3hrs) and get a feel for it too. Mate hired one from there the other week, but it was too big for me and felt like a barge. Noooo, don't make the list longer!!!

^^^^

And there it is…..

I've just picked up a Felt Redemption for good money with a good spec, more travel than you want but the Compulsion can be found for a good price with good kit on it.
Really nice ride so far.

stubbled on this on flea bay
linnkyy not long left and not mine.
I wouldn't sell mine unless I couldn't ride again

stumpy: it was aimed at you and one other.

I only mention it as I've ridden a couple of very well specced dogs.

One thing that changed the way I value a bike's worth in particular was spending over 100km testing an ST4.

I thought it was shocking that the £2400 ST4 Pro had a Recon fork on it. After that 100km of riding, the ST4 ended up being one of the most inspirational bikes I've ever ridden, and the only bike ever to make me think very long and hard about sticking the Five on the classifieds. In fact, I'd even go as far to say it improved my riding by showing me how much further I could push when riding.

If I didn't have some concerns around unconfirmed but slightly worrying chainsuck issues and if the back end was as stiff as a Five, I'd have probably done it…

teetosugars – there what is?

I assume he means Si advertising a Chumba…

Yeah – GaryLake I see your point.
One of the reasons that I got it down to 3 bikes, is that unlike the mag testers and other riding gods it is usually my lack of talent etc. that limits what I can and can't do on a bike. And I would have thought that the majority of modern trail bikes will be fine for what I want. I am not sure I will notice the difference that much between the vast array of 'trail bikes' out there for it to be worth my while trying them all.
I'd probably keep my current old faithful if it wasn't for the fact that I always seem to be disappearing over the bars on steep descents due to the geometry/fit.
So, it comes down to picking a reasonable number to try out & you have to find a way to do that.
My current bike has mainly XT bits on it & Avid Juicy 7's along with some nice & light Reba Team air U-Turns, all of which I have acquired by getting them on offer but it would seem like a step backwards to spend £2k on a bike and it to be of a 'lower spec' than my current bike. I plan to build the old bits onto a hardtail and have designated ~£2k for a new bike.

If I test ride my shortlist & find that I don't suit them or whatever, then it would be back to the drawing board.
This is almost as complicated as buying a new car!!

Edit – oh, Chumba advert. I see! 😀 admittedly, it does look quite nice.

2009 Giant Trance X1 at heavily discounted price…

Fox Forks, Crossmax wheels, XT/XTR, Raceface Deus kit etc etc. That's where my £2k would go on a 120mm trail bike if I was buying off the shelf! They've got all sizes except small, so as long as you're about 5ft8 or above you'll be sorted!

I've got a Giant Reign X with the Maestro suspension system, and even though its 170mm of travel it pedals much better than anything else I've ridden with that amount of travel. The Trance X is basically the same design, but much lighter and only 120mm of travel. They're awesome bikes, they just never look quite as cool as the equivalent Specialized, Trek or Orange… But you arguably get a better bike, and a higher spec for your money.

Or save up a load of money and get a Maverick Durance with DUC forks, and full XTR kit etc… 😉

What Maverick Boy said. They're like magic carpets and very high spec.

What would you two dissing the Recon say if I told you I rode an ST4 with a Recon, various Fives with Floats/Vanillas and Meta with a Fox Float and the while the Float was better on the Five than the Recon on the ST4, the Recon on the ST4 felt better than the Float on the Meta?

I wasn't dissing the Recon, but I'd be confused if you told me that. 😉

The Orange has a lower spec, but you get a more desireable (I'm not saying better) frame – with much better resale value than the big brands.

You pay your money and take your choice.

I'd get that Trance X myself. But I'm a Giant fanboy.

hmm, I do remember borrowing a mates Giant VT with the rocker acctuated shock on that which i think was the precurser to the Meastro System. I remember the VT pedalling really well. Maybe I should be getting one of the Trances out on test soon.

I guess my short list looks a bit shorter now and something like this:

Trek Fuel EX 8
Specialized Stumpjumper Elite
Lapierre Zesty 314
Giant Trance X2

I went through the Same process 18 months ago, Similar range of bikes, Same price range!

After test riding about 8-10 Bikes I bought an Orange 5 & have never looked back! Been all over the Uk & the Alps & the bike can do it all!

Orange 5 S with Fork upgrade! Deffo worth it in the long run! 🙂

ride a 5 and then decide…..ive got a demo bike ill do you a deal on!