Why would I want to pedal a big hit around XC stylee

Why are you comparing a shit DH bike to an XC bike then?

That Big Hit would just be shit on anything.
A hardtail with bigish tyres can be good fun.

That Spesh Big Hit above looks about 5 million times more fun to ride than a hardtail with fricking massive tyres.

The problem was, it wasn’t, it was utterly ****.

They were marginal better with proper forks not Super Monster T’s.

Wierd to think how niche DH was for a very long time. Spesh made the big-hit, but it was never a ‘pro’ bike, Giant made the ATX with 6″ of travel, etc.

Of the big brands Trek had the Diesel (never actually saw one in real life), There was the DH version of the Cannondale Gemini (not quite so rare, I might have seen 1), assorted shonky Kona’s, then at an NPS level it was all Orange 222, Balfa BB7 and Ancillotti bikes. Even when the big brands sat up and took notice it was all a bit weird (Trek session 10, Santa Cruz V10*, Spesh Demo 9).

*Still ploughing it’s lonely 10″ travel furrow.

I remember the mechanic at the LBS shop riding 3 inch Gazzalodis on Snowcat rims on his DH Cheetah.
Also ran a YZ80 fork to fit the tyres.
Don’t think it made him a better rider.

Oh no, I’ve realised I’m not comforming to the STW freak bike club. Sorry.

I had a Big Hit of that era. First with Boxxers, then Shiver DCs and then Monster Ts. It was flippin brilliant and trucking through stuff and I had a lot of fun times riding that bike, as I reckon I would do now. If anything, it was a more capable bike than the Tomac 204 which replaced it. So in actual fact, I was comparing a bike I liked to a shit XC bike.

Would I (yes, I) have as much fun on a hardtail with 3″+ tyres? I doubt it.

I’m still not sure why people are trying to compare a bike/tyre that’s designed for XC/trail to a downhill bike?
Seems a very strange comparison.
Just because it’s big doesn’t make it a DH product.

Edit.
I’d say that Big Hit with Monster T’s is about as freak bike as you can get.

a shit XC bike

No one has mentioned any specific XC bike have they?
Are you saying all XC bikes are shit then. Just about sums up the more ‘core than you crew. 😉

OP; modern + tyres have nothing whatsoever in common with shit old Nokian monster tyres that I reckon were a marketing stunt anyway.

I had one of those big hits with shiver dc forks. It was brilliant. Nothing else came close for the money. How things have changed, the frame cost £750 brand new.

Trek session 10, Santa Cruz V10*, Spesh Demo 9).

*Still ploughing it’s lonely 10″ travel furrow.

No it isn’t. The new V10 has only 8.5 (216mm) of travel