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Have to agree with the OP, my Five is fun almost everywhere. My Intense is better downhill but sucks if you have to pedal anywhere, my 456 is better is better on long non-technical trails but is not much fun on technical downhills or when it gets really rough, my Orange Air O is great fun street riding on a BMX track or 4X course but is too short to be any fun if you have to pedal anywhere.
I don't believe there's any bike that is fun everywhere though. The Five would get out of its depth pretty quickly on full-on DH tracks and that wouldn't be much fun, but that's why I have more than one bike.
Loving your bike is part of the joy of riding, especially, for me, since I started doing my own builds and maintenance.
Bikes are very personal items, sweat, fear, adrenalin, elation, are all parts of the experience that the bike is at centre of.
I've been riding two bikes in the past ten years, a Cotic Soul hardtail and a Santa Cruz Bullit. The funny thing is, despite the bikes differ so much, both are fun to ride on the same kind of trails. The old Soul is so fun that I'm now building a new one, that we are going to use also as a rental bike. Check out the progress of the new Cotic Soul build here: [url= http://www.hillsidecycling.com/news ]http://www.hillsidecycling.com/news[/url]
/Leo
I've three bikes, a Wolf Ridge with 160mm forks, an Orange Pure 7 and a Spesh Camber. The Camber is by some margin the most sought after...despite giving away 40mm of travel to the Marin it's an absolute hoot on the descents, plus it encourages me to attack the climbs. On flatter terrain, it just happily bimbles, never feeling like it absorbs effort but always dampening the bumps without complaint.
According to the stopwatch my Marin is the fastest of all my bikes around my local route by some margin, but I don't feel anywhere near as involved. If the trails involve climbs it's a PITA.
My ibis mojo always puts a smile on my face. I keep trying other bikes but the mojo just feels so quick, light (27 lb) and quick. It's fast up hill and it's fast going down and seems to be able to do anything I want it to. I try to ride my fireline ht 29er as much as I can, but it's always the mojo that gives me the most satisfaction and grin factor
My Blur LTc does it for me. Light enough and stuff enough to feel like an XC bike, handles the decent like a 160m170mm bike and everything in between. Smile when I ride it
Ive just found the love again for my 456 ss , lost the love and just could'nt get used to riding it again after riding a fs for months on end, its great for throwing about my local trails 😀
I'll counter the "post my bike because it's the funnest everywhere obviously" vibe of this thread by saying the my rigid singlespeed whilst fun is NOT fun everywhere, it feels a bit steep at the front and actually gave me stigmata at Afan.
I'll also say that my Ragley Bluepig is an exceptionally fun bike but on tamer trails i think you can actually hear it yawning. It needs to be ragged and ragged hard. It's also a bit of a lump.
I'm adding a new bike to the garage next year and it'll sit somewhere between the two existing bikes. It'll have big wheels, maybe a touch of suspension, it'll be lighter than the Ragley, it'll have gears and won't be a boat anchor. That bike should be fun pretty much everywhere but not as much fun as the Ragley on the harder/steeper trails.
That's the bike I want Billoddie,but what is it???
For the riding I do - S-Works Enduro seems pretty good, but I haven't really tried loads of other bikes to compare.
It's certainly a better all-rounder than the '06 Enduro it replaced and also it's counterpart in the shed - Kona Lava Dome
lexinoo - this?
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or this?
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My Steel Single Speed Avanti. It's not light, might not be the fastest thing around, but it handles impeccably and always puts a smile on my face (and when you don't have the gears you don't miss them, neither up, nor down)
TallboyC