Joebristol my thinking is the same. This will be my second bike, I do prefer FS and the Spark will be my race/training bike which is currently 90% of my use. Winter is looming and I want an HT available to keep the Spark maintenance/wear lower, but one which offers me a greater ability to increase my technical skills than the 100mm race HT which I’m not using.
I appreciate that arguably the 100mm bike would increase my technical skills more as it’s more difficult, but I’m very much a “confidence” rider, so in my view a bike that’s the right shape to encourage me over obstacles is the way to go. And yes, as nice as a Solaris is, it’s too much money for a bike that’ll be used so little.
I kept eyeing up the Sentier until it ran out of stock, I should have been quicker so now it’s a choice between a sale P7 27.5/29 or a Crush 29 I think. I’m nervous the Crush will put my back out though 🙂