Superlight: how gnar do they go?

I’ve been advised that my Gary fisher full sus is on the way out and consequently find myself in the Market for a new full sus frame. One of the options I’m thinking about is an sc superlight. I’m intending to use my existing kit where possible including the u turn rs revelations which could be round down to 120mm and still be within warentee.

The issue is that most of the time I ride my hardtail and tend to break out the full sus only when going somewhere with bigger terrain. The question is, how well does a superlight cope with ‘bigger terrain’ (yes I know it’s down to the rider but all things being equal).

Should I just go for a pace 405 and accept that it’s heavier?

The only folk that will know are those who have broken them!

Why not go up to a Heckler? Not much more weight and the stiffness is very re-assuring (vicar).

I would not buy superlight for ‘bigger terrain’; it’s a 4in XC bike with a pretty steep head angle. I am sure you can ride some bigger terrain on it if you are good enough (couple of mates of mine do, but they are both very good) — long XC rides is I think where superlight excels.

I own a SL and see it as my “lightweight XC bike” (not that it’s really light or that I race) vs my trail bike (a Prophet). I also seem to go against the grain on STW though, as even though I run it mainly at 115mm travel, it’s not slack IMO and I still think it work best as an XC bike @ 100mm travel for twisty singletrack and climbs. Obviously running a little more travel help on the down’s but it’ll never be anything like as confidence insipiring as my Prophet on the way down.
Great bikes but not “gnar” IMO.

I have both a Heckler and a Superlight. The main problem I’ve had doing bigger stuff on the Superlight is the relative lack of ground clearance. I tend to use the Superlight for more cross country rides and the Heckler for Alps, Lake district etc. For trail centres such as Glentress the Superlight is great fun, probably even better with tyres bigger than the 2.1’s I usually use.

I use my SC with the fork set between 100 and 130mm depending on rock bigness. I love it and would only consider a heckler if I was going to the Alps a lot – it’s certainly a match for the Lake District. It does have a low BB, but corners brilliantly because of it.

It is built VERY solidly, so make your decision based on geometry/handling rather than frame strength!

I have a super-light that’s two years old with the then new lower bottom bracket. I have crashed it really badly and it is still going strong. it handled doing the pasaportes de soleil better than i did . i do look on it though as a good cross country bike.