Hey Chaps,

My missus has been doing longer XC rides recently, she’s doing the on a 29er hardtail, and is now thinking of getting a short travel 29er full sus.

She has an Enduro bike, so it can be pretty focussed for long rides in the hills, with less technical descents.

I’ve been looking at her options, which we’ve narrowed down to:

Canyon Lux, Giant Anthem, Santa Cruz Tallboy/Blur

But struggling to find much else that’s around 100 – 110 travel, with up to a 120 fork.

You guys got any suggestions?

Scott spark RC is an obvious choice

Love my Scott Spark RC Team. Very fast and capable of more than the numbers suggest!

How tall is she out of interest? My missus ended up on a 15.5in Top Fuel (650b). The closest she could get to a 29er for her size was a Specialized Epic (shes’s 5’2″).

Before I “gelled” with the Spark, I was tempted to sell and get a Canyon Lux with the Starsky and Hutch paint job 🙂

There’s also Norco Revolver, Cannondale Scalpel, Trek Top Fuel, Cube AMS 100 etc and probably a few others I’ve forgotten.

Pivot 429SL (though i think there might be a new one coming out in the next week or so)

Interesting post as it’s exactly the situation I’m in.
I got a Spec Enduro for the alps and then realised it was just too heavy for long high rides.
So I went to the other extreme and bought an anthem 29er. It’s absolutely great on gravel, grass and easy tech terrain. But it’s not enough bike for proper mountain rides.
I really wish I’d got one compromise do it all bike for the type of riding I do most, which is long high tech mountain rides.

What ive got now is one bike that’s great at going uphill but sucks on tech downhill and one bike that’s amazing on the downs and very capable on the ups, but heavy as **** and exhausting on anything longer than 50km or so.

Orbea Oiz is a frame designed around either a full XC whippet 100mm or a more relaxed 120mm setup for longer days. I was trying to get hold of the 120 version but they couldn’t supply one and I’ll have to wait for the 2020 models in a few months’ time.

I’d buy the Intense Snyper trail if I was in that positio, and had the money. It has sorted geometry, but is still quite light, and not a bad price either I dont think.

Whyte s120, or is that not XC enough? Maybe too near to the enduro.

Got a devinci atlas carbon that fits the bill perfectly – stripped for sale
Large though so probably too big for your wife

SC Tallboy is very capable trail bike (more capable than I expected mine to be), but then they’ve also got the Blur in their range with more of s XC focus.

The Blur is a fantastic bike. I had one for a weekend and ended up ordering one. Its very light and very fast, and feels very taught/stiff. Perfect for less technical riding and a totally different feel to the Tallboy, which has a much more open feel to its travel. The lead time was over a month which gave me the opportunity to demo some other bikes. Ended up cancelling the order and getting a Yeti Sb100. Its classed as a xc bike, but feels even more capable than the Tallboy. Not as light as the Blur, but dropper, 34 fork and tyres account for most of the difference.

Beti SB100?