DH bikes are a great blast, and although you *can* ride DH trails on pretty much anything, to get the most out of them a proper DH bike is worth it. Saying that, I recently ditched my 224 (and my XC bike), bought a 5. With a decent shock and forks and proper wheels it’s great for DH and I’m taking it to the alps – and it is also ok for mincing around the woods and trail centres. Not a great climber but that’s the fault of the engine, not the bike.
Not as good as a proper DH bike in the big stuff but then I’m not as young as I used to be; as much as I like to think I’ll be nailing the chatel gap and setting records on les crozets, I’m old and fat and have lost my balls and it hurts when I fall off, so a DH bike is wasted on me 🙂