I’m currently riding the below:

its great and at 23lb it’s fast & gets up the hills no problem. but after a few hours in the saddle things get tiring and I’m getting battered on the descents.

I’ve started to think about full suspension bikes.

I’m more into XC, all-day riding & fitness.
I’m thinking maybe 100-120mm fork.
Under 30lb (nearer to 25lb)
under £3000

here are some of the bikes I could think of:

Cannondale RZ120

Lapierre X-Control

Scott Spark

Specialized Epic

Giant Anthem x4
I’m leaning to the Cannondale at the mo. (has anyone got any experience with these)?

Have I missed any possibles out?

Also I have decent gear on my Rock Lobster (0x, sid’s, hope m4’s, mt65’s & nobbys, KCNC etc) and could consider swapping components onto a full suspension frame.

those bits on your rock lobster on an orange st4 or SC superlight frame would be ace (complete builds on those 2 don’t seem anything like as good value as the big brand bikes you posted up there.)

Also, are merlin still doing that deal on complete build turner flux? that was well good value!

looks very nice (anyone know the weight of this frame)?

There is also the Trek Top Fuel. I had the older model, 100mm suspension, very efficient and light. There are at least two guys on here who have a newer Top Fuel (njee20 and mrmo).

This one would be withing Your price range:

Or this one is one sale HERE in 17.5″, £1800, full XT, RS Sid fork and has Bontrager Race X Lite wheels which weight close to 1500g. It should fly 🙂

I suppose swapping my stuff to a full susser frame would make sense, otherwise I’ll end up with two xc/racy bikes.

I have just bought the anthem x1. reviews are greats and it’s a really fast bike, DONT BUY CANNONDALE THERE THEIR SHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!, it will fall to bits in no time. Have a look at what mountainbiking mag for reviews.

2010 Giant Anthem from pauls cycles – sorted. next question

What about the specialized camber or a Morewood Zula (?) oh and the commencal super 4

Canyon Nerve MR 9.0 SL

http://www.canyon.com/_uk/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2071

£2400
24lb
Full XTR

Cube bikes are worth looking at aswell, not sure which model you’d want, but you get alot of high end kit for less money than most other big brands and their bikes generally get good reviews.
Possibly something like this at 25lbs AMS HPC Team but you’d need to look thru the range yourself.

Kona Heihei for me. 21.5lbs but it is a somewhat bling build. I love it to bits. Most sorted XC race bike I’ve been on.

amazing value 😯

Cannondale Rize is a great bike. The guys at Dirt magazine love it.

Flux frame is 6lbs

love my anthem x2.can easily do all day rides on it.i think mine is around 25lbs (as standard small frame) 😀

is that with the shock?

That Canyon is unbelieveable value 😯

this is even better http://www.canyon.com/_uk/mountainbikes/bike.html?b=2070 😯

looks like they sell “frame only” too 😀

http://www.canyon.com/_uk/outlet/list.html?type=frame_mtb&sort=m-up&size=M

I THINK SWAPPING EXISTING GEAR TO A NEW FRAME IS THE WAY

Honestly, the complete bike package is the best value. No way you could build them up for that price.

@neil853 – that is stoning value hard to beleive really. That’s what you might get on £4k bikes in terms of kit (if you were lucky).

yep amazing but I’ll use my existing gear & swap it all over

Sell your old HT frame , strip , clean and sell all the bling and buy the Canyon .
Sell the wheelset ‘As new’ and look for a set 100gm lighter .
That way the cost to change will be in the hundreds , not thousands . With a good quality 1600gm wheelset that bike should be very quick indeed , and more importantly comfortable after 50 miles .
Hei Hei owner here too , 24lb FS , but shorter on travel.

The Scott Spark is very long, especially if you have long legs (slanted back seat tube, at least compared to my old Strike). Climbs like a monkey though.

I love my spark. Got a newer replacement so I’ll have a size large spark frame for sale if its of interest. Though the canyon bikes are silly cheap.

Cube AMS are a good 120mm full sus, belting VFM, I’ve got a Stereo Race which isn’t as light as the AMS but still is an all day machine and the 140mm suspension is very good. It’s in the for sale section as I’m now a 29er convert!

2011 18″ Stereo Race FOR SALE

Even if I strip & sell all my stuff I think I’ll still be way short of a Canyon.

I think simply swapping to a new frame is the way.

what else is worth changing at the same time (new cables etc)?

Ooooooooooooh!

http://shop.theedgecycleworks.com/1115/Trek-Bikes-Top-Fuel-9-Black-White.html

“DONT BUY CANNONDALE THERE THEIR SHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Amazing – used two versions of the word and still got the wrong one 😉

The reviews I have read say otherwise, but then, I do like Cannondale bikes and the RZ120 1 is on my shopping list to replace my Rush.

Every time I open this thread my Kona pic looks more and more fantastic… sigh…

DONT BUY CANNONDALE THERE THEIR SHITE!!!!!!!!!!!!!, it will fall to bits in no time.

Never trust a man who cannot spell properly.

This is the first I’ve heard about Cannondales being crap 😯

Was looking at Canyon a while back. Some of the full-bike specs are pretty neat compared to frame only. Fox forks and full groupset for pocket money more than the frame only, so *may* be worth buying full bike and upgrading a few bits (depending on what you want), and you get the choice of a single colour or black too.

Anthem X all the way for me or maybe ASR-5 ? 🙂

Keep the hardtail intact, always good to have a spare bike!

As far as the fork goes, the Lefty may be lighter, smoother, and more rigid than any of the other options – something to bare in mind.

Interesting thread this, good for me to dream about the next bike I would like to buy…

“As far as the fork goes, the Lefty may be lighter, smoother, and more rigid than any of the other options – something to bare in mind.”

A mate of mine rides a lefty, at times he finds the not being able to take the front wheel off a right royal pain!

You can take the front wheel off, can’t you? Just need an allen key.

Also worth noting you don’t need to take the wheel off at all to fix a puncture 🙂

hmmm…needs to brake down to fit in a fiesta 🙁