Bike decisions all range of biking

Lokoseena

I'm looking to get a new bike for a broad range of riding. Road, XC, Freeride and DH are in my style of riding. I have room for one bike at my place and I don't know which one to pick. Here are some bikes I've been looking at:

Trek Liquid 30
Giant NRS 1
Specialized Epic
Ellsworth Truth
Santa Cruz Blur R
Titus Racer-X

Anything else out there????

Could you help me out? I have no clue what to get. Thanks

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yash

You have wide range of interests. :-) It's impossible to enjoy all kinds of cycling using one bike. I'm a NRS lover, (but not owner yet :-() but it will never ever make me to recommend it to a freerider. If you'd use a vari-travel fork and set the rear for more travel and less effectivness, it'd propably allow you to ride more agressively, but it's still far from 'real' freeride. What I'd suggest? If you are planning to race MTBs and still want to freeride i suggest buying a freeride bike and a NRS with a roadie wheelset. (Discs and locout required). If you are not, buyin a new generation full-s bike with 'intelligent' suspension should allow you to ride agressively and will still have enough power to let you enjoy XCing. Roadie bike is not necessary, but is a nice training tool - switching bikes kills boredom and makes training more enjoyable.

cheers
yash

Lokoseena

You've got some good points. I can buy a 2002 NRS 1 for around 1000 with alot of new components and a 2003 liquid 30 for 1300 I can only get one bike because of the room I have at my residence. The NRS is amazing for XC as well the the trek fuel. The liquid 30 seems to be able to handle most of what you throw at it with adjustable and lockout Fox suspension.

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Hecubus

Thats a very broad spectrum. You can either have a heavy dh/free ride bike you can pedal uphill to a certain extent or a XC racer that can be used as a trailbike but to do all of them well is not really possible. What you should be looking for is a good trailbike type FS in the 4"-5" front and rear travel range which can climb and descend efficiently.
Right off the bat I can tell you to drop the NRS and Fuel. These are semi active bikes with a rather lousy suspension feel. They are mainly designed for maximum pedaling efficiency and sacrifice a lot of suspension performance to achieve that efficiency.
The Epic, Truth, and Racer X have relatively similar performing suspensions since all three are 4 bar/horst link suspension designs. They are fully active and have great suspension performance but are still designed mainly around XC racing so the travel relatively little and they tend to be a bit more fragile.
The liquid should be able to perform all the roles pretty well. Its got the most travel but will end up being the heaviest.
The Blur is easily the most versatile and top choice. Its got an extremely efficient suspension with a pretty good amount of travel and can perform great as a trail bike.
If your budget allows for it you might want to consider the Turner 5 spot or even the Intense 5.5 EVP. Both of them should be a much better fit to what you are looking for. They are do everything bikes that climb very well and can take a heck of a beating while still being reasonably light.

Structure

There's no free lunch as they say. Thus Road bikes will not be good DH or freeride bikes and DH/freeride bikes will not be good on the road (duh!). All you can do is choose a compromise ride. From your list it sounds like what you are really looking for is a firm XC bike. If so, then those are all good choices. If you really want a more flexible bike what about the Titus Switchblade Talas? I don't own one, but if I had the cash one would be first on my list. The Specialized Enduro series is also a very flexible bike with a very similar suspension for less cash.

Hecubus

I second the switchblade choice as well.

Lokoseena

I love the fox Talas system on the switchblade and the liquid 30 and on the intense 5.5 EVP. I guess thats probably the way to go with the great adjustibility they have to offer and the lockout features. The intense 5.5 has a 5 bar link system it seems a little fragile. I'm gonna be somewhat hard to the bike si it's gotta be able to handle what I throw at it. I mainly do XC and city biking with some freeride jumps here and there, not much DH but I do get around to it once in a while. The Switchbalde and the Trek Liquid 30 are in my top choices right now. If I do get a bike I will be installing all my XTR components on the new bike. Weight isn't much of a big issue but it is something I consider.

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Hecubus

The Intense 5.5 does not use a Talas shock. Its either a Manitou swinger or 5th element air. Don't be fooled by the linkage design of the bike. Its very beefed up. The rear end is one solid piece with no moving parts. Its attached to the front by two large linkages.

Duckwah

I can't speak for the switch blade and the trek but instead of the NRS (a pure XC racer) why not check out the Giant VT bikes

My flatmate rides a 2003 VT 1 and its pretty light on the climbs and descends like a rocket (she keeps up with me on my AC2).

The SPV suspension means very little pedal bob on the hills and awesome downhill tracking. 5.5 inches on the rear and 5 on the front.

As long as you are not going to do big drops the VT should handle pretty much everything without weighing you down. (ever done a 60km epic on a freeride bike, trust me its not fun!!)

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fasterTHANyou

no hardtails? for shame...

get the ellsworth truth. hands down. no contest.

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Hecubus

Well judging from the list it seems he is pretty set an a fully. The truth is an awesome bike but I think some of the others are better choices as an all rounder. One thing I'm not really liking about the truth is that the tubing seems very brittle. Two of my friends have them and damn do those things get dinged easily!

fasterTHANyou

really!? i've never heard of that happening with ellsworth... i know the secret service is ALWAYS cracking their trek frames... so i've been warning people about that...

i'm sad about the truth... the welds are so tasty... go with an intense or a turner

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Cannondale CAAD5/carbon lefty elo/full XTR/Race Face NexT cranks/Avid Juicy Seven Disc Brakes/Mavic 3.1 Tubeless System/Easton CT-2 Handlebar/Crank Brothers Ti Pedals

Lokoseena

Secret service owns trek bikes??? wow that must be some intense ridding. I bought a 2002 NRS 1 for a good price with lots of new components. I might sell it and buy something else I think I'm going to stick with more of an XC bike the liquid does seem to offer mroe versatility for somewhat of a lighter weight bike.

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b2b

none bike can do all what you want, most versatile could be GF Cake, Giant VT, and what about SC Hackler ?