The Hunt for the Hard Tail 29er

As I posted a few days ago, I sold my old squishy full suspension mountain. I bought this bike a few years back as an upgrade to an old hard tale I was riding (it was pretty worn out). The Santa Cruz Blur LT was always a little to ... squishy for me. I tried dialing in the suspension and I believe I got it right but it still was never perfect. When I road that bike XC style, I always felt like the harder I road the more I was fighting the bike and not the trail. I didn't have or it didn't give me the confidence to lay it all out on the descends and it was a fight going back up hill. To clarify, it would climb anything but it was like a 2 year old.... the more you hurry it a long, the harder everything was. In the end, it made me not want to mountain bike. That would simply not do!

A friend let me borrow his hard tail 29er at a race last year and it was phenomenal. Every hill that we had previously raced, felt shorter. Anything that was flat, the bike just rolled through. I didn't get too crazy on the descents because.... well... it wasn't my bike. After that experience, I put my Santa Cruz up for sale. I was going to make the switch. Time to re-find my love for mountain biking again.

Now I have to figure out what to get. I was thinking about building up a bike but by the time I get all the parts, it costs more than just getting a completed bike. So, I'm going the complete bike route even though I know it wont be everything I want. As for the frame material I'm just doing aluminum. Carbon is too costly and it's particularly costly if you crash or rub a rock or hit a tree. So now it's time to find something reasonably priced that maximizes my return on investment.

So what am I looking at, basically the high end aluminum 29er from the major manufactures.

The Specialized Stumpjumper Comp 29er

The Gary Fisher Paragon

The Giant XTC 29er 1

and the Cannondale Flash 29er 1

As I begin to look over the build specs for each of the bikes, all of them look pretty good. As to the general aesthetics, I like them a lot. As for what is the right price to pay for those components, we'll see. First thing first, think I'll try and track down some of these bikes and ride them.