Sorry in advance for the little 'essay' to follow,
I can only apologise if you felt that my questions were childish in any way. I'll freely admit that I'm useless at asking questions, and having read your response I think I'll make myself a little clearer. I'm trying to gather oppinions on what key features riders like yourself look for in a bike. I have chosen to specifically look at Downhill bikes as I beleive that these machines are often subjected to some of the most extreme terrain.
I'm interested to know what factors you as a rider were interested in when you bought and built your bike. Obviously things like strength, durability, a reasonable weight, serviceability and an offordable price (which will vary from person to person of course), as well as reliable customer service, maybe?
Bearing that in mind, I'm curious to know if the components on your bike have lived up to these expectations you had upon purchasing them. I am aware that many brands such as Fox, Sunline, Mavic and e13 are well established and produce some highly desirable products as any catalogue will tell you, but I'm looking for the views of REAL people, not retailers.
Basically I'm asking what brands you would go for out of preference (or maybe you don't go for brands at all, but just the qualities of an individual product? In any case, i'm interested to know), due to the unfortunate fact that I have never been in a position where I could afford my own DH bike. If I had the money to do it, I would go out and test all sorts of components myself but limited funds have meant that I'm restricted to renting bikes.
Therefore, all I can really do is ask people like yourself for your views, every one of which I appreciate
Thanks for your time once again,
Dom Cowley.