Mountain Biking - Freeride or Short Travel ?

O.K. The trend, from what I can tell, in the industry is for lightweight short travel full suspension bikes. But everyone I speak to and most of the bikes I see on the trail are all medium to long travel "freeride" bikes. The fork manufacturers are all putting out 4 to 5 inch travel single crown forks. Yet companies like Trek and Gary Fisher (one in the same) and Cannondale, Specialized and others are focusing on short travel bikes. WhazUp?

I thought I'd start another poll, I like these polls, to see what everyone is riding.

L8R G8R

Since you can only vote once, I voted for SS, as that's what I ride 90% of the time. I also have a hardtail Ibis w/ a 4 inch Zoke and a fixed gear road bike.

The bike I ride the most is my Kona Stinky so I voted freeride. But I also have a Kona hardtail with a 63mm SID on it.

Reviving some old threads.

I thought a revisit for this one is apprapo (sp?)

L8R

Definately freeride.....specialized bighit comp.

I've got the ht. But I plan to get a medium suspension freeride bike. As for the short travel companies. I think they are trying to keep their racer medium. The bikes are basically useless as duallies and for me are really a tossup between a ht and those racer duallies. If I were going dually I would jump up to a new level. The reason. I can ride anything those treks and gary fishers can ride. I can't ride everything those freeride bike do because it would just hurt too much. At least that imo and some of the friends around here too.

Originally posted by a2psyklnut
Reviving some old threads.

I thought a revisit for this one is apprapo (sp?)

L8R

your killing me...:)