Mountain Biking - Which bike???

Hi, I'm planning to get a mountain bike for off-road use. I like the full suspension bike, can anyone give me any advice on that? What is the different between a full suspension and standard one?

I like D/S 3 from GIANT is full suspension at the affordable price, can anyone suggest anything? How is MONGOOSE NX 7.1, and ATX 840/860?

gary,

full suspension is the end all of mountain biking. i rode FS for years, but with my sponsorship last year, i had to ride a hardtail. as far as my experiences go, there are no advantages of a HT unless you are riding on the road.

i outsprinted a whole field of HTs from a start line up a grass hill, on FS!! (don't tell me i can't outclimb an HT with FS!!)

i highly recommend the Gary Fisher Sugars. i ride the Sugar 1, which has dual air sid fork and rear shock. the special pivotless design in the rear enables you to hammer when you climb, w/o pogo.

Fisher has demo days throughout the country, i would recommend trying this bike out on the trail. if you can't try the bike on the trail, you won't get the full benefit of the suspension.

i used to ride a Manitou FS, which has a similar design to the new Sugars. that is the best design for anyone who wants to ride xc, or race.

if you want to downhill, then it is a whole different world...

fs is ok and it does have its advantages.....but who needs all that excess weight to drag up a hill!!! a skilled rider shouldn't need it.

make sure you know if you want a big badboy full suspention or a more xc type of suspention. Gary Fisher makes more of a XC full suspention. So does Rocky Mountain.

gosh, there's so much to say... too many things to take into consideration.

the benefit of having a hardtail is the efficiency, and compared to full suspensions, value. you're going to be paying more for a full suspension bike that has a certain level of components than you would for an equally spec'd hardtail.

As for full suspension, i've ridden some bikes our shop had for demo, and they took all the work out of going down trails... you just pointed the bike and that's the line you're gonna be taking, period. it was like sitting on a couch(cannondale). of course, there were SOME bikes we had in-store that just plain SUCKED... namely the Trek VRX. too heavy, too simple, too expensive.

be careful of what you're buying. try friends' bikes out. get a feel for what you would want your ideal bike to feel like, and see what you can find that's most like it...

As for myself, i've spec'd my hardtail the way i want it, and i don't see full suspension as necessary(i WAS thinking about their Stumpjumper FSR frame... the lockout fox air shock on the back really started to blur the lines between hardtail and full suspension... but "CHEAP" that frame is not).

hopefully i'll be able to ride my hardtail for as long as i live, and never fall into the "middle-aged-male-with-money-to-burn-that-gets-an-overpriced-full-suspension", stereotype.

You know what i'm talking about.

Get a KHS comp. I love the bike and it is considered a full suspension bike but it has only minimal travel.

MTB chick obviously doesn't do alot of dirt jumping, urban riding, trials, or anything technical. So if its your first bike, GO WITH A HARDTAIL, you don't know what your gonna be good at and you are going to want to experience everything. Also a hardtail forces you to be a smoother rider, alot of pros learned on hardtails!

MTB chick obviously doesn't do alot of dirt jumping, urban riding, trials, or anything technical. So if its your first bike, GO WITH A HARDTAIL, you don't know what your gonna be good at and you are going to want to experience everything. Also a hardtail forces you to be a smoother rider, alot of pros learned on hardtails!
Why did you have to bring up such an old thread?