[toolshed]

ok so i was thinking....what is the best "bang for your buck" bike? the 2005 Norco A-Line, or the 2005 Kona Stinky Dee Lux. i was looking to buy one of these bikes. Whats the best for most FR and sum DH? the cheapest would be best.

Maelstrom 

A-line has a long wheelbase. Definately more oriented towards high speed dh and jumping (hence the name a-line). This bike woud suck monkey nuts to pedal around on a trail if you ever wanted to get up fromme. I am almost sure this weighs more too. You are also looking at a proprietary hub of 150mm width. This is dh specific which will leave you spending a minimum of 300$ to replace the hub if anything ever goes wrong. However this hub adds tonnes of lateral strength to a strong bike meant to go FAST!!! This is 3300cdn.

The stinky is a classic fr geometry. Shortish wheelbase, fairly tall bike and short chainstays for low speed hucking. This one is 3500cdn

Parts are basically equal. In my world of pedalling up and down the Kona all the way. But the a-line is a killer deal and if you plan to come to whistler often it is a worthy bike.

snoopz666

ya i have this bike and all of that is true. it does suck monkey nuts to pedal on trails, but the dhx keeps the bob to a minimum. and its worth it on the downhill like mael said its meant to go FAST and it does it so well. for example today on my way home from a friends i have to ride down this big gravel road, and it had rained all last night so the road was very muddy and had lots of holes. it never ceases to amaze me how well this bike handels at speed, i must have been going close to 60k and the bike just stuck tot he ground. its even better on the big hits, ive done a 8'(apx) to flat and it just soaks it all up and i havent even had a chance to really abuse it since everything here is way to muddy to ride. but that will change cause im goin to kamoops tomorrow