thank you for your suggestions, guys. i've decided to get either a trek marlin or cobia and have the lbs swap the front suspension for a rigid fork. trek is rumored to release a bontrager switchblade which is a g2 offset fork. i'm not interested because it's carbon (i don't race) and it's expensive. according to trek we can use any 29er fork with the G2 but it may not have the "fast steering" or whatever. so i'll use a cheap surly steel fork until trek releases a cheap, steel g2 offset fork.

the marin at 40 mm looked very interesting. what i like about the gary fisher better is that it has a slacker geometry and places the handlebars higher. i like the handlebars to be high (not too high like a comfort bike) due to geometry and not because of a steep stem or steer extender. i'll checkout the redline and the haro mary and the karate monkey.