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.