Originally Posted by
Phantoj
This Kona has adjustable rebound damping, a nice feature.
I noticed that. The main tradeoff (Fire Mt vs Talon 2, roughly the same price) would be Altus instead of Deore in exchange for rebound damping. I wonder how well the rebound damping on an entry-level fork would work.
The tapered headtube gives you a better path for future upgrades.
I don't know enough about mountain bikes to understand what you mean here, but I'm curious now.
I think the TK is more like a traditional Rock Shox fork, with metal bushings and oil bath lubrication and a damper than can (and should) be serviced by the user. I think it's a more desirable setup than either Suntour option. It's still a low-end model, heavy and with an unsophisticated damper.
After reading a little bit about Suntour's upgrade program, I'm pretty close to scratching the Blast off my list. For $200, I can upgrade any Suntour fork to a Raidon air fork. So instead of paying $800 up front for a slightly better coil fork, I could pay $650 for the Giant (or $500 if I would settle for lower components) plus $200 upgrade -- total of $850 for Deore + double crank + air fork.
The only thing I've ridden on is the XCM-LO and only just a little bit. But I don't think it's all that bad. I think either of the three bikes would be just fine for the singletrack around here.
And that's the thing. I wouldn't need to upgrade the fork immediately. I could ride it as is for a while to see if the type of riding I'd be doing would actually need a better fork.
a hybrid would NOT be just as good for singletrack.
That's the impression I've gotten just from my test rides of some of these mountain bikes. They are definitely less jarring on bumpy terrain compared to my hybrid.