Originally Posted by
corrado33
Looks like an anemic 29er with drop bars if you ask me.
A mountain bike is truly a go anywhere bike. These bike are "go to specific places" bikes. Very smooth dirt trails or gravel is the only place I'd ride these.
But I guess I'm used to there being lots of large rocks in the middle of the trails I usually ride on here in MT.
The first ride I did on my Specialized Awol was crush the same local low-technical singletrack I ride everyday on my 29er full sus trail bike; except the bike is ready to do another 30 miles of mixed gravel/paved roads afterwards at road speed. I don't think anyone is suggesting monstercross bikes were intended to take drop-offs or rock gardens (though I did take an easy 2 footer at speed on that same ride)... These bikes are more capable than one might immediately think - especially when the rider has both road and mtb experience.