Originally Posted by
wgscott
My kid wants to go to Gooseberry Mesa (near Zion) for Spring Break. He has a nice Canyon Spectral.
I have a choice between an 11 year old Trek Fuel EX7 full suspension 26-er, and my new rigid steel drop-bar 2.8" 27.5+ bike (I built up from an Advocate Seldom Seen frame designed specifically for drop bars).
He is convinced I will die if I take the Advocate with the drop bars. It has the option of taking a boost 100-120mm travel fork, so I could do that, but he insists that uncomfortable conventional mountain bike bars are essential.
What say you?
I have not been to that trail system, but I assume his concern is due to it being at least moderately technical.
It really depends on how bad-ass of a mountain biker you are, and if you have experience riding drop bars in technical terrain.
There is a reason that 99% of mountain bikes used for singletrack riding are flat bar.
We can go into all the geometry reasons why a drop bar mtb can be more challenging to ride (especially down hill) but only you are going to know if you are up to it.
Have you ridden the Advocate in technical terrain? I would not want a biking trip to be the place that I find out if a bike is going to work out.
The Fuel is clearly going to be the easier bike to ride, but fun is subjective.
Interested to see how this turns out.