I did a lot of mountain biking in the 90's, until I blew out my knee. I had surgery several years ago & got back into road riding pretty heavily. I just got back on my old trusty mountain bike (a hard tail steel) & had a blast, it's time to make that part of life again.

Unfortunately I've been out of the game for 7+ years and I haven't followed the sport like I used to. I want to buy or build a new full suspension XC bike but I'm not sure what are some of the frames I should be looking at. What I'm interested in is:

- Full Suspension
- XC. Most of my riding doesn't involved monster jumps or downhills, a few hours of riding ususally include hills, rocks, etc. Favorite rides are in the Gambril/watershed area in the Frederick, MD area.
- Relatively light. I don't want to go over 30 lbs.
- Probably mid-level pricing - under 2k is my target.

Now I'm somewhat interested in building the bike up so frames interest me. If I went that route, I'd probably be looking at XT level components. Forks have changed so much & I have no clue regarding rear shocks so I'll start reading up.

I guess a few pointers on good frames that meet my criteria would be a great place to start. I have a friend who rides a FSR, it seems nice. I saw a Jamis Dakar the other day, that also had a nice look. But I'd appreciate some basic pointers - something may look good but be a bad design, etc.

Thanks for any pointers!
Bob