Originally Posted by Jim311
I bash the **** out of my Cannondales without any problems. I've owned 3 or 4 in my lifetime and each one I passed on to somebody else who is probably STILL riding it to this day. I've never had any problems with them whatsoever, so I ride them. I won't, however, recommend Trek, Giant, or Raleigh. Just don't like em.
But remember the stuff you throw your bike through is not quite the same as what they do at the North Shore and at Whistler. You may have jumps and stunts in Florida, but at Whistler and the North Shore they have big jumps, big stunts and big drops.
You'll find that the companies that focus primarily on freeride and DH generally do better sales wise in that area, like Kona, Intense, Santa Cruz, Balfa, Brodie, Iron Horse, Evil, 24 bikes, Giant*, Specialized, Rocky Mountain. While Cannondale makes a DH/freeride bike in the Gemini, it's reliability is questionable compared to the others, Giant also is in this category, but Giant also doesn't. With Giant it depends on who built the frame and when the frame was built as in different batch. One batch can be a really reliable bunch, where the next batch can be really crappy.
Companies like Trek, Gary Fischer, Klein, Cannondale, their primary focus is on XC. Not built to take huge hits like freeride or DH rigs can handle. But where they make that up is that they are much more lighter and more nimble than a freeride or downhill rig can be. XC bikes can be thrown around some, but they were not designed to take that abuse though, just like you don't want to go race 24 hour races on an Intense M1 or a Kona Stab Primo. You'd be in complete misery 15 miles or 15 minutes in.
There are some bikes that fit in the grey area between Downhill/freeride and Cross country. Those are trail bikes, You have bikes like the Cannondale Jekyl, The Giant VT1&2, Kona Dawg, Intense Spider VP5.5, Santa Cruz Blur, Specialized Enduro, Santa Cruz Heckler, Trek Liquid, Gary Fischer Cake, Rocky Mountain ESX.
So does it matter what brand you ride? Heck no, as long as you're riding a bike, you are taking part in a community with many variations in it. You just have to know the bike's function and limits. There is a said big four, but in reality there is no big four.
Oh btw hunter, one of the said big four is not Kona. The said big four are:
Giant
Specialized,
Trek
Gary Fischer