I hope to sell my house in the States and will be able to spend from the capital gain about $1500 and want to buy a 29r
My choices are a
Cannondale Trail 1
Giant Talon 29r 1 or 2 ge
or a GT karakoram expert trail
So what do you all think????
Also I am 58, 5'9" and 220 pounds been riding a bunch with about 4000 km of dirt, gravel and single track in the past 2 years.

I hope your getting much more than that out of your house. Sheesh, market must be terrible there.

But major kudos, your got your priorities right. Bikes > shelter.

https://www.gtbicycles.com/int_en/201...rakoram-expert
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-in/...specifications
https://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-in/...specifications
https://www.cannondale.com/asp_en/201.../trail/trail-1

If those are the bikes you're talking about and the specs are correct, the Trail 1 has the better fork followed by the Talon 1, Karakoram Expert and the Talon 2.

Air forks can easily be adjusted to suit different weight riders, the coil springs that are in coil spring forks aren't made to suit all riders weights, if you bought a coil spring fork you might need to have the spring changed to to suit your weight.

The Recon Gold is a air fork.
The Recon Silver fork comes in coil and air versions, the specs don't say which version is on the Talon 1
The XC32 & XCM forks are coil spring.

Rockshox springs usually aren't too hard to find if you need one, Suntour springs might be harder to track down, here's a few relevant Rockshox documents.
https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign....chart_2015.pdf
https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign....4149_rev_c.pdf
https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign....recon_xc32.pdf

Air forks are reliable but they can need a bit more maintenance then a coil spring fork.

I love the triple triangle design of GT bikes. Plus I think their name is cool.

im kinda surprised the gt isnt the worst spec. i would have ruled a new gt out immediatly. spec wise def the cannondale then the giant talon 1. the suntour fork really turns me off the talon 2 and well im just not much for a gt....

To get a good GT it looks like you have to go to their Zaskar 27.5/29er line of bikes.

The GT Karakoram isn't my favorite GT bike either, if that's the one I viewed with cobba's link. But in general, I dig GT.

It doesn't show as well on the sloping TT frames like this. It's cooler on road bikes.
[MENTION=332373]bwilli88[/MENTION], think about taking your $1500 to pinkbike and getting something really nice.

Yep, I mostly agree. If you can't see the triple triangle's TRIANGLE then it defeats the purpose. For me, bike shopping is like seeking a potential mate. There HAS TO BE physical attraction otherwise the next step never occurs. Of course, it's also my preference for internal cable routing, which the GT bikes don't have. Plus, I don't like the paint scheme on that Karakoram Expert.

bwilli88 - I guess, now that I've thoroughly examined the Karakoram from a physical standpoint I'd rule it out and move onto the next bike on your list.

LOVING the styling and paint schemes on the Giant 1 and 2 GE bikes. Those are straight pimpalicious.

I am purchasing it here in Cambodia and these are what is available.