I don't have any good advice to offer. Recently I ordered a Jamis Dakar XC Comp and my partner ordered a Trek Fuel EX8. I would however say get the most bike you can afford that you think you might want. We bought entry level bikes less than 2 months ago and now we're buying new bikes..........so, we could have saved ourselves time and money I made my decision by first deciding how much I wanted to spend and then started reading every review under the sun and then deciding what I absolutely had to have and what I didn't care that much about. After all that I went with the LBS that I had the best relationship with.