Is this a fair price?

[brigada]

I don't think you'll need a carbon frame to achieve that weight. If you are specifically looking for a full-sus bike, Trek Lush comes to mind, also Specialized Safire, Cube AMS WLS, Santa Cruz Juliana, Cannondale Lexi, Giant Lust... there's plenty more, I'm sure, but this is just to suggest some alternatives to check out.

Also, for each of those, I'm positive it would benefit you more to upgrade to a lighter wheelset than what comes stock, rather than paying the premium price for the carbon frame offering (if available).

[Wasp]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'm going on my days off to check out a few bike shops and see what they have. It never occurred to me to swap out the wheels. If I bought a lighter wheel set would the bike shop keep the original set and adjust the price accordingly? I can already see DH rolling his eyes if I came home with another bike plus an extra set of wheels, but hey could be worse it could be another pair of shoes....or a purse....lol

[brigada]

It never occurred to me to swap out the wheels. If I bought a lighter wheel set would the bike shop keep the original set and adjust the price accordingly? I can already see DH rolling his eyes if I came home with another bike plus an extra set of wheels, but hey could be worse it could be another pair of shoes....or a purse....lol

I think you should talk to the specific LBS about that, but they certainly might. If you think about it, rolling weight is felt the most - basically, you feel the extra weight the most in tyres and rims, also in spokes, and less in the hubs because they are in the centre of rotation. A lightweight wheelset will make you feel much more agile on climbs. For light yet fast and grippy tyres I suggest looking at Schwalbe Rocket Ron (available in 2.1 and 2.25) and weighing below 500 grams each.

As for the wheelsets, you can look at custom assembled wheelsets, too. In my experience, they tend to be cheaper in the given weight brackets. I suggest looking into ZTR rims (Crest rims are quite light and have decent reputation, for example) and DT Swiss or Sapim spokes. Novatec hubs (D041SB and D042SB, I think they are called) have really good price/weight and performance ratio and you can easily find them on eBay.

Even if you don't swap out the wheelset right away, you can always upgrade in the future. And the default wheelset can be sold to partially recover the expenses

I hope this helped at least as a starting point. Good luck and let us know what you end up buying

[Wasp]

After driving myself crazy looking thru CL and Pink bike for hours I came to the conclusion I was buying myself a bran new bike. So today (insert drum roll) ta-daaaaaaa I got my bike. I bought a 2014 Giant Anthem

[Wasp]

[Wasp]

Ok I give up, for some reason I can't download the picture the right side up.....sorry....lol....tilt your head, it's a really nice bike

[Wasp]

I bought it bran new from a LBS its a Giant Anthem 2 with tax I paid $2466.00
It's exactly the bike I wanted, it's light, full suspension, great gearing, and I really like the paint job. It's not screaming masculine and it's not pink (no offence to pink bike owners, but pink is just not for me)
I can't wait to head to Whistler bike park......wooooooo-hooooo!