New Cross Country ride

[missliz]

I 'm thinking about splashing out on a new XC ride- one with full suspension. No Trecks or Cannondales- I can't abide the dealership here! I wanted to look at Gary fischer, but theres a big squabble over who's going to sell them, so that'll wait, I'm not buying it for a couple months. My LBS is quite enamoured of the Klein Palaminos, I'm, not exactly having a big bike orgasm over them but they do look sweet.
So who else makes a decent bike now? Or a nice dualie frame? With not ugly paint. 70 to 100mm in the front, maybe three inches at the rear. Actually- I might prefer a frame so I can have what I like... Hayes discs and SRAM drivetrain.
Any thoughts?

Lizzy

[Irulan]

I love my Kona King Kikapu they make two now, mine is what is now the Deluxe ( the top of the line one) Klein is a nice albiet agressive ride.

but maybe here's what you should look at:

bike porn alert...

http://www.sevencycles.com/bikes/pricemountain.html

[sno4rent]

I have a Gary Fisher and I LOVE it - it's not full suspension though. It's a Women's frame and fits perfectly. Good luck in your hunt for yet another bike!!!

~ Wendi

[missliz]

Yeah, Fischer makes some mighty sexy bikes- very glamourpuss! My shop has taken mighty fine care of me over many years, and it would unforgivable of me to go buy one from anybody else. They may have the Fischer dealership back in a month- who knows? But why piss off my guys. They can order me almost anything
Irulan, I know all about Sevens, thanks for the link though. I've seen them, petted them, never been allowed to try one LOL; their riders love them more than life. They're a little pricey, and really more than I was going to spend. I like the look of the Konas- but I couldn't read the specks so we'll see. Merlin has always turned me on, too.
When you say Klien had an aggresive ride- what do you mean? Actually sounds like I might like that! I love the fancy incredibly expensive custom paint jobs too- you gotta love your bike.

Lizzy

[Irulan]

agressive... laid out, race style. I"d love one now, but not when I was starting out

does that help?

Irulan

[missliz]

Oh- that's what I've got. How else would you run on dirt but as a quadruped?
I just don't like some of the Klien components- Rapidfire shifters give me tennis elbow, I prefer SRAM chains, yada yada yada. Maybe I can just get the Palomino frame with the swell paint job...
We'll see. I have time to shop.
Thanks girlfreind

Lizzzy

[Adventure Girl]

My FS mountain bike is a Santa Cruz Superlight. I love everything about it. Really. The newer model is the Blur which uses a virtual pivot point (VPP) to eliminate "bob". I considered buying a Blur when they came out, but I test rode one and even their smallest frame is too big for me.

They do make a women's line called the Juliana (named after Juli Furtado). They didn't make them when I bought my Superlight. If I could start all over, I'd buy a Juliana. My Superlight is a tiny bit too big for me, but I compensate.

Funny thing about your post is that when they were coming out with the Juliana, one of the things that caused a delay in their debut was deciding on what colors to offer the bike in. It was primarily a woman's market, so should they go with feminine colors? But mountain bikers aren't usually that "girlie", so they considered offering it in the same color range as the "regular" bikes.

[missliz]

Well, I can ride an off the rack standard bike- long waisted. And I don't need "girlie" colors, have you seen what road guys wear? LOL If I need pink the Italians can supply it. I just find a lot of bikes have some pretty butt ugly paint, and having ridden a ball burnished stealth bike for years I'm picky. I could do up a new suit for it periodicly out of home done decals. For a while it had Tom Snyder graphics... Then Celtic tattoos. Anyway, life is too short for ugly bikes. So I'll go look at the Santa Cruz site, thanks. I looked at GT years ago because they supported womens racing- and Furtado. Then I bought the ball burnished Zaskar because it was beautiful, and fit like a dream. Ripped off the ugly stickers when I went to pick it up. But you can't do that with paint.

I'd get an orange Homegrown hardtail if I could find one, but they're all gone. Pretty bike, sweet ride.

Lizzy the fashionista


"Fire up the colortinis and watch the pictures as they fly through the air..."
_-The fabulous Mr. Snyder

[pedalfaster]

don't forget Titus

have fun shoppppping.

[Kpicha]

Oooo, bike shopping is so much fun

Just an FYI, Trek, Fisher and Klein are all owned by Trek. The Kleins have awesome paint jobs but you're not really getting your money's worth as far as specs go. You can get a lot more bike from other brands for the same price. Also, apparently the pivot bearings on the Palomino are not of the best quality and are wearing out relatively quickly.

If you really want to spec your own ride, save up the dough for a good high end frame, that way you can pick out whatever components you want.

Titus, Santa Cruz, Turner, Ventana are all awesome companies that produce phenomenal bikes.

The best bet, though, is ride as many bikes as you can before you decide on what to get b/c they all fit differently. The Kleins have really long TopTubes and Santa cruz has short ones. When i was bike shopping, I didn't care for Giant bikes b/c they had too much of a "tin can" feel to them whereas, Specialized and GT (before Pacific bought them) just felt more solid to me. Kleins were too big and Trek (Fuel 90) was fine but it didn't "wow" me. The Santa Cruz Juliana had the most "plush" feel to it and I really liked that but the TT was just too short for me.

In the end, I finally ended up with a Turner XCE b/c it had everything I was looking for and that was the one bike I never rode . I compared numbers left and right and read every single review I could get my hands on and finally took a leap of faith and couldn't be happier. It fits perfectly.

And, judging by your posts here, you've been around bikes long enough to know that good fit is paramount in enjoying your ride.

**breathe** Okay, that was quite an eyefull I hope you have fun shopping and trying things out. Let us know how it goes!

[melissam]

Lizzie,

I see you survived Mardi Gras!

Anyway, Mountain Bike Action magazine has their 2004 Buyer's Guide in the current issue on the newstands (March, 2004). It lists the stats you're interested in: Price, Front Travel, Rear Travel, Fork, Shock, Brake, Rims, Tires, Crankset, Shifters, Derailleurs, etc. for over 650 bikes, and breaks the bikes into categories like XC, Trailbikes, Downhill, Jump, etc.

Might be worth a look...

Happy hunting!

-- Melissa

PS I have no affilation with Mountain Bike Action magazine other than having a copy lying around in my house.

[missliz]

Thank you Kpicha- that's just the dirt I was looking for on the Klein. I read the spec and wasn't real impressed. If I went with the Palomino it would be the frame and then appoint it properly myself. I think the parts are crap; I'd want manitou or Marzocchi and a Sachs drivetrain. I know about taking the test ride- and taking a measuring tape to the frame. I also beleive in love at first ride My Z bike is from the days when Gary Turner still ran the company and is still a great ride. One just needs a new toy...
The Santa Cruz et al bikes aren't carried around around here- I think I need to road trip and see something new.

Thanks for the tip melissam- except you can't even get a bike rag in this town! Good excuse to roadtrip to another city.
Mardi Gras is not survived; It's for diving into and swimming hard for days! I weaseled my way into a parade on Ugly Bike heading downtown and had a glorious ride with crowds yelling at me- until some dumb kid threw beads in my drivetrain and I got chainsucked in THREE places and had to pull a muddy greasy rear end apart. Missed the whole downtown scene. Oh well.

Lizzy

[melissam]

Lizzy,

Bummer about the chainsuck. Another good time comes crashing to an end, eh?

Well, if your road trip doesn't work out, let me know, and I'll be happy to send you my copy of the mag.

-- Melissa

[missliz]

Thqanks Melissa- you're a sweetheart! I have to go to Baton Rouge anyway, and since they're actually in The USA as most people know it there's newstands and and bike rags galore. And a few good LBS to look around in... where theres a university, there's mt and BMX goodies.

Lizzy

[Kpicha]

Just out of curiosity, what is a Sachs drive train? I haven't heard of that one. These days, its either SRAM or Shimano on everything. I'm a SRAM fan Love the gripshift and X.O derailleur. Crisp, clean shifts every time and I'm going on 18 months with the same setup.


Sorry to hear about your chainsuck. That really sucks (no pun intended ). Good thing you didn't get hurt with all those beads flyin' around.

Cheers,
Kristina