Just looking to see if any of you want to share their infinite knowledge to help me out with a new bike….
I currently ride a 2010 StumpJumper FSR (140mm fork, 68 HTA) and want to upgrade to another nimble bike that is fun to punch up technical climbs but can also handle some shore style down. I will sacrifice down ability before up, but I'm thinking of finding a steep HTA bike (68 degrees) with 140mm fork and adding a travel adjust Pike at 140/160 so I can open it up for the downs while keeping that steep HTA for the ups.
I'm leaning towards 650b, any ideas? I'm staying away from the new stump jumpers because I don't like the idea that their 650b's use the 29" front triangle and a spacer with an awkwardly low BB height.
Two bikes I have noticed so far are the Norco Sight and the Kona Precept DL. I want to keep the STA steep (74) for climbing so have ruled out a couple bikes due to that (Trek [HTML_REMOVED] Devinci).
I started riding more seriously in the last year, but went about 75 times since then and have found I am gravitating a bit more to technical steeps but I truly love the technical climbing and don't want to sacrifice that area. I usually ride Seymour and will go down SD or AA and then work the lower XC trails. Any comments or ideas? Budget sits around 4k, maybe a bit more if needed.
Your help is much appreciated, thanks!!! :)