I went to check out the Ghost at MEC North Van, and was kind of turned off. The fit and finish on the Ghost is pretty mediocre, and some of the components like the wheel set and the bars are meh. The staff were entirely apathetic towards helping me figure out some questions I had about the bike, so I darted out of there pretty quickly.
Saw the Dixon XP at Cove and test rode it too. It was brilliant. The small fit like a glove, and was just the right weight too, so was the price. Pedaling felt just right, although The cranks were pretty meh. The shop was even going to throw on some proper sized 2.4 and 2.5 tires on there and a wider bar as well so it would be all laughs in muddy rocky descents in winter… but I still wanted to check out the few other shops, so I didn't commit to buy there and then… turned out to be a mistake. When I called the next day, it was sold.
Next door at Diff Bikes was a Giant Trance X1 size small, for only $1900… was just sold before I got there. =/
The Mega is tempting… but you ever seen or ridden one or know much about their reliability and long-term reputation ? CRC is giving them away at half price, and it is easy to teleport $2K to UK… but not so easy to teleport mechanics and your bike back and forth from the Pacific to the Atlantic… and we all there has not been a single new bike ever purchased which did not need some sort of warranty work within the first few months.
There's a review of the Nukeproof Mega in a recent Bike mag… Seb Kemp was one of the reviewers and they gave it a good solid review… I don't think you would be disappointed.
