I have been wanting a full suspension mountain bike for several years now. My hardtail is just too hard on my old ass. I have in the past lusted over a Cannondale Jekyl with disc brakes and a lefty fork, but C-dale changed their product line, and I am not as turned on by the Prophet.
So I have been looking, nothing much has struck my fancy. Till last week, my LBS (local bike shop) just got in an 05 Diamondback SL Super All XT, light (26#), Hydraulic Discs and lockouts for both front and rear. Best of all, it is about $1800 ready to ride.
What reviews I have found on line all seem to like it, does anyone in doper land have any feedback postive or neg on this bike? Or for that matter any other bike I should look at?
I am a Clydesdale, ride fire roads, and some single track, I like to climb, so I want shocks that lock out. I want disc brakes, prefer hydraulic. NO grip shifters!
Suggestions?
I ride a cannondale scalpel Rick, and regret not getting a prophet. It looks like the supremely versatile ride, “all mountain” as they say nowadays. Interested to hear why you don’t fancy it. I’m in the UK, where prices are very different from north America, so I can’t make real good recommendations as I don’t know how much bikes cost (eg Cannodales are brutally overpriced here, but I understand they’re quite competitively costed in the US)
The bike that comes up a lot on mtbreview.com as a great clydesdale ride is the Santa Cruz heckler. The prophet versus heckler thread is a common one with he consensus being that they’re both great bikes. Never ridden one myself, but there’s such overwhelmingly positive feedback on it that I’d be certain it would fit the bill. Depends on how much it costs I guess.
From what I can gleam from the Cannondale website the Phrophet does not have lockouts on the shock. I don’t want any of my pedaling effort going into the suspension, I want it all going to the climb.
I love C-dales my hardtail is a Killer V, (think a hardtail Phrophet) and my road bike is also a C-dale.
But damnit I want shock lock outs! Also my LBS stopped carrying C-dales. Since he is a good guy, I would like to keep doing business with him.
There is a Santa Cruz dealer just around the corner from my office, I’m gonna go take a look.
You may know this already, but stable platform shocks have really changed the design of full-sus bikes in the last year or two. They eliminate the pedal-bob that sucks the power out of your climb. Single-pivot designs (like my scalpel) always had the advantage of being very simple and easy to maintain, but they were intimately acquainted with Bob. Now that the new shocks have arrived, such as the Fox propedal, Bob has left the building and they are great climbers. I never bother to lock out my rear shock, there’s no need.
Good luck with whatever you decide to buy, a new full-sus MTB is a magnificent thing!
I’m going to the Bike Expo today, so hopefully I will get a chance to look at a bunch fo different bikes.
Stay tuned.
It’s extremely rare that I can’t follow any of a conversation on here.
Congrats guys. You’ve lost me.
:: off to do research on bikes ::
This stuff is really cool!