Goin full suss

Giant Trance X2. You can find a 2010 or a leftover 2009 for well over $2000. Im positive you wont find a better deal. Just visit your LBS that sells Giant and inquire 😎

Can’t go wrong with a Trek or a Giant. Have you looked at a Specialized yet? Like the previous post, if you look at last years model they usually are marked down pretty good. Keep us posted and let us know which rig you get.

I would say if you can pick up a 2010 Trek Fuel EX8 demo for $600 off… Jump on it!!! I bought my ’10 EX8 last month during the Trek summer sale. Paid right at $2100. The ’11’s MSRP is now at $2409.99 up over $100 from the ’10’s. All I can tell you is I have been riding Treks for over 10 years now and have never had any issues with the quality of the frames and or the components. So far with the EX8 it has been trouble free… other than the rear pads breaking in…they wanted to chatter for the 1st 30 miles or so, but they smoothed out. Keep in mind I am in Florida now so I don’t know if the sugar sand play out in that problem or not…my guess is yes. The only other issues that I have heard (read) about was on the paint on the Matte Black frames… they say the paint is a little thin and that it chips and or rubs off from bike carriers… but again I only heard…haven’t seen. I got the Pearl White frame and as my last Trek the paint is awesome.

If I remember from one of your earlier post that you are in North Georgia… If you are near Cumming, Ga go check out Reality Bikes in the Tri County Plaza on Hwy 9. They sell Jamis and Santa Cruz. I just moved to Florida from up there and Reality was my LBS. A good bunch of people…. they were always very helpful when I needed a part or some gear.

Hey I have a Trek Fuel 8! Great bike but I have to warn you, the Fox Rear shock I have completely sucks. I have had to rebuild it after every ride. Currently, my bike store is trying to get it fixed or replaced. The owners manual actually says you should rebuild it after every 8 hours of riding – that is ridiculous. I ride for 3 hours at a time and as I said, It gets "stuck down" (the travel is some how sucked out and the shock is worthless) after every ride I go on. Its a 5" travel shock so it should be able to handle southern CA moderate downhill and the like but it does not. The Trek is a tremendous bike with great geometry, it is sad the shock is so bad. I hope that helps… 😀

the shock on the bike is actually a really good shock, i think your having this problem because you are bottoming out to much, which means you have to much sag or you need a differant air sleeve, if you bottom the shock to much, it will cause the "stuck down" symptom you are having, the force from it bottoming out causes the air in the postive side to push past the seals into the negative side, which causes the piston to get sucked in a little from thier being a postive force on both sides of the piston.

also the recomended air sleeve seal service (and its only seal service, not a full rebuild) of 8hrs. isnt the reason your having "stuck down" issues, ive ran my Fox Float RP23 shock well past the 8hr. mark plenty of times without an issue, and i also dont think 8hrs for that service is ridiculous, if you look at some of the maintenance intervals for other shocks, youll see that 8hrs is some what the norm for rear shock maintenance

If you are riding in NG you might want to consider a Stumpjumper Comp. Should be able to pick one up for $2200. I have owned Treks and Specialized and the Stumpjumper is my latest bike. For me, in the mountains it would be a hard bike to beat. I also tried Orbea and Santa Cruz’s before I bought. Mountain Bike Action magazine did a comparison a couple of months ago on bikes in that price range and the Stumpy won with the Trek a close second. Hope this helps.

You can still find some 2009 Giant Trance X2’s around for a fraction of the price you’d get a newer one for btw. And the 2009’s are much better spec’d than the newer models also. Here is a great article on the X2 http://www.scribd.com/doc/21473801/MBA- … 2-May-2009