[drakenclimber]

The trails I ride the most are in the Horsetooth Mountain/Lory State Park area, which is sort of my home base. I ride Devil’s Backbone sometimes and ride Trestle Bike Park when I am able to (Roughly 6-10 days out of the summer). I’ve only been riding for a little over a year but am hooked.

I also ride Horsetooth two to three times a week.  Based on your comments above, I am assuming you are typically riding Wathan, Mill Creek, Sawmill, Howard, etc.

As others have pointed out, you have a wide array of really good choices these days.  I have ridden with people on aggressive hardtails and with others riding 180mm travel bikes.  You need to figure out if you like to dance around the obstacles or plow through them.  Also, some bikes will make Towers slightly less awful to ride up – but it will still suck even on a new wonder bike ;).

Most local shops will let you apply the money you spent demoing their bikes toward a purchase from them.  ProVelo has a good selection of Yeti, Santa Cruz, Ibis, and Giant.  For example, try a Hightower, Nomad, Bronson, and then mix things up and take out a RipMo.  A list similar to that should give you a good taste of short- vs long-travel, 29er vs 650b, and different company’s suspensions.

[Author]

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