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Some of these bikes have extremely low bottom brackets, which I don’t think is going to fit with what the OP is looking for. I don’t know the geo off the top of my head of all these bikes, but I don’t think the Transition Spur or Evil are going to suit you well. These days, you’re honestly looking at getting a bike that’s more XC focused, as they aren’t going to be on the ‘extreme’ end of geometry. Or, you could always buy a bike and increase the fork travel on it (if possible), get a taller lower bottom bracket cup (if possible), buy a 27.5″ bike and put a 29″ front wheel on it (if it fits in the fork, or a new fork), angleset to steepen the head angle (which will raise the BB a tad), offset shock bushings, ride with less sag in your suspension, etc. Anything that’s going to lift the front end of the bike up will raise the bottom bracket that’s more inline with tight/twisty/techy riding. You might also want to look into used bikes from the previous generation.
Virtually nothing will carryover to the DH bike. The hubs are a different width, so you’d need new wheels. The fork won’t fit, cranks won’t fit. You could probably reuse handlebars and grips, that’s about it.
Whoops, I should note that the brakes on the Delano are the Deore level, not SLX level. The Singletracks review of the bike states they don’t have much bite. That is probably due to the pads, so you can customize that with other Shimano options or a host of other brands.
Also, 2 water bottles in the frame for the Delano vs only 1 under the downtube on the DB.
I still like the Giant.
Where do you live/ride? The Delano Peak has a much more “modern” geometry – slacker head tube, steeper seat tube, longer reach, etc. If you are riding steep terrain, this will make things easier. How much? You probably wouldn’t have an issue on the DB either, but that is a 27.5 frame from a few years ago (was modern then) that they recycled into this 29er version. Not bad by any means, but it isn’t the latest and greatest.
I’ve only heard good things about the XFusion Manic dropper on the Delano – super smooth, easy and cheap to service. The KS on the DB is going to be more expensive to service.
Shimano doesn’t make a bad brake IMHO, so you aren’t “downgrading” with the Delano even though they are only SLX level. My M8000 brakes (same as the DB) have the typical “wandering bite point” that many Shimano brakes have if they don’t have a perfect bleed, which can be terrifying at times. That may or may not be better with the newer generation SLX models.
DVO suspension on the Delano is top-notch, but local service might be an issue (I’m running into this right now with my XFusion forks, who only has 1 legit service center in the US). More places can do DVO, but it’s not as common as Fox. Many local bike shops can deal with Fox suspension in-house.
The double upshifting on Shimano is great, as is the pull to upshift option, but you can thumb that button pretty quickly on SRAM as well.
Have you looked into the new Giant Trance X 29? Cheaper than those and pretty solid components as well. If I lived in a mountainous area, that would be at the top of my list.
Jeff, I couldn’t help but chime in that a smaller diameter wheel (27.5+) in the front will effectively steepen your head angle, the same way a shorter travel fork would. To account for this, bikes like the Pivot Switchblade have some sort of way to adjust/maintain the geometry (like head tube angle and bottom bracket height). The Pivot includes a 17mm taller lower headset cup (roughly the size difference between 27.5+ and 29 wheels) to keep the geometries consistent when using 27.5+ wheels.
Conversely, the smaller 27.5+ wheel in the back will slacken the head angle.
Granted, a 17mm lower/higher front end will equal less than 1 degree in head tube angle, which may or may not be noticeable to all riders, especially with the traction and other changes in ride characteristics that come along with a 27.5+ tire.
Not sure if this was a result of the new homepage design, or if I just haven’t spent much time in the forums before, but the “rich link previews” in the forums (like a link to a Singletracks page that gives a title with thumbnail picture and subtitle, etc), opens on any mouse click – even a right click. I like to open various links in new tabs and then go and read them later, but that isn’t possible when a right click already opens the link in the same window. A middle click of the scroll wheel normally opens a link in a new tab, but that doesn’t appear to work either.
Caveat: I found this out on a crippled Linux machine with an older Firefox version, so it might not be applicable on other, more mainstream PCs.
