Mt Bikes are so much fun man, you should really go with a full suspension one I have two and love both so much, I have my older one which is a K2 proflex3000 and its sweet but recently decided a newer one was in order, so i picked up a Specialized Demo 9 and its friggin sweet, down hill is a blast and it just soaks up every bump with ease.... IMO full suspension is the only way to go man

 

From what I've seen, I agree with you. But neither my wife nor my bank account agree with you at the moment[&o]

 

yea they are great bikes, expensive yes, but well worth the investment if your going to be riding alot, in your case those trek bikes should do wellm trek has always been a really good brand making some of the first real full suspension bikes for just the everyday rider, I also have a trek a while back it was a hard tail with front sus only and it was great really served me well till i started jumpin off **** to big and i bent the rear frame piece.... also one thing to look for is the front sus brand RockShox are by far the best for the standard bikes and not to extreme but really worth the lil extra to get that brand

 

You can turn off/tighten up the suspension with push of a button to help combat this now. Then you can soften it back up when the going gets bouncy. This is what I've read anyway. I haven't tested the feature on a FS bike yet.

Again, this all comes with a pretty big price tag.

 

That's a nice ride right there! Those new Demo's are pretty sweet. I'm thinking of getting a Demo 8 for freeride and urban rides.

 

lol yea they would be good for that, the urband stuff is a bit scary for me still i dont like jumping off stuff when if i **** up I smash on to pavement, dirt is much softer in those situations

 

That Demo 9 is a nice ride. Are you really in it for $4400 or is that just full bust out retail on the webpage?

 

I picked mine up on ebay, for 1750

 

full suspension .... expensive... if you're not doing ALOT of downhill , you don't need this.. alot of people buy full suspension bikes simply b/c they're more expensive. whether it be b/c they have $$ to burn and the "more expensive = better" attitude who knows..
but the truth is, you loose pedal-power w/ ANY type of rear suspension, so if you don't plan on doing CRAZY-rocky-bust-your-a$$bone-type of downhilling... don't waste your money just to have to pedal harder (true, loss of pedal power can be minimal with some of the newer geometery, but it is still there)


almost all bikes today have front suspension though... if it doesn't, GET OUT OF WALMART, they don't sell good bikes..



so i'd recommend a front suspenion bike for you

and i am perferencial to Gary Fisher bikes www.fisherbikes.com

Gary Fisher ... IS the modern "inventor" of the mountain bike.. pay the guy homage
most of his line is still handmade (lower priced on'es are made in Taiwan or something like that, but 75% of them are handmade in the US)
and they are QUALITY bikes..


and if you're shopping... consider buying a "left-over" from a bike shop..
most will have a few left-overs from a few years
if you're lucky enough to have a large chain that sells quality bikes, their left-over selection can be really good....

www.bikeline.com is in the Philly area and their closeout selection is huge..
GREAT discounts on older model years..



well... here's my baby... 2004 Gary Fisher HooKooEKoo .... aluminum / magnesium frame (step up from straight aluminum, blending the magnesium in... it's SOOOOO light ), Shimano XT, front Rock Shox Pilot SL,
the paint is SWEET !! metal flake through the silver
...and the Gary Fisher logo's were sweet on his line in '04 ... (cheaper models didn't get the same paint / logo though, even in '04

 

i've got a trek 4500.. thats a hardtail with some good rock shox up front. center pull shimanos and 24 uphill gears. full suspension and disc brakes are for hardcore people, and most of the time the weight of the disc breaks offsets their usefulness. you can pick up a used one for like $300 or so.

i upgraded to this after jumping off an 8 foot ledge and bending the hell out of everything on my trek 820 (entry level hardtail)