Bike decision

[John Bell]

I have recently started riding my bike off road mainly at Hamsterly and Kielder red routes! Im riding a hardtail but have decided to buy a full sus i fancy a Giant because thats what im currently riding but not sure weather to go for the trance x2 or the anthem x2! If anyone has any experience of these bikes i would like to hear your thoughts i know the trance has more travel but unsure if its necessary for the kind of riding i do?

[earthworm jim]

stick with a hardtail for a bit longer, your riding will benefit far more than going out and buying a full sus bike. Learn all the necessary skills to handle a bike off road. A full susser just hides poor bike handling skills. Even think about going to a few mtb skills schools 1st

[warwick hunt]

Just to add to what Jim says, I agree with him on sticking to a hardtail for now. You have only recently started riding off road so ride loads of different tracks improve your overall bike handling skills, get out with a bunch of others and pick up some tips.
Only by doing this will you be able to make the right choice on what type of riding you're interested in (and therefore what bike is best for you), one bad crash often puts people off for good whereas others it spurs on to improve, you may find you lean toward more gravity fed riding once you get the taste for it or you may decide you prefer road or bridle path riding. It's an utter fallacy that off road riding requires a full suspension bike and you see many hardtail riders ripping it up just as much as those on bouncy bikes, There's usually a group of people on here that meet up and I'd suggest tagging along on one of their rides but looking at your bike I don't see any problems with it for somewhere like Glentress, Newcastleton or Hamsterley XC routes

[John Bell]

Thank you for the advice ill try and get out more and do a variety of rides might do a skills school when i was up kielder a couple of weeks ago they were advertising one so might try and get to that!

[Andy]

For a skills school I can highly recommend dirtschool up at glentress. Went on their level 2 red/black XC course earlier this year and was absolutely fantastic. Learnt more about body positioning and bike handling in one day than I did in the previous 10 years - thanks Andy Barlow (Scottish XC champ). Might want to give the level 1 course a blast if you've only just started off-roading though but that's your decision.

[ray]

Hi I was also in the same position as you a few mths back. I have allways rode giant XTCs 2008 4.5 then i went for the XTC carbon and have been racing with this for the last two years with no complaints. But recently i have been suffering from lower back problems so i took the plunge and went against everything i said in the past about full susses being for wimps. I have recently purchased a anthem advance frame and raced it for the first time last weekend in the kielder oktober fest. It was mint great to climb with and even better going down hill. wish i had gone for the anthem years ago. also my back feels great. looking forward to this weekend as i am racing it again in the HOPE series on sunday. The answer to your question go for the anthem all day.