coolhandluchs said:
...Oh, yeah. If you like to keep your trails challenging, don't get the Spot. It erases things that used to scare me. Riding certain trails is almost boring now.
Still better than work, but boring.
LOL!!!
Some additional thoughts to shoppers, while often stated it's usually said between the lines...
Speed is a defined value, but "Quick" and "Fast" are
adjectives. Even though the opposite of both is "Slow" they do not describe the same thing.
A bike like a HH is
quick. It gets up to your desired speed in a very short period of time. A bike like a 5 Spot is
Fast. It's overall speed is high. BUT both descriptions apply only to the terrain the bikes were designed for.
You put both on a well groomed XC course and a good rider will get better times on the HH, and he'll be able to dart around his competitors much more quickly.
You put both on a rough technical sketchy backwoods loop, and 90% of the riders will come back sooner on a bike like the 5 Spot, and they'll have a big isht eating grin to boot. I've read more than once where people timed their loops on a trailbike vs a XC bike and said while the XC bike felt faster the trailbike always had shorter times...but they still wouldn't
race a trailbike.
As for climbing speed, that REALLY depends on the terrain. Many times I've whooped faster stronger riders on technical climbs.They had hardtails or xc racers. They had to pick their lines carefully, and lost
speed over the bigger rocks and such. I passed them on the rougher climbing lines, ignoring much more of trail. But if it was instead a fireroad, I'd be lucky to see their tracks. The Spot can climb the rough stuff much faster than, say a hardtail. I know, I have both. I ride with folks on many different kinds of bikes, and there are times one kind of bike definately has and advantage. the HH is by no means a hardtail. But it's got that kind of quickness...The 5 Spot is by no means a free rider, but it's got that kind of stability.