[rsinke]

I'm looking for some opinions. On the following bikes. Because of the shortage of bikes thisnyear I'm limited to options. The two.choices I have are the giant trance 3 29er and the giant trance x2.
Just wondering if ppl have any experience with either.? I like the trance x2 better but it's also more money and I have a baby coming in the summer. But wondering if it regret not getting the trance x. I've never owned a full suspension and I mostly ride single tract with the odd drop and small jump. I would like to start hitting a but more and a little bigger but not sure of the trance 3 would be underbike for that or the trance x overtime for that.let me know your thoughts. Thanks

 

[Cotharyus]

I'm going to pick info out of this to put a spin/perspective on this you might not be thinking about. First, you'll start small, no matter what - or at least I hope you will. I've seen too many people near me tackling some new jump lines that opened that simply were never designed for people to learn to jump on. Also if you learn correctly, you can do just about anything on a hardtail that you can do on a huge full suspension bike. You get some margin for error out of suspension - more suspension, more margin for error. However, you can also get a good helping of false confidence out of that margin for error. If you don't have the skills, don't count on the bike to save your skin.

Now, that said - you've got a kid on the way. The Trance 29 will do a couple of things - it's a fun bike. It will give you some room to play. You can probably hit all the drops and jumps you want to hit on it. I've done some BIG stuff on mine, and I'm 6'3" and kit out around 220 or 225, depending how much water/crap I have with me. But because it's a little shorter travel, it might also help keep you honest - the last thing you want to do is end up in the ER with a baby around. That's just my two cents.

Free advice? Enjoy every moment with the baby. My first born is 18 now, and frequently steals my bikes to go for rides. It happened really fast.