Short travel FS AM bike?

Jayem said:

People are going to make a lot of suggestions here. You might be able to say that there are some short travel "trail" bikes, but all-mountain usually means a little slacker, you would usually achieve that by putting a slightly taller fork on the "trail" bike, like say 120mm of travel. Here is actually a trail bike that someone has outfitted with more of an "AM" type build: http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=584065

One thing I would reccomend is something with the DW-link rear suspsension. With 15 years of riding, this is the closest thing you'll get to that hardtail-acceleration without having an overly harsh ride. Many times hardtail-to-FS riders don't realize that they're riding a much harsher bike as necessary, in fact they often strive to find bikes with "lockouts" and other band-aids that will keep the suspension "efficient", and of course this makes them ride just like hardtails. Many bikes these days do "decently" as far as efficiency is concerned, but nothing comes close to the acceleration you get from the DW link designs. There is just enough resistance built in to the wheel-path that allows you to get max acceleration with no interfearance. Other manufacturers also use suspension systems that "stiffen" when you pedal, this results in decent efficiency, but makes you lose traction while pedaling or makes the suspension feel harsher when pedaling through rocky sections. This is kind of the "other" way they achieve effiency besides lockouts and heavy compression-damping settings (propedal).

DW is made by Pivot, Turner and Ibis currently. All of these companies make decent bikes.

I would also suggest looking at a 29" wheel due to your travel requirements. At the shorter-amounts of wheel-travel, I think the 29er bikes simply smash the 26ers as far as overall speed is concerned. The pivot 429 would probably be one of the best for you to consider, it is also one of the most laterally rigid bikes out there, so you wouldn't miss much with the side-to-side stiffness. The Ibis bikes on the other hand are not the most laterally stiff, some would say they are adequate, but if you want the stiffest ones Pivot is pretty near the top. Turner isn't bad in this case too.

There are quite a few suspension bikes that are "similer" to the above bikes, they don't have all the same qualities, and may make some compramises. While I'm not saying you should spend $5000 on a bike, there have been advancements made in the last few years to give you the best compramise of suspension action and pedaling performance. Lots of companies have invested into prior technologies so they "can't change", and others don't want to license technology. There are still many decent bikes out there, but I would go for the best compramise, and at this point I think a DW link bike makes sense with your requirements of acceleration.

Even though I ride two turners, I was saying what I said above long before turner used the DW link system. This was from test-rides, and I've test-ridden the newer DW link turners now as well.

Edit: Those two suggestions are similer to what I discussed above. The "cotic" is an FSR (horst link) suspension, it will bob a bit, it will squat and rob quite a bit of energy when the hill gets steep, especially if you ever want to keep it in the middle ring. It will require quite a bit of compression-damping to do decently in those situations, which will make it harsher than it needs to be. They are correct that it will provide good traction uphill, but it will also sap a lot of energy going uphill. The Orange is a very "low-pivot" design that will also need a lot of compression damping to pedal decently. Other Orange frames like the patriot and alpine 160 achieve decent efficiency by having a very high pivot, this is not as active and leads to a lot of harshness when you try to pedal through rock-gardens or bumps. When you pedal, the suspension essentially "stiffens". Not good for traction uphill.

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