Help/Opinions On New Bike

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Speeddemon73
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Grand Rapids, MI US
Speeddemon73
Edited Date/Time 5/9/2016 6:29am
Hey Everyone,

I am looking to get into downhill mountain biking. For the last 10 years I have been riding my Gary Fischer mullet that I have turned into somewhat of a dirt jump machine. However, in those 10 years I have also done some growing and the bike is too small for me hence why I am looking to buy a new bike. I already have a bike in my mind that I am looking to get. I found a brand new 2015 GT Fury Expert for a very good price (left over model). I live in Michigan, and have two "downhill" trails within about 30min of my home. One of them is a skills park/downhill run and the other is a downhill flow trail. The Association that built these trails is starting to make more downhill type trails and adding "black diamond" runs to the later two trails. About a 2hr drive to the nearest resort with downhill runs and ski lifts. In my area though, it is predominantly cross country trails of which I am in no way interested in. I race motocross as well, so I am looking to replicate that when I don't have time to go to the MX track or for just a quickie run after work to blow off some steam. Should I go for it and buy the downhill or should I be looking at an all mountain bike instead. I only shy away from the all mountain bike because it will not ever get ridden on cross country trails. I just don't have any interest in them.

Thanks for any advice or help you can give me!
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Falcon
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Menifee, CA US
Falcon 5/8/2016 6:39pm
5/8/2016 6:39pm
How will you get to the top of the downhill runs? If they are shuttled, a downhill bike is great. If you have to pedal at all, the geometry of a true DH bike will make you pretty miserable. You may be better off on an Enduro machine or a Super Enduro.... 6" of travel or more (it seems "all mountain" means about 5" nowadays.) A bike like I'm describing will be able to handle almost anything a DH bike will, including most park runs, but you'll be able to pedal around.
Speeddemon73
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Joined
5/7/2016
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Grand Rapids, MI US
Speeddemon73 5/9/2016 6:28am
5/9/2016 6:28am Edited Date/Time 5/9/2016 6:37am
The downhill runs around me are within public parks. The way to get up them is by pushing your bike up a foot trail that the association made. Not wide enough to bike up and too steep too. One of the trails is built within a network of XC trails. To get to it is through a flow trail, that would not really be that terrible on a DH bike. The other downhill trails are at ski resorts that have dedicated lifts to the top of the mountains that you ride up with your bike. My only concern is that if I were to buy an enduro/ all mountain bike I would be wasting my money on a bike that does everything, but I am only using it for downhill and the skills park with big jumps. I'd like to enter a couple downhill races too this year in the fall. I guess I live in the wrong area of my state. The people to the north are big downhill racers and the people around me are all road bike and XC guys. Its nice to see the association around me is making some downhill trails down here and there is talk of my local ski resort building a real downhill course with ski lift access during summer and fall, but not sure on how much of that is true.

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