I've been seriously considering a Santa Cruz v10 and am able to justify it in my budget but just because you can do something doesn't necessarily mean you should so I need some insight from other form users.
Some helpful context. I do about 17 bike park days a year, mostly Trestle and Keystone if you're familiar but do often travel to other bike parks within driving distance such as Snowmass and Big Sky. My current and only bike is a v2 Megatower which does double duty trail riding and bike park. I understand that a DH bike makes no sense given my current bike but this is kinda like buying a jet ski. They're expensive and nobody needs one but boy are they fun when they come out. I'm shopping the v10 because it seems like the most well rounded dh bike out there given I'm not racing and do frequent trails that aren't strictly dh tracks. I have ridden a friends Commencal Supreme and it was a ton of fun but a bit more glued to the ground than I would prefer.
What I want to know is are there some logistical considerations to owning a downhill bike that aren't immediately obvious to someone who owns an enduro bike? I understand the additional yearly maintenance as well as it only works in lift accessed terrain but wasn't sure if there was anything else either positive or negating.
Thanks!
Rent or demo a downhil bike and you'll quickly realize there's nothing quite like it.
Positives:
Downsides:
The mental gymnastics I used to convince myself a downhill bike was a reasonable purchase was that I would be keeping the hard miles in the bike park off my trail bike. That means fewer creaks and wobbly rims to deal with on the 99% of the rides where I'm just pedaling locally. The DH bike is just better built for a bike park situation and can handle that abuse much better, meaning less overall maintenance for me. Plus there's nothing like riding a downhill bike. If it's in your budget and you're doing 10+ days in the park a year, I say go for it.
Absolutely. YES
For all the reasons above, plus: New Bike Day.
I mean, come on!
Yes,
100%
Downhill bikes are like nukes: if you want to be taken serious you need to own them, if you use them or not. 😉
Hoping that the downhill bike gets plenty of use and the nuke none.
I agree with the others that that many lift days and you can justify a 'park' bike of some kind but- I'd keep the Megatower as your park rig and maybe look at a lighter trail bike for your pedal rides.
Only reason is- most of those parks have 1 or 2 good DH bike trails- the rest are kinda flat and boring on a full DH bike. Also nice to have the dropper post, big cassette and waterbottle for some of the side country stuff you can access at Snowmass.
for me buying a used dh bike has pretty much paid for itself since I’m not beating up my enduro bike to bits. I’d say there’s been at least two close calls that I rode out on the dh bike that I don’t think I would have on the enduro.
Buy used, get soft instead of super soft tires and plenty of brake pads.
You can also look into a dual crown trailbike. But it’s probably much easier to get a used dh bike with 200mm travel.
Thats what has kept me from buying one so far, but logistics are aligning right now for the DH bike I want so Im seriously considering it.
I have also looked a short travel trail bikes too but everything I ride would be kinda rough on one.
The only real questions are:
If the answer to both is yes, that’s your answer!
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