Let's offroad / mountain bike / mtb / ride dirt

tl;dr

Buy the one that looks nice.

Poor advice imo

Obviously the only way is to buy one of each sub category of bike.
XC bike
Enduro bike
Trail bike
Downhill bike
Downcountry bike
Dirt Jump bike
Have a 27.5 and 29er wheel version of each to be sure.
This way you can ensure you're always in that Goldilocks zone.

What no E bike? Retro purple ano bike? You fail

4X

E bike

In my village we burn these heretics

great shout

infact short travel 4x bike kinda close the one bike you really need.

100mm-ish travel at the rear, maybe upto 130mm fork and its all you'll really need.
I built a bike like this but still end up horsing a long travel bike around :s

The poor old people

I think about half the bikes at FOD are e bikes.

I bought mine because it was a trail bike, but it's now a downcountry bike - what happens when the streams cross?

120ish yeah

A whole new sub category emerges and you're obliged to build a new bike.

Where do you expect to be under biked with 120mm that doesn't leave the ground?
:)

This is basically what I needed to hear, cheers.

Also, buy bike, be dissatisfied with bike, sell, buy, repeat is a well worn path. Why change now?

As long as it comes with lots of marketing to justify it, I'm in

I always suspected an Transition Triple (or similar slope bike) with a dropper added would be an unbelievable real world all rounder for most riding...

Joking aside, build a 130mm travel bike front and rear.

Anything less than 100mm travel at the rear is in xc race territory and by nature feels very firm and doesn't offer up a massive amount of more comfort in comparison to a hardtail.
Going towards 130mm brings a plusher feel without feeling too wallowy but allows you to ride in terrain that a shorter travel bike would struggle in.
It just gives you more options across a broader range. Lock out shocks help you in gentler rides too then full open for anything bumpy.

🤷‍♀️

I only moved from riding rigid mtb about 8 months ago, all this squishy stuff is witchcraft to me.

Yes!
I always liked the 26" Santa Cruz Blur 4x. I wanted a modern version and it was the inspiration for my 5010.

Also dual slalom

No love for freeride ?

all this squishy stuff is witchcraft to me

Get @amey to service it for you

I want a 29er version of my previous gen Transtion Scout. 140F, 125R and the most fun bike I have ever ridden. Short back end and a poppy suspension tune was the nuts.

How could I forget my first true love!

295 can be ordered with a 140 fork, 135ish rear. You're welcome to try mine.

More generally, I think it can be fun to be over-biked when you are learning, then when you know a little bit more about what you are doing it tips the other way and it's quite good fun to be slightly underbiked. A trail bike is a good compromise here because you can, of course, just go faster to make things more challenging.

Pace is (theoretically) bringing out an Enduro bike next year, which I'll probably buy, but would expect to use the least of my hardtail/trail/jump bikes.

I've got 140mm front, 132mm rear, it's enough for me.