Originally Posted by
qclabrat
My friend just moved to the Tampa area and was looking at bikes as he felt the Salsa Horsethief he had was too much travel for down there and want to keep the Salsa for riding up here in NJ. He mulled over hardtails for some time, but ended up with a Santa Cruz Blur. Great bike and the redesign is incredible. All the new Santa Cruzs seem to give you the feeling for more travel than it has. I just bought a Pivot 429SL after doing a few demos and now second guessing whether the Blur would have been a better choice. I agree with you on the 120-140mm being the sweat spot for most riders wanting to try a FS bike. My 135 travel bike would be my favorite if I didn't enjoy hardtails so much. I don't ride very fast so I can get away with nothing in the rear. Great intell btw.
Great trails in the Tampa area. They have a few more "hills" than we do down south. I did demo a Blur (along with Tallboy 3, Hightower LT, and 5010) a couple of months ago at two different Parks (Markham Park and Quiet Waters Park) when Santa Cruz was down here. I really did like it - of course all the demo bikes are CC frames and XX1 (highest stock level) spec - pushing $8k. Like you say, the suspension acts quite a bit more than it measures and the super light weight was fun and it felt really fast.
Not to hijack the thread though...
For Northern CA trails, I'd definitely get the Giant. Both colors are pretty great although the Green is kind of polarizing... Some love it and some hate it. I'd probably get the green myself.
On the other hand, for Marin county trails, the Marin bike would be appropriate ;-).