I popped into TBE this evening on the way home from work to enquire about a new sub $2000 full suspension XC bike for a 5'3" girl friend of mine. She currently rides a heavy 5yr old $500 giant but has been riding more seriously recently & wants a 26" FS bike in XS/14", preferably WSD & she feels that any 29er is just too much bike (not proven yet).

The ONLY 26" wheeled mid dual suspension XC bike in stock was an Anthem 3 in medium.
In 29" there was a choice of about 8 different models available from Trek, Giant & Scott in most sizes.

Sign of the times eh?

I'm not looking to buy, but since I'm fixing my Spesh Stumpjumper FSR 100 up currently I idly searched around and I didn't find a single XT level 26" bike, or race light frame, from any of the big brands.

They all appear to be fully pushing 29ers, even though they may prove to be a fad and/or get superseded by 650b.

I'm only about 170cm tall so I can't imagine a 29er working for me, especially as I like to carve through singletrack best.

Well building and riding my SS over the last year was fun but now I'm wanting some gears back on the bike and thinking a rear cassette is the way to go. The old bike once ran a 9 speed cassette. While I do still have the old cassette I want to put some new parts on the bike and change the gear ratio around. Would my old hub be compatible with a 10 speed cassette? or should I stick with a 9 speed?

More help . . . . .

I wanted to replace my 'banshee' Avid Elixir 9's with some Shimano XT's but can anyone tell me the difference between [apart from the big difference in price . . . . . . ] and which do you prefer . . . . . . .

Shimano XT M785 Disc Brake

and

Shimano XT Disc Brakes M765

and

Shimano XT M775 Disc Brake

or

Shimano XT M775 Dual Control Disc Brake

Cheers,

A