How do you like the SB130? I am looking at the ARC but can't decide if I should keep my dually for the mountains and have a hardtail for where I live or just have one all around bike that I ride everywhere. I have a Transition Smuggler now that has been really good for both places but I do like the idea of two bikes.
I think the hard thing about MTB is the setups are as insane and can drive OCD and idiosyncrasies the way skateboards can. I swear shock clearance and wheel base are brothers from a different mother. It's all so dependent on the kind of riding you want to do.
I like to go fast down hills, but I am not a DH rider and I am not interested in drops etc. I am fairly cautious, as I am 44 with kids at home and I wanna go to work the next day in one piece (not to mention surf/snow/skate) I only went to the bike park once this summer. At heart, I am an XC style rider. I want to throttle myself on climbs, tech single track, and grindy double track. The SB130 made a lot of sense to me based where I live - there are a TON of trails here that have a combination of both, great climbing and fantastic trail/DH stuff in California, but we dont have that colorado or east coast style XC riding and for a lot of our terrain, a gravel bike would be stupid/suicide. I am not a fan of underbiking. The shop talked me out of the SB110 (a year ago that was the other option, the 115 hadnt dropped yet) and I am so glad they did.
So the SB130 brings a really good balance. It climbs great, descends and handles SUPER good with this modern geo. It's just so so so fun. I personally would not get a hard tail again. While I love XC, I dont plan to race, and I have not found a situation climbing on the SB130 where I was kicking myself for loss of climbing efficiency. Im gonna go knock out an hour this morning on an XC course that is about 11 miles and 1,000 feet of climbing on a rocky fire road and this thing will man handle it and make it a joy.