all i know is i am taking my front deraieur off because it always slips.

Rear suspension is above my budget(that giant xtc was 1400$ in the picture) and I can live without it. What I notice when cycling on my bike for a few run's and then on my dad's is that it soaks up allot of energy in the rear suspension. That's what bother's me allot on terrain you don't need rear suspension. 9 out of 10 times it's useless here in Holland.

I'd wait for upgrading to a specialized. They are really nice, but costy. Unless you got money to blow, stick with what work's for you.

Biking? Love it...been riding on and off road since around 1985...raced on road a couple years...have done a few mountain bike races...(did a couple last year, but got smoked, finished towards the back of the pack..), but I’m completely out of bike racing shape these days. Finally got a bike with front suspension last year, a 2003 cannondale F3000 left-over (I had been riding an old cannondale F700 that I built up when I was working in bike shops in a former life, had no suspension, had been riding that since about 94) I loved having suspension so much I got full suspension bike this year (a cannondale Prophet 2000) ..there are tons of other great brands of bikes, but I’ve always loved the cannondale and great luck with how they hold up.
But around here (northern New Jersey), full suspension (for me) is a huge plus...
Tons of technical, rocky, root infested trails, which, I love, but are so much easier with full suspension. It’s amazing how much how much stuff I can ride over now that I have a full suspension bike...climbing is so much easier for me with full suspension, not to mention how much faster you can get down the hills, almost too fast for this old man, LOL, The rear wheel really sticks to the ground. It’s funny, I’m an R/C newbie, but the short time I’ve been fooling around with my trucks suspension, made me understand my bikes’ suspension much better. Some places I ride, I just take the front suspension bike, other place it’s full suspension, just depends. Right now all this stable platform suspension technology on the higher end bikes helps to take out the pedal bob problem, and the full suspension bikes have gotten much lighter weight, these were always my big complains with suspension bikes. For anyone who is interested, at least around here, the ski area’s rent bikes in the summer if your considering if a full suspension bike is for you, and…they typically sell them at the end of each season, you can get some really good deals that way, if you don’t mind a used bike..just have to be careful buying used, like anything else. Sorry to ramble on,
This is my “other” hobby!!