Do I really need a new mountain bike - Part 2

After a wonderful weekend with the Ibis Mojo SLR I wanted to try a modern 29er so I rented a Santa Cruz Tallboy from Passion. It was set up a little different than the SLR; it has a Fox Talas fork instead of the Fox Float on SLR. I've always preferred the feel of the float over the travel-adjust feature of the Talas, since I never seem to make the travel adjustment during rides. It also lacked the Ibis's dropper post.

The Tallboy is a little more flexible than the Ibis, which may be due to the larger 29er wheels. It's still much stiffer than my Tracer, just not as stiff as the Ibis. It also seems to have a lower bittom bracket -- I hit the ground with the pedals a couple of times - something I've never noticed before.

My canyon lap as a little slower on the Tallboy, but that is due to a hard the day before rather than the bike. I have to admit I missed the dropper post a bit on some of the more technical sections. At the end of one of those sections, V noted that the trail would have been ridable on cross bike -- it would have been miserable -- but it was ridable none the less.

One thing I noticed is that after a couple of years riding cross bikes on hard terrain, I have learned to select and ride my line with "skinny-tire-preservation" in mind. So when I climbed on bikes that can just go straight down the hill with absolutely no concern for tires and pinch-flats, I still used the conservative line. My riding partners pointed this out at every opportunity. Gotta work on that.

So, two weeks with two awesome mountain bikes. What have I learned? Both bikes did everything I asked of them with ease. Both climb beautifully with no pedal bob and limitless traction. The rear suspension geometry allows them to climb without the front end lifting -- a good thing considering their 24/36 low gear (I ride 30/36 and 34/36 on my cross bikes. Descending is more like riding a 125cc motocross motorcycle then a bicycle.

Do I need a new mountain bike? I don't know yet. I still need to rent a Niner Jet9 RDO for the final comparison before making a final decision.