Need advice on dual suspension purchase

[roodie]

I'm looking at purchasing a dual suspension 29er. I'm 42 and coming off a Scott Aspect 620 26" hardtail. I currently do 30km of gravel roads every second day and I would like to graduallly incease that to 60km.

 

My limited understanding is that the general rule is that an XC bike has 100m or less suspension travel and a trail bike has 120mm or more? I'm looking at a comfortable bike to do the kms, thus I'm not sure how much suspension travel I would need, I'm 177cm and 82kg.

 

I mostly ride on flat gravel with minor corrugations but I would also like to compete in MTB events for fun. My budget for a secondhand bike is R20k. Would love some advice on what to buy.

buy a gravel bike 

[RFC311]

I'm ~120 odd kg, there or there abouts. I ride a HT and a dually. My HT has regular fits on the rear freehub body. I'm on the 3rd iteration at the moment after around 6700km. My dually is still on numero uno after ~7000km. I have also replaced so many spokes on the HT I've stopped counting. My dually, maybe 2.

 

Point of the story, a proper dually can carry a big boy. What I looked for was wider rims. 29mm inner width minimum. Alu frame made more sense to me, as I play hard with my toys. I ride a Spez Camber and it takes some big hits being thrown around rock gardens, gap jumps, tables and drops. I have taken the odd DH line, sans the big jumps (want ek is poep-skuit-bang), and it has held up so far.

 

You'll be beyond fine if all you ever ride is gravel. But if that were actually the case, why not rather get a proper gravel traveller?

 

[edit] - just saw the trail bit in your comment. A dually around 120mm will be good. But wide rims will count in your favour.

Awesome thanks. On my HT, I have an upgraded wheelset which has made a huge difference. So once I find the right dually I will definitely firstly look at the wheelset.