Serious mountain bike riders with a few extra bucks often prefer dual suspension mountain bikes. Why? Dual suspension can give you a better ride over difficult mountain bike surfaces, or even make it possible to ride at all while others have to get off and walk their less-capable bikes.

Who should buy this bike? Most dual suspension customers are adrenaline junkies and hard-riding jocks, but the bike also is worth a look-see by milder riders who want control and comfort. If you're a bird watcher who goes deep into the woods, this might be your ideal ride.

Most experts will urge you to avoid dual suspension on a tight budget, since too many moving parts for too little money compels too much cost cutting. However, at $1550, the Dakar XLT is on the far side of that dividing line. It costs enough to allow it to be made well and perform well, and yet it costs half of what many other popular dual suspension bike cost. That's a key reason why it's a Bicycling Magazine Editor's Choice.

As you'll find in other high-quality dual suspension bikes, the Dakar XLT has some eye-popping capabilities. Whereas more modestly price bikes have suspension with two or three inches of travel, the Dakar XLT has five, with the highly-regarded Fox shock system front and rear. Where the lesser bikes have brake cables, the Dakar XLT has hydraulic lines, made by braking expert Hayes, no less.

All that suspension travel is a wonderful tool in the hands of an expert rider. A rider new to suspension will only use the first inch or two of travel, but the expert will use most of it to go faster over bigger bumps, and, even more importantly, to stay in control, with both wheels firmly planted on the ground, even as the ground moves up and down constantly.

Similarly, the hydraulic disc brakes open up entire new fields of control. Most of us have spent our lives with cable-operated brakes, and we don't even realize that friction inherent in brake cables makes for an imprecise connection between the brake levers and the brakes. Hop on a bike with hydraulic brakes, though, and you notice the difference: the brakes' response to your control inputs is so much more precise and rapid that you realize you've been missing something worthwhile all along. The greater responsiveness of hydraulic brakes is put to its best advantage on tandems, because of the greater weight, and on mountain bikes, because of the steeper terrain and need for abrupt control inputs on rugged trails. So these brakes are in a good place.

In this price range, you also get Shimano M505 pedals as standard equipment. They're excellent for the SPD standard pedal binding system. In the unlikely event that you would want to ride this bike with ordinary shoes, you can buy adapters that snap into the bindings and provide a shoe platform.

If you're wondering why such a dual-suspension thoroughbred could be at the bottom of the dual suspension price scale, it's because the components are chosen with an eye towards sort-of frugality. The SRAM derailleurs, good as they are, cost less than the Shimano derailleurs that dominate top-spec bikes. There are ways to spend even more on the brakes, the hubs, the rims and even the seat post.