Video: Trek Supercaliber vs Cannondale Scalpel vs Canyon Lux vs Specialized Epic - Field Test Round Table

Jul 31, 2020 at 17:17
by Sarah Moore  

PINKBIKE FIELD TEST

Four cross-country race machines were put to the test in Squamish, BC.


Words by Sarah Moore, Photography by Margus Riga



We grabbed our Lycra, visorless helmets, and carbon-soled shoes and took four top of the line cross-country bikes and put them through a series of demanding tests on Squamish's lung-busting trails. All of these race machines were significantly more pleasant to pedal uphill than your average trail bike, and they impressed with their descending abilities - for the most part - despite having not much travel and relatively quick-handling geometry. But let's be honest, it was all about the uphill segment hunting, and these bikes really do make you feel like a superhero on the climbs.

It's hard to believe just how much better these four bikes are than anything we were racing on a decade ago, but we're not comparing them to those dated machines, and despite all of them coming out within a few years of each other, there were some clear standouts. While Mike Levy rode these bikes in the Efficiency Test and up the Impossible Climb, I did the bulk of testing on them. I sat down with Mike Kazimer and Levy at the end of the test period to chat about what I did and didn't like on these four bikes and to choose my favorites out of the category.


4 Cross-Country Race Bikes


Trek Supercaliber 9.9
• Travel: 60mm rear / 100mm fork
• Carbon frame
• Wheel size: 29"
• Head Angle: 69°
• Seat Tube Angle: 74° (effective)
• Reach: 440mm (size ML/18.5)
• Chainstay length: 430mm
• Sizes: S, M, ML (tested), L, XL
• Weight: 21.5 lb / 9.75 kg
• Price: $9,499 USD
• www.trekbikes.com

Canyon Lux CF SLX 9.0 Team
• Travel: 100mm rear / 100mm fork
• Carbon frame
• Wheel size: 29"
• Head Angle: 70-degrees
• Seat Tube Angle: 74.5-degrees (effective)
• Reach: 435mm (size M)
• Chainstay length: 435mm
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL
• Weight: 22.5 lb / 10.2 kg (w/ dropper)
• Price: $6,999 USD
• www.canyon.com

Specialized Epic S-Works
• Travel: 100mm rear / 100mm fork
• Carbon frame
• Wheel size: 29"
• Head Angle: 67.5°
• Seat Tube Angle: 74° (effective)
• Reach: 440mm (size ML/18.5)
• Chainstay length: 430mm
• Sizes: S, M, L, XL
• Weight: 21.5 lb / 9.75 kg
• Price: $11,525 USD
• www.specialized.com

Cannondale Scalpel Hi-MOD Ultimate
• Travel: 100mm rear / 100mm fork
• Carbon frame
• Wheel size: 29" *all sizes*
• Head Angle: 68°
• Seat Tube Angle: 74.5° (effective)
• Reach: 435mm (size M)
• Chainstay length: 436mm
• Sizes: S, M (tested), L, XL
• Weight: 21.97 lb / 9.97 kg (w/o tool)
• Price: $12,000 USD
• www.cannondale.com



Cannondale Scalpel Photo Margus Riga


Sarah's Picks

Despite the polarizing Lefty Ocho on the front of it, Cannondale's Scalpel not only surprised me, but it was also my favorite bike. It still looks odd when I watch myself riding in the video and look at photos of it with its distinct fork, but since it performed superbly throughout the test period, I'm hardly going to let that hold it back from being my top pick. The traction on climbs was exceptional, it felt plusher than its 100mm of travel suggested on the downhill, and it was fastest overall on our timed loop. Not too shabby.

The Scalpel is part of a new generation of cross-country race bikes that are designed for more technical World Cup courses. There's also no rigid, abrasive climbing feel that we've come to associate cross-country bikes, and that means you can stay in the seat and pedal for longer on climbs and across rough traverses without being bounced off-line.

Photo by Trevor Lyden
Sarah Moore
Height: 5'7" / 170cm
Weight: 160 lbs / 72.6 kg
Notes: Content manager, too fast to be so nice
On descents and when the trail gets rough, the Scalpel's 100mm of rear suspension works well, and it was much less exhausting than the 60mm-travel Supercaliber or 100mm Canyon Lux.

The Scalpel proves that a bike doesn't have to feel harsh to be fast. That also means that it would be a great bike for a shorter XCO distance, as well as a long marathon race.

That being said, I would like to spend more time on the Specialized Epic with the most modern geometry of the pack to see if I can get used to the Brain suspension on the descents. I have a feeling it would be easier if I weren't jumping back and forth between three other bikes. Plus, it has rainbow AXS, a power meter, and a gorgeous red paint job. What's not to love?

And if I'm riding a rolling trail with jumps and berms, I'd choose the Trek Supercaliber because I loved the compact fit and it just feels so fast and is so much fun to pump it along on that type of terrain. When we were shooting on the flowy Another Man's Gold trail, I had the biggest smile on my face while aboard the Supercaliber.



The 2020 Pinkbike Field Test was made possible with clothing, protection, and support from Giro. Control tires provided by Schwalbe, and power meters provided by SRM. Filming took place at The Backyard pub in Squamish.



Photos: Margus Riga
Video: Jason Lucas, Cole Nelson, Max Barron

Author Info:
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Member since Mar 30, 2011
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151 Comments
  • 89 5
 There are some short video clips of the grim donut on Yoann Barelli's Instagram. You're all very welcome.
  • 2 0
 Thank you!
  • 3 0
 on PB insta too
  • 3 0
 Looks sick! Dat chain slap tho...
  • 8 0
 Holy sheet that thing actually works...sort of...also, it just occurred to me that Levi has a bike with a longer wheelbase than his car.
  • 45 15
 Men, so disappointed in the conclusions and the time/efficiency tests - no HR stats, no power stats etc.

It's a good test for the general PB audience I guees, but for the target audience of these bikes (xc/marathon racers) - not very useful/interesting.
  • 27 4
 Agreed.. they need to channel their inner XC nerd more and use Dan Robert's engineer skills to up the data presentation. Lots of potential for this type of testing.

Edit: still enjoyed this content a lot, just providing some feedback for next time.
  • 9 49
flag lkubica (Aug 5, 2020 at 7:31) (Below Threshold)
 Target audience of those bikes? Who cares, PB makes content for PB readers, not XC racers.
  • 11 2
 Mountain bikes only exist in the wild and will always be in chaotic environments. If a bike wins within the chaos of it all then we can at least say its a good bike, even with all of the variables. There's a reason the Cannondale is on top and the Canyon is on the bottom.
  • 2 0
 I'm curious what HR data would have added? I only ask because HR's can be vastly different from person to person. Not being snarky, genuinely curious.
  • 3 0
 I believe they are planning a full video and article just on that where they publish most if not all of those things. They're just spacing it out and I'm really enjoying the format, feels like a mini tv series.
  • 27 1
 Im surprised we didn't hear more about the Supercaliber in the roundtable. Seems like a pretty efficient bike with the short travel in-line rear shock.
  • 25 0
 Did they say the word Supercaliber once in the roundtable? I think I missed it if they did...
  • 26 22
 heavier, not more efficient, and less travel than the others. Much more expensive to manufacture. Wheres the win?
  • 9 1
 @hamncheez: It ties with the Specialized as the lightest, and its only more expensive than the Canyon but cheaper than the Specialized and Cannondale. I agree its on the short end of travel but you would think that would help in efficiency test. Especially on the climb.
  • 12 1
 Very surprised by the lack of the Supercaliber mentions too. Watching the videos back I really thought that was the one Sarah enjoyed riding the most. There definitely seemed to be more smiles and more of a buzz. Really responsive, really fun to ride hard, lots of tractions, great technical climbing with the only drawback being it required a bit more attention downhill. It sounded like the best modern XCO bike of the bunch with the Scalpel being better for longer, rougher courses (tech XCM or stage racing?), but the Scalpel being held back by not being a bike Sarah really truly gelled with (high BB?). The round up video definitely didn't seem to match the individual videos, or at least what I took away from them.
  • 6 3
 @dporteous: The Scott Spark is lighter, as are several other frames included in the test. The Specialized would also be lighter if you dumped the brain fade.
  • 6 3
 @hamncheez: Trek 2021 supercaliber is available and is 150 grams lighter (upgraded RS fork and seat post) than the 2020 model. If the tests compared 2021 models across the board, Trek would be the lightest out of the box.
  • 5 1
 @John-bikeguy: Look at frame weights. The weight of components doesn't have anything to do with the design of the new super caliber.
  • 6 2
 Its around 2kg all in which isn't heavy and not really giving away too much to the competition. You would choose the frame for design philosophy but most people seem to see the reduced travel as a reason it should instantly be lighter. It is good to have a different option to the 100/100 bikes IMO
  • 16 0
 Supercaliber is the clear winner because it is the only one made in XXL with a 500+mm reach, and therefore is the only one I could possibly hope to ride.
  • 3 0
 Yeah, it's the most interesting one to me, just because it's different and occupies a weird middle ground between typical full suspension and hardtail race bikes. I also think they should have all been tested with droppers.
  • 6 0
 @BeardlessMarinRider: Design philosophy is not a quality of the frame. It is a tool to reach a performance target. And as far as I can see, the design philosophy of the Supercaliber only increases marketing performance (very successfully, judging by the comments).
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a bad bike, but all it does can just as easily be achieved by a conventional design.
  • 1 0
 @hamncheez: I agree that the supercaliber does not have the lowest frame weight but this PB review was a comparison on the whole bike, in the out-of-the box condition. Comparing the whole bike makes a lot of sense when we are talking about top of the line bikes.
  • 4 0
 @Ttimer: You can interpret when I said "design philosophy" any way you want... but what I meant was shorter travel (arguably soft tail but kinda not) XC race bike with the cleaner looks of a hardtail. It is arguably similar looking to something like the Lux, but reducing the travel and trying to maintain the traction of a *proper* full sus is a nice middle ground that will probably appeal to a lot of people and there isn't much that is similar on the market at the moment. Sure you can make a 60mm travel frame a multitude of ways and that isn't really important. What is interesting is the middle ground it fills and there aren't many off the shelf frames like that nowadays.
  • 2 0
 @PNWTommy: legit
  • 1 0
 @BeardlessMarinRider: supercaliber to short compact hinders descent control, its rapid uphill
  • 26 0
 It just occurred to me that the Specialized Brain is a steampunk Live Valve
  • 3 0
 Literally lol'd Would have loved to see a live valve bike in the field test
  • 16 1
 Can bike reviewers please stop asking for XC bikes to become trail bikes? Not every bike needs to be "longer", "slacker", or "more modern". Please just stop with the buzzwords and review the bikes for what they're meant to be. Most XC races are lost in the start sprint and won on the climbs, places where trail geometry kinda sucks.
  • 4 0
 Exactly. Not singling out Pinkbike, but bike reviews are useless when they go back to the same cliches of "playful" bikes that "descend as well as they climb." All those "playful" "poppy" bikes work totally different if you slow down the rebound.

And what's the point of downhill geometry on a bike with such little suspension travel? You're either gonna break the bike, or rattle your teeth out and wish you had a bigger bike.
  • 16 0
 I would love to see by PB a kids bike field test grom bikes are getting harder to choose. PB could use kids to ride them and give feed back on all the bike brands. What do you think PB ?
  • 17 0
 Kid's bike Field Test!
  • 3 0
 Does this sound like something that PB would consider doing. Maybe have choices between hard tail and when to make the jump to full suspension for your lil grom @mikelevy:
  • 15 0
 Great idea, but they should just force Levy to ride all of them.
  • 4 0
 @mikelevy: Make it happen,Mike!
My 10 month old kid will be learning english on Pinkbike (yeah,not on the comment section).
  • 4 0
 @mikelevy: Kids Bike Field Test featuring Mike Levy on the Huck to Flats.
  • 1 0
 Separate categories for striders and pedal bikes!
  • 2 0
 @mtmc99: Down the same hill Atherton "was humbled". The rock slab with a tight left at the bottom.
  • 14 0
 Cannondale for the win....not something that I recall ever happening on PB... I've been a fanboy for years despite the lefty short service intervals, pour availability of spare parts ( still waiting for the hub parts ordered in mai) and Dorel/Cdales lackluster customer service ( please don't explain to the bike shop why the spare part you show as stock hasn't been shipped)... So think of it as the really hot looking person with the personality of a toad. A great ride and looks good on the instagram posts but you dont want them to leave a toothbrush in your bathroom.
  • 10 0
 @sarahmoore now that you've ridden all these, would you use one of them as your daily trail bike assuming no park riding? or would you be still be underbiked and prefer a bigger bike for the stuff you normally ride?

also, inb4 russianscalpelguy
  • 15 0
 For where I live and the trails I ride most of the time, a full on race bike is a fun second bike but I like something with a bit more travel for my daily rides.
  • 2 0
 @sarahmoore: SE1 has a bit more travel. When's that review coming out?
  • 9 0
 Oh, and the Scapel really won by a mile for anyone that doesn't mind operating a lockout.

And didn't Sarah NOT use the lockout on the Scapel whereas the Epic had the advantage of the Brain (even if turned down)?

Sounds like a shellacking because use of the lockout for instance on the gravel climb would have had the Scapel sweeping the podium.
  • 17 2
 Brain turned down (off, rides bad) on the Epic is same as not using the lockout on the Scapel. They should have utilized all the resources (lockouts, brain, etc) given they’re major factors in the performance of these bikes... Epic would have been faster with Brain working, as well as the Scapel being faster utilizing lockout... kinda a dumb test to not use race features of race bikes..
  • 5 2
 @Rider-TJones: +1 I think each bike should have used all their tech to the max for a fair comparison

I also don't agree that much on changing the tires, as the brand tires are really suited for the bikes and especially the rims their on.

I'd even say that everyone of these should be ridden with a dropper - especially that Sarah is a Trail rider at heart Smile
  • 2 0
 @Rider-TJones: brain never off just soft setting vs lockout off is off
  • 9 0
 it sounds like for the during the efficiency test, @mikelevy tried to hold watts constant and compare times.

i think next time it might be better (i.e., easier and more repeatable) to hold speed constant and then compare the power output required.
  • 1 0
 Yeah, the usual is you choose a given speed and then compare watts and HR. You can then triage this in a few different points: slow, medium, fast - different bikes will handle different speeds well
  • 6 0
 @pycior: Really these are all variations on a theme which result from rearranging a simple formula. Measuring time at fixed watts is as valid as measuring watts at fixed speed. On a relatively smooth and consistent grade, it's no more difficult for a capable rider to hold watts close to a target value as it is to maintain speed close to a target value, especially if the display watts are configured to a suitable smoothing setting.
  • 15 7
 Gotta say, I’m a little disappointed the Epic didn’t win. Not because I care one way or another, but because it would have driven all those with irrational Specialized Derangement Syndrome around here apoplectic. “BUt ThEy SuE!”

Still, there’s a certain amount of satisfaction I get from the Cannondale with the Lefty winning. That’s certain to trigger some folks. “BuT PRopRietARy sHOcK!!”
  • 8 0
 Lux is no longer what it used to be... Wich makes Pauline Ferrand Prevot's performances even more remarkable !
  • 5 0
 And MVDP's performances. But I guess he would crush the others on a monocycle
  • 3 0
 @RoadRunner13: If I recall correctly he did best in the more non technical rounds, which seems like what the Lux was best suited for.
  • 5 0
 Really hoping we get comparison data of the DC bikes to the XC race bikes using a constant (i.e. Sarah on the timed loop). I'll be buying one of these soon for my daughter to race and am curious if she can be front of the pack competitive on a trail/ DC bike.
  • 8 0
 I have a tough time believing the bike will be making THAT much of a difference. Probably way better off getting the bike she wants over the bike someone else says is faster.
  • 3 0
 Yes! I am just as (or more) interested in the performance differences between the genres as I am to the differences within the genres.
  • 9 1
 Summary: spendy bikes are good. Let's get to the Spur!
  • 7 3
 Bet the spur comes last...they know why we’re all here lol
  • 4 0
 My own Spur arrives this weekend, so it would have been cool to see the data for pure hype before celebrating my NBD. However, taking risks is kinda the norm for me, so I'm super stoked either way. #GiddyUp!
  • 2 0
 @opetruzel: That's you...everyone else gets theirs the same time the PB review is posted! Smile
  • 2 0
 @opetruzel: how’d you get one so fast?! Mine’s pre-ordered but they said It’d be end of August or early September
  • 3 0
 @BamaBiscuits: In my case, I called nearly every reseller in the Western U.S. and finally found my preferred size/color/build in stock somewhere. At that point, I simply paid over the phone and made arrangements for shipping. As of last week, the same shop still had several build combos in stock, so it may be possible to find one right now if you put in a little extra effort. Smile

Anyone interested: Send me a pm and I'll drop you the name of the shop.
  • 5 1
 Great test so far. Now have a think about a left-field test with more obscure brands who exist on the pro-XC circuit but don't monopolise publicity and global reach like those featured so far. So 1) Kross Earth (Cink and Neff's old bike) 2) Torpado (Kerschbaumer) 3) Bianchi Methanol (Tempier) 4) BH Lynx (Sarou) 5) Orbea Oiz (Koretzky) 6) BMC Fourstroke (Carod). I know there is a certain US brand missing, but do they need any further help?!
  • 1 0
 sarrou - bmc fourstroke
  • 3 0
 torpado is it china carbon from aliexpress
  • 4 0
 Really enjoyed the comparison and this review - but I don't have $10k for another bike. What I do have now is a solution for how to hold up a tv / laptop in front of the trainer without putting any holes in the wall!!
  • 5 0
 why wasn't the spark included in this? based on results and what I see around it seems like one of the fastest and most popular xc bikes out there
  • 6 1
 Why wasn't [insert whatever bike here} included? We wanted a proven winner as a baseline, and it came down to the Spark and the Canyon. Only room for one.
  • 5 0
 @mikelevy: So the bike that both World Champions rode/ride isn't worthy of putting into the discussion? How does that get factored?
  • 4 0
 @Ross0318: Canyon Lux is the bike that Pauline Ferrand Prevot, 2019 women's World Champion, won on at Mont-Sainte-Anne!
  • 2 2
 @sarahmoore: I meant the Overall Champions from 2019, sorry.
  • 2 1
 @sarahmoore: most XC minded riders buying would look towards the spark then a lux
  • 4 0
 Reviews are great, but these days it might come down to "in stock at the warehouse and available for purchase." Thankfully, lack of stock recently prevented me from being totally irresponsible.
  • 2 0
 This is so true! Most of these bikes are next to impossible to get in a reasonable time frame. Especially if you are wanting a particular color or spec. Corona ruins everything.
  • 3 0
 I have to admit that I'm loving this format of review and comparison between bikes , maybe need some improvements here and there but the overall review exercise is awsame, well done guys !!!
  • 3 0
 I love it too. Would've been nice to have @mikelevy ride them as well. At the very least, it would've made @sarahmoore seem even more rational. Wink
  • 5 0
 There was no table, nothing round and all 3 sat in a line. What a clickbait title...
  • 4 0
 Great overview Sarah, thanks for all the time and effort you put into this.
  • 1 0
 Thanks for doing this PB, good stuff. Devil's advocate position on the Canyon Lux: it's the better bike on terrain ridden by the vast majority of people in the world that consider themselves XC riders. Many (most?) XC style riders on the planet are on "efficiency" terrain much more so than Squamish style singletrack or a World Cup XC course.
  • 1 0
 How do you know the Lux is the best for majority of people in the world? Have you been racing in Norway?
  • 2 1
 Yikes! The $9,500 Supercaliber actually seems like a bargain compared to the $11,500 Epic and $12,000 Scalpel. Even though the Scalpel won I think I’d be happier with the Lux and an extra $5,000 in my pocket.
  • 7 2
 Wheres the new Slash
  • 5 0
 Bring on the DC!
  • 4 1
 Decisions, decisions...I'm torn between Scalpel and Epic. BTW, my current ride is Cannondale F29 Carbon 3 Wink
  • 2 1
 the best choice is the scalpel SE and the epic evo, they are both great
  • 2 0
 @ilyamaksimov: You might be right. Brainless Epic is more versatile as well. Will have to test them all before I pull the trigger.
  • 1 0
 @mikelevy @sarahmoore Could you toss the time and efficiency data for each of these bikes into a csv and make it available for download? Or is that already available and I just missed it?
  • 1 0
 How would the Scott Spark have fared in comparission to these bikes? Geometry wise its pretty near to the Scalpel and its a proven packeg.
  • 4 0
 Comparing a size Medium Spark to a Scalpel, the Spark has a .5° steeper HTA, .7° slacker STA, 10.5mm lower BB, 5.5mm shorter reach, and an overall ~23mm shorter wheelbase. All small changes, but they do add up. The Scalpel would likely feel a little more stable in a straight line. But compared to the Lux, the Spark would likely feel more modern. We might have complained about TwinLoc, but it makes more sense in this application. The frame is also crazy light—lighter than the Scalpel IIRC. That lower BB would have potentially helped with cornering performance compared to the Scalpel.
  • 3 0
 Where's the table though? (we'll even forgive the use of a non-round one)
  • 2 0
 Wouldn't the perfect downcountry attire be baggy lycra? Just buy it 5 sizes up from normal...
  • 1 0
 I'm actually just a little surprised about the weight of the Cannondale, considering there's not a bit of alloy on it and it has a lefty fork....
  • 3 1
 Roundtable is less round in the age of the Rona..
#commentgold
  • 1 0
 Great test,could have done more ,could have done less,but you did it just right.
  • 1 0
 I ordered my Scalpel SE1 in June for a November delivery. Looking forward to the review next week.
  • 2 0
 I thought there were going to be more bikes in the test?
  • 11 2
 Downcountry videos are up next!
  • 1 0
 Downcountry coming up next
  • 3 0
 *trail bikes
  • 8 1
 Those videos will be released in 2022.
  • 3 1
 Yup, five more on the way!
  • 3 0
 Agree, I would have loved to see Orbea Oiz in this, especially since they have an XC and a DC version, just like Specialized and Cannondale and have presence on race circuit.
  • 1 0
 @mikelevy: by on the way you mean like sometime this month, or this year?
  • 1 0
 @Bikerburt: Definitely before the Grim Donut review is published. I have a feeling it's either rubbish, or so good it can't be made know to the general public yet.
  • 4 0
 @Bikerburt @Jacquers Next week, and GD2 will come not long after Smile
  • 5 7
 And here we are at the end of round 1 and still no mention of serviceability and keeping these race “weapons” on the track. I’m guessing the Scapel wouldn’t have won if Sarah knew how long it takes to get a Lefty fixed in Canada.
  • 2 1
 But under normal conditions you only need to service forks 1x a year, are you really saying there isnt a month in the winter that you wouldnt be okay not having your bike handy?
  • 5 0
 My Ocho was impressive, to be fair. But the service will often be different for each country, which makes it hard to comment on if there wasn't a reliability issue during the review. My solution: Learn to do it all yourself Smile
  • 5 1
 @mikelevy: I too am a fan of the learn to do it all approach, but you will have a hard time finding someone who has the proprietary tools or parts on hand to access the dampers on a lot of lefty products. Going outside of the USA makes that a lot worse.

Even amongst the Cannondale shops, you have a large number of them who would much rather ship it out due to the cost of the tools and limited availability of them (used to not be sold to dealers).

Just for fun, I went through the owners manual and they don’t even call out part numbers for a seal service kit or the needle bearings, two of the most crucial things that you would need to be able to do to keep the fork working. I think that should be a solid indication as to how difficult it is to get this fork serviced. I’m sure the fork works better than any previous lefty, I know the guy who designed it very well and hopefully durability is better now that Boobar is there. Between Brain, Lefty, ISO-Strut and Canyon’s lack of warranty supply there is no real winner here so I guess my point is moot.

These bikes are good for one season’s employee purchase and if it breaks before that then phone up the company and complain until you get your free replacement whatever. If you’re a second buyer of a $12k bike then too bad you’re f’d and good luck. At least it will get you props for using it as a triangle at the next crankworks.
  • 1 1
 @Endura-Rider: see my below point. When the brand doesn’t state the part numbers for a device kit you had better hope nothing goes wrong.
  • 1 0
 @usedbikestuff: I don't know anything about the Lefty Ocho, but I used to have a 140mm Lefty and it only required one $20 proprietary tool called a "castle tool" to unscrew part of it and that's all you needed to service it yourself. Damper and spring service was same as any other fork.
  • 1 0
 @dthomp325: The castle tool is required to get you into the fork.

Even if you manage to get into the fork, They don’t sell the needle bearings so you’ll need to send the fork back to have Cannondale replace those should you need to.

I’m not aware of damper service parts so unless they’ve changed their tune since the Supermax 2.0 came out it’s a complete damper swap to the tune of 300 bucks
  • 2 0
 Loving these Comparisons!
  • 3 2
 $7000 bike lost to the $12000 bike.

$5000 can sure buy a decent second bike.
  • 15 1
 There's a $6000 version of the Scapel that still comes with carbon wheels and full XT which would probably be a better buy for the vast majority of people and only very marginally slower than the $12000 version
  • 1 0
 @bentopi: But 12K$ for a bike????
  • 1 0
 @bentopi: True. But, how would the $6k Scalpel stack against the $7k Lux?
  • 8 6
 yes Sarah, scalpel is better Wink
  • 8 1
 You again haha Smile
  • 3 4
 @mikelevy: Wink
  • 5 0
 @ilyamaksimov: You were right all along!
  • 1 0
 Does anyone know if Levy wore lycra for this test? They haven't addressed that in the videos at all...
  • 1 0
 If an XC ike had a 64 deg HA, would that bike win? Where do you draw the line?
  • 3 0
 It would win the hearts of the Holy New Geometry servants,but no races.
  • 1 0
 So happy to have some @mikekazmir!
  • 1 0
 When will the video of the Levy/Kazimer Tandem ride be hitting?
  • 5 1
 Gotta go to the deep web to find that tbh
  • 4 7
 I understand the marketing, and work load but as admitted - Video is done. While I don't need instant gratification taking 3-4 weeks to release a small group set of comparison seems very slow. If I went and picked up an old school magazine from whoever, motortrend or a bike magazine they would have a write up of 10 vehicles not one per week. Save the milking for the dairy farms.
  • 12 3
 What you call "milking" we call working our asses off. Do you know what we're working on at the same time? Do you know all the moving pieces? Do you know that many bikes were delayed in getting to us because of Covid? Do you know anything about this? Maybe it takes more time than you assume because, just maybe, other video projects are going on in parallel? Do you know that we ride the bikes 10x as much as other reviewers and spend much more time on the finished product because we want it to be better? Do you know that we lost tons of time because of the weather, injuries, technical issues, and the fact that everyone is working on many other things? You don't, but you do know how to whine very well.

I love the interaction with readers that the internet can allow, but it's uninformed comments like yours that make magazines seem more appealing.
  • 4 1
 I don't like internet warrior battles, but I also don't like wingers (I realize the following may therefore be hypocritical).

In addition to Levy's response:

1) Pinkbike is free. You didn't pay for it. Sure it was funded by advertising, but people need to eat. And eating requires a successful content management strategy. This is something Pinkbike appears to have nailed.
2) Judging from the comments of various journalists over the years (as well as Levy's car), I don't think anybody at Pinkbike makes a lot of money. Which begs the question....why are they doing it? Because they love bikes and they love telling stories about bikes for your enjoyment. Comments like yours kill the love JE17j. Don't kill the love JE17j.
3) The magazine business model (at least for mtbing) seems to be in decline. Pinkbike is more comprehensive and popular than any other mtb content producer I know of. Their business model appears to be working. And because it is, you get content. Win, win.
4) The motor industry is not analogous to the mtb industry. There is a much bigger pie to share around.
5) 3-4 weeks seems reasonable given the amount of work they put in. Sounds like it would have been a massive amount of work only to reap a couple of days as "headline content".
6) Levy seems like a nice guy. Be more like Levy.
  • 3 0
 @mikelevy: don't bother with the haters. you guys are doing great work.

Unrelated: when are we going to see the full footage of that teaser clip from the video intro of you bombing down that roots section barely holding on??? I laugh every time I see that.
  • 1 0
 @tedlove: Monday! I think haha
  • 2 1
 but the question we're all asking is "what about the scott spark?"
  • 4 0
 Never heard of it.
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