trillot

@wburnes: you could also change that with a wider tire and/or bigger knobs/tackier compound and/or lower tire pressure. But the 32 also have downsides. I mean it's pretty funny, mountain bikers going from 26 to 27.5 to 29, and then bam all the way to 32, meanwhile roadbikes have been running 700c this whole time and no plans on changing; I mean if they aren't thinking of bigger wheels you have to wonder if it's a good idea.

well, you could look at the Pivot Mach4 SL in the test. It was 4.5 lbs heavier than the epc and was $6k less, and timed testing it beat everyone. Then the test would be how much faster the top end Pivot model would have been.

@Dario-DiGiulio: ... or an epic 8 evo on sale?

100% this. The specialized weighs 4.5 lbs less and costs $6k US more, and yet the Pivot beat it both up and down... and then they pick Specialized as the winner for racers? Shouldn't that have an asterix beside it and say - but if you've got an extra $6k to spend - you might consider getting the blingier Pivot option. It is a little unfair not comparing apples to apples, I mean of course the top kid should be better than the version that costs almost half. I would be really curious how much faster the top end Pivot would be with a top end kit and dropping a few pounds, thus leveling the playing field a bit.

you did not just say the "d" word...!

Just desperately trying to make you think your old bike is obsolete. It's all about marginal gains at this point (and by marginal, I mean sometimes barely detectable). Maybe that's why they tried to jump over 30.5 and go straight to 32 (avoid what happened with 27.5), but I strongly suspect that's a jump too far.

@totaltoads: have to disagree. I think the money spent developing wireless could be saved and just keep prices down. As far as deore level stuff being better than XTR from 10 years ago - just no flippin way. I had XTR 20 years ago - that stuff worked awesome and never wore out. Ended up on sram for a while, then a few years ago went to XT (as everyone claims it's almost as good as XTR). That XT did not hold up at all like the XTR does, within 1 year I was replacing most of it. Now I'm back on XTR and for 2 years, it's performed flawlessly, completely reliable and no tweaking or replacing required. So, while the XT may work great for the first couple months, it isn't built the same and doesn't last. Long term, in my opinion it ends up costing more and even to start it isn't as good; and I suspect Deore would likely have the same issues as XT.

(edit - can't seem to find an epic 9 evo)

can't seem to see an epic evo version? Weird, thought evo variants would have been popular. Are they assuming you can just bump up the air shaft assembly afterwards (assuming it's the same in SID as it is in fox) and throw on some meatier tires and a riser bar?

thought Epic 8 evo would be the more versatile xc... Interesting that it appears they aren't making an evo version of the epic 9. Did the evo's not sell well?