Re: any mountain bikers out there
white is SO 4 years ago
"Murdered" (all black/mostly flat black) is in.
Rattle can them white hubs and rims!
References above to "fancy" - the two critical components to a good mountain bike are the frame and the wheelset. After that comes the fork. After that, quality aluminum bar, stem, seatpost - most of your makers these days are mass producing these elements across their mid and top line bikes, so you get the same parts under a grand as you do over.
The bicycle industry does not want you to know this, but the vast majority of riders are slower poorer riders with rear suspension, and a carbon frame is a poor value. Hydroformed aluminum these days is awesome, even on the sub-$1100 bikes.
In the fork area, Sram released an OEM only "real" fork this year that has made its way on to several bikes in the $1400 range. The Specialized Carve comes to mind as one of them.
If you are at all serious about the sport, a set of Stan's wheels with tubeless Maxxis tires will make a night and day difference on now the bike performs. Throw these on the Carve, sell your stockers on CL, and you are still in the sub-$2K range. Match the rim to your weight and the tire to your terrain. Love the Stan's/Maxxis system.
The Sram 2x10 drivetrain is awesome, though this is another area where the market has driven things that are beyond what the rider needs. I love 2x10, and living in the mountains, I use almost all the gears, but in reality a 1x9 or 1x10 is all one really needs. The second front gear and shifter are superfluous and add weight. We got to 3 speeds on the front of MTBs by in the early years adapting touring bike parts to the mountain bike, plus starting at 6 speeds on the rear. With 9 and 10 speed rear cogsets these days, only a single gear is needed on the front to achieve a very usable gearing spread.
No doubt there are variants of the sport where rear suspension makes sense, but cross country type trail riding is not one of them.
BTW all comments above relate to 29ers except the last sentence, where with big tires the 26ers have great dynamics and are very well developed platforms. The extra volume of the 29er tire coupled with the longer wheelbase and lower bottom bracket really do change the way the rear encounters trail obstacles, obviating the "need" for rear suspension on a cross country bike.