The urge is strong to buy one of the new 2018 spectrals.
The 8.0 CF £2700 comes with a Pike RC and deluxe shock. Would rather a pike RCT3 and a better rear shock, not a fan of rock shox rear shox. Seems to be a lot of problems with them leaking etc. Would at least upgrade the damper on the RC if possible and not to expensive.

The next model up 9.0 CF £3200 comes with fox 34 performance elite forks and shox (fit4 damper)

How does the fox compare to the rock shox, where would your money go?

Groupset wise 8 gets eagle GX (10-50) and 9 gets XT (11-46)

Assuming the GX would be better with the extra range, but replacement cassettes won’t be cheap. (I have XT 1×11 on two of my bikes)

The urge is strong

haha

Excellent “urge” so!
😉
GX 11-50 from Sunrace … around £100 now?

Any comments on the fox performance elite?
Last fox fork I had i hated it, rear shox was brilliant.

Trail bike extreme…

Don’t have such high end bikes. But this Spectral 2018 looks fantastic.
If I had the money I would go for the 9.0.

Partly due to the drive train.

But no matter what – these bikes look sooooo good!
Hopefully they deliver quick that you have your bike in spring.
8)

M stealth 9 CF is in stock.. But not convinced the forks and rear shock are keepers.

Goldigger – Member
Any comments on the fox performance elite?
Last fox fork I had i hated it, rear shox was brilliant.

The performance elite 34/36 are identical to the factory version apart from the kashima uppers, they have black uppers instead. So equivalent to a top level pike.

guess you follow the 1×12 discussion as well.

Many, many love the Eagle 1×12. Many love the drive train but complain that they need to tweak it way too much (compared with 1×11 or others). And quite a few reporting catastrophic failures.

Difficult to judge.
But based on that I would decide between “8” and “9” version of the 2018 Spectral.

The elite fork is fantastic. Identical to factory fork but not kashmina, which makes no differance anyhow. That 9.0 is a great purchase