In Jan 2010 I bought this and was really pleased with it:

About a month ago I noticed the lacquer was peeling off the frame that didn’t seem consistent with ‘trail damage’.
I returned it to the shop I bought it from, who sent the frame back to Specialized.
2 weekends ago, I went back & picked this up:

Well pleased with it!
It’s the Carbon Pro version of the frame that I don’t think was even available in the UK (it was never on their website anyway).
It also came fitted with the Brain shock, as opposed to the Triad on the original bike.
Riding it feels pretty much the same as the old one, although you can definitely feel the Brain locking the rear end on smooth sections. Main differences are a tapered head tube (forks are still 1 1/8″ though – from the old frame) and the BB has pressed in bearings, rather than HTII.

Looks loads better than the fairly plain silver of the original frame.
Only issue now is that the seatpost & bars look distinctly low-rent, so I can feel some expense coming on!

Thanks Specialized!! Well pleased!!

Nice result 🙂

Looks sweet.

IME +1 for Spesh CS

Nice one – looks lovely. Never hear anything but great things about Specialized CS – one of the reasons I bought a Spesh bike.

Yeah, I’m well pleased with it but as I say it could do with some decent finishing kit. Saddle/seatpost and bars all look a little low-rent now.

I peeled the red rims off the wheels as they didn’t look right (different colour red). I’d been meaning to do that for a while.

One of the reasons I went for a Specialized was because of all the good things I’d heard about their customer service. I half expected a bit of aggro, as it was mainly superficial damage and I was expecting a response along the lines of ‘it’s a mountain bike, the paint will get damaged’.

I don’t think they had any alloy frames left in stock, so this was the only option. I had to pay a £50 upgrade fee (forgot about that), but I reckon it was worth it.