See, this is exactly what I mean about decoupling the race from what bike you want to buy. Bc the super caliber is definitely the best FS for race like this.

But it’s barely an FS at all. Really more of a “soft tail” so kind of a blast from the past in that respect. Wouldn’t be my first choice if I wanted a fun bike to shred on as well as occasionally race on. I would love to have one but it’d replace the hardtail in my quiver, not the FS.

I have a Santa Cruz Blur and it is an awesome bike. You could run the stock Aspens for BWR and then ditch them for something with a bit more bite afterward.

The lockout on the Blur works well and you can get even faster tires, but riding any modern-geometry mountain bike for long distances on the road kinda sucks, to be honest. As others have said, if this is just an excuse to buy a mountain bike, buy whatever mountain bike you will want for every other ride you will take after BWR.

Two years ago while racing the Butte 100 (a quite serious MTB race with plenty of technical pieces such as the 8 miles of hell) I traded places for a while with a guy who put a flat bar on a Crux and was quite satisfied as a light long distance rig. Not really something I would go for as a have a pretty deep stable of horses for courses but it is another option.

Re: the Epic. If you have a look around the big XCM races and start counting the current generation Epic is easily in the top three if not the top bike under the Cat 1s and pro field. I was really surprised to see the number of those bikes in the corrals at the Whiskey 50, even in the first spring they were widely available.

As for reliability... as a sample size of one my bike has a few thousand miles on it, lots of hard racing and I have had no issues. Sent the shock in this year for a free rebuild/service before the two year cut off. My local shop mechanic has several that Epics that rotate through for service. No shock issues (note the earlier Fox version of these brain shocks is totally different)

Of more concern that the shock are the super small pivot bearings they use that keep the weights down. Simply not a lot of material for seals or surface area in the bearings. You are far more likely to munch those than the shock.

Highly recommend the Blur. I have the CC with reserve wheels and have ridden it at Sea Otter, Grinduro, and Lake Tahoe.

Mondraker F podium RR
100 travel,remote lock out, I run 2.35 maxxis icon and weighs 22.4lbs

Great looking bike. Damn.

Looks long and low though. How’s the handling on tighter single track courses?

The handing in the front is similar to my Focus OE1 I had last year and I use 2.35 tires not 2.20 a little more grip in the corners.

I was on a Focus OE1 with stack 611 reach 426 and I had to run a stem 110mm/ -17
With the F Podium the stack 575 reach 460 is use a 100mm / -7 and puts me in nice position.

The rear suspension is excellent on the Mondaker

I use it for 3/6 hour XC. Stuff in north Georgia works great