Flow Mountain Bike has some great reviews, but that’s not coming from a racer’s perspective. Lots of effort into the articles and YouTube videos I watched.
Supercaliber Article Here:
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Good shout!
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It has interesting features, too, e. g. an integrated dropper post and a rather progressive geometry. Plus, they have downcountry variants (the LT models), which I might actually go for: they have a little more suspension travel, wider stanchions (as they come with Fox 34-series forks rather than Fox 32s) and wider tires. 
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Will does mention racing some on the Giant Anthem review, so he does have some perspective.
Hump
Thanks for adding this!! They do a tremendous job when it comes to reviews.
Hump
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I was more referring to me being the “non-racer” perspective. I’ve now done a little, but pretty much a rookie. Everything I’ve watched / read on Flow does look really well done though.
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Oh, I got you. Saying you’re looking at this from a non racer perspective.
They do very good reviews. The written reviews are even more in depth.
Hump
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It is fascinating how things change. 20 years ago a thread like this would be a mile long and end up being a list of exotic or difficult to obtain parts.
Notwithstanding that at present the supply chain makes it hard to get all parts exotic or otherwise…
Today, with group set integration, it comes down to the frame, shock and fork the manufacturer specs and then popping either SRAM or Shimano on it. The only choices we really make are pedals, seat, bar and grips. Maybe aftermarket wheels.
I find it harder and harder to not just buy off the shelf X0 or XT builds. I’m a FOX guy (maintain my own stuff so like to sync parts and tools across bikes), but RockShox stuff is fine too.
It’s almost amazing how fantastic the performance of the integrated groups are. This stuff just works and works and works. But I sometimes find myself wanting the fun of specifying every last part down to titanium replacement bolts, doing Frankenstein groups (*), and other things to make a bike unique to me.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m old and grumpy and it’s time for my nap 
-Darth
(*) I typically run Shimano brakes with SRAM shifters but that doesn’t really count as a good Frankenstein - lol
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For sure.
I look for a bike I can get a Fox Suspension with Shimano build.
I put my Ergon saddle on, and some ESI grips and I’m pretty happy.
My thing is shoes. I’m sitting on quite a few pairs that I “thought” I’d like.
Now I’m back to Sidis
Hump
Funny. I just assumed that grips, shoes, pedals and saddle didn’t count as part of the bike selection 
. I have my own sets, and those are what I use, full stop.
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I think that’s what the main point was. It’s getting to be that those items are really all you need to think about because the bikes are coming so well equipped.
Hump
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I am glad you posted this - I have not seen this company/bike before it it genuinely intrigues me!
I feel its a great work-around the supercaliber patents and “downfalls” and could be a cool contender for frame design.
I am a 4-link die hard guy but something about this Arc is making me scream lets try this!
Thanks!
Universal Cycles her in the US has Shimano XT brakes in stock.
Gonna be honest when I say the Fezzari Signal Peak, I’d want the SL build with 120 SID Ultimate. Direct to consumer, so it’s certainly not the most expensive bike out there, but it ticks all my boxes. That is, nothing proprietary, 2 bottle cages, decently lightweight, has fairly progressive geo. Plus it’s a Utah-based company (and I’m Utah based, too).
Next would be a Blur TR. Mostly the same reasons as the Signal Peak, though it does have slightly more conservative geometry. But it’s a damn pretty bike.
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Thanks, appreciate it! 
Ironically, I’m in Japan and things are not in stock at the distributor. I reckon I could get some parts off of Amazon Japan (international retailers will no longer ship Shimano stuff back into Japan), but I’d like to keep my LBS in business.
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Yo I can give some input on this thread.
Masters cat1 or open depending on race. I do more XCM than XCO these days just because I like Marathons better. I still do some XCO races though if they are convenient or in my city. Previous bikes were a 2014 s works epic (yes with the way too steep of HTA), pivot mach 429sl. I now own the very bottom of the line base model epic evo and I’l get to that bike in a second.
My friends, are mostly involved with either managing bike shops or a couple of them are like brand ambassadors, or are reps for the SW region of the US.
I have rode the following XC bikes over the last 4yrs mostly through travel.
Santa Cruz Blur: If you go to bentonville and rent a non trail bike this is probably going to be the most available thing you can find. That town loves santa cruz. Yes there’s some specialized shops there but tons of SC. Anyways, this bike is great. I felt it pedaled very well and all in all was a well rounded bike. Now mine was a rental so thus it’s spec’d with ok stuff, but the one complaint I had about the bike was that it felt heavy and was. Like it just wasn’t snappy. On the flip side though if it wasn’t so expensive I’d say put this on your short list.
Fezzari Signal peak - I rode this also in Bentonville in which I did not get to really spend enough time on it to give it any kind of fair feedback. Honestly it fit and felt a lot like the blur. It had a lockout too, but I don’t use those anymore as I believe with modern antisquat lockouts are not really needed.
Yeti SB100 - Not really XC bike, it’s the GF’s bike and a medium so I get to take it out when I work on it or when she bitches about something making noise. The only way to describe that bike is that it feels like it’s a 130mm travel. I know that doesn’t make sense, but seriously. Like if i wanted and XC bike that leaned way way way towards the trail end of that line this would be it. It’s a tad heavy, but it reminds me of my pivot 429 SL but with perfect geometry. I actually love this bike, but I wouldn’t want it’ as my XC “race” bike.
Trek Supercaliber - So where I live we have a ton of specialized and Trek shops. My buddy is the service manager of one and let me “demo” (aka ride one for a long time). I don’t know what it is about treks, but it’s very hard for me to fit on them. This is across the board on their road and mtb’s. I just can’t fit on them. Now what’s kind of crazy on the SC is that if you take it off a big drop or something pretty chunky it surprisingly acts like a bigger more travel bike. It’s strange. Like big hit stuff it does it like it’s a 120 bike. Now on the small rooty stuff… Man, it sucked for me. Mind you I am almost 50, but I am in good shape and still mostly fit. I could not enjoy riding this bike where I live where it’s dry, rooty, and you want good small bump compliance stuff.
Specialized Epic Evo - So during covid we all remember that bikes were hard to come by. My 2014 s works epic dated and it was time for a new bike. All my friends and I had already “de-brained” our epics in one way or another (bikeyoke) but they still were just twitchy epics. So a friend of mind informed me that their store that carried both specialized and trek was turning into a trek store. So I asked him how many epics he had left before they were all gone. He informed me the only mtb he has left is a size m. epic evo (base model) that he could let go for 10% below their cost. I bought it just because I knew how hard bikes were to get and figured I could turn right around and sell it. Well, I took it out for a spin. It was everything I would have changed about the epic. No brain, slacker HTA, 120mm, still has short stays, perfect geometry and it was light and snappy. Lighter and more snappy than any XC bike i had rode other than my previous s works epic. Mind you this had shit wheels, crappy deore and just shit, but man it was everything. So I kept it order axs xx1 everythign, left the deore brakes though because those were/are actually amazing, ordered bltos wheels 30mm ID light weight, 2.4 rekon races, enve bar, fox transfer dropper, and on order currently is a fox sC 34 to replace the POS reba that came with it…(actually that reba aint that bad).
So dream XC setup for me? Basically what I did with my epic evo except i mean shit I’d get the s works version.
The epic evo is damn near perfect. It can get rowdy on descents, it can trail ride with all my buddies that are on 130 or 150 bikes even. It pedals like an epic which is snappy. I race it, I marathon it, I trail ride it,… It does all 3 of those very well.
Now if I was still doing a whole bunch of just Pure XC racing… I’d prob. drop down to a regular 100mm epic again, but i mean shit I don’t know. I’d have to see how the SC34 on an s works epic evo felt first. Even if I had both the Epic and Evo i’d race marathons on the EVo. If the course was rowdy then i’d evo it also… I’d say the only race where I’d chose an epic over the evo would have to be like a flat course that is smoother.
So there you have it. The longest reply to “what xc race bike”.
p.s. - I am not the type to just say something I own is the best. I am not. I bought this bike originally to sell it not to race or ride it. My gravel bike on the flip side is built from the ground up with all the perfect parts and looks dope as shit but I hate that bike.
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@deep Never apologize for a great post like this. That’s why I asked the original question.
I’ve been back and forth on the EVO for a long time. Bought the normal Epic Expert because at that moment in time, I didn’t want to wait a couple of weeks for the EVO (Pre-Pre- Covid).
I then reached out to another shop later down the line after having bought and ridden other bikes and was on the short list (couple of weeks) to get the frame and fork.
I canceled that order.
Apparently I should have gone ahead and gotten that bike, because it keeps popping up as the go to.
Thanks for your reply, and as you, I am getting close to 50, but I still race and stay for. I raced road for over a decade and got to a great point in it……I wished I had raced MTB that whole time though
Hump
Were these custom yokes for the S-Works Epic? I also have a 2014 that I like a lot and would consider doing a Brain amputation on. But have not seen an aftermarket yoke for the S-works model.
Solid post - enjoyed it.
@DarthShivious Yes if you search ebay and pinkbike right now you will see them… Guy on pink bike even has all the info you need to swap… The better thing for you to do would get a fork with a bigger offset. It can help with the ridiculous HTA of that generation epic.
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Thanks for the info on the Epic Evo. If it is half as good as described than I won‘t regret getting it (frame only) without test riding it beforehand.
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