Very much agree regarding your parts specification thoughts. NSMB has definitely touched on this in the past with their [Min-Max series](https://nsmb.com/articles/min-max-your-mountain-bike-2016-kona-process-134-supreme/) as well. There's more and more brands coming around to the 'high end suspension/workhorse drivetrain/mid tier brakes/approach, but off the top of my head Evil and Knolly have had this approach for as long as I've been following them. Whenever I've built bikes in the past Ultimate/Factory suspension coupled with an SLX or GX Drivetrain, XT/Code RSC level brakes, and carbon hoops (usually carried over from a previous bike) seems to be the ticket, at least through the lens of durability and avoiding exorbitant amounts of being spend in the areas that I will less appreciate the performance upgrades. Thanks for pointing this out!
April 17, 2025, 11:11 a.m. - Matt Cusanelli
Very much agree regarding your parts specification thoughts. NSMB has definitely touched on this in the past with their [Min-Max series](https://nsmb.com/articles/min-max-your-mountain-bike-2016-kona-process-134-supreme/) as well. There's more and more brands coming around to the 'high end suspension/workhorse drivetrain/mid tier brakes/approach, but off the top of my head Evil and Knolly have had this approach for as long as I've been following them. Whenever I've built bikes in the past Ultimate/Factory suspension coupled with an SLX or GX Drivetrain, XT/Code RSC level brakes, and carbon hoops (usually carried over from a previous bike) seems to be the ticket, at least through the lens of durability and avoiding exorbitant amounts of being spend in the areas that I will less appreciate the performance upgrades. Thanks for pointing this out!