Personally, my next All Mountain bike won't be rolling without Hammerschmidt. That should be the death of the front der.
I constantly use the front derailleur on my All-Mtn (Devinci Hectik Ltd.) for technical climbs, and its lighter, considerably cheaper and lets me use the superior Shimano Hollowtech 2 cranksets, which Hammerschitznel does not
I'm a big fan of SRAM, Avid and Rockshox, but Truvativ generally blows…mainly in the crankset and bottom bracket dept.
Hammerschmidt is a solution to a problem that DOES not exist - there is no problem with 2 x 9 and a good dual ring chaindevice and Shimano XT front mech
if only SRAM / Truvativ had concentrated their mighty resources (chequebook) on the rear derailleur "problem" in mountain biking, then we'd have an awesome solution to a real world problem, but their business profits would take a big dive because we wouldn't be constantly trashing and buying new drivetrains ;)
Again this applies to YOUR home riding trails.
Next time you come over the pond go ride the No Flow Zone in Emerald. The ability to instantly shift under torque into a climbing gear would be heavenly.
With the current front mech system there are many situations when you are forced to leave it in the harder gear and torque the hell out of your drivetrain to make short climbs. It saps energy. Most of the reason people don't shift is for fear of blowing the chain or simply there is not enough room between the up/down sections to execute a shift with the conventional system when you are busy keeping things from getting squirly on the brakes. With a front mech you need one maybe two revolutions of the cranks to make a clean shift? None of that needed with a Hammershmidt.
I have not ridden a Hammerschmidt yet, but I rode the same trails nouseforaname did for the four days when he came to the realization that his next rig will have a Hammerschmidt and I fully agree with him.