I agree with you that I did a rather board comparison of bikes and that I didn’t take cost in consideration. But if we take cost AND weight into consideration, we can still find other frames that appear attractive against the Shaver.

The Shaver is 7.5 pounds, with a price tag of $2.3K and features 5.5” of travel. The Giant Reign features more travel than the Shaver at 5.9”, the frame weighs in at 6.5 pounds – and a complete bike can be had for under $3K. Giant bikes might not be as exotic as the brands you mentioned, but those on a budget would be foolish to look past it in a rush. The Santa Cruz Heckler is listed as $1050 on their website, weighs 6.7 pounds, and it also features more travel than the Shaver at 5.9”. There’s also the Trek Remedy, but I’ll stop.

I don’t agree with your weight ranges as being comparable. The Tomac Vanish at 8 pounds is 15% heavier than the Turner 5-spot at 6.5 pounds. Ask any rider who participates in enduro (which is what I consider hardcore mountain biking) which they’d prefer, all other things being the same, I am sure they’ll choose the latter. I might come off as a weight weenie, but XTR and XX command such a premium over their lower price siblings largely (I say largely) because they weigh less.

And finally, I don’t believe that being made in the USA definitively equates to better quality (that is what you are trying to imply right?) I mean, World Champion Danny Hart’s bike is made somewhere in Asia, and it seems to go alright.

You site Yeti and Trek as examples of companies that are using, in your eyes, better technology and materials. So let’s take a closer look shall we?

The Yeti SB66 is always rated near the top for performance. The aluminum version, as mentioned previously, comes in at 7.5lbs and $3300 MSRP. The carbon version is 6lbs., 1.5lbs lighter and $4450 MSRP. That weight savings works out to about $733 per pound.

Aaron Gwin is racing a Trek Session 9.9. The frame weight of this bike is 7.2 lbs, 34lbs and $8929.99 for a complete bike. This is indeed light for a downhill racing bike, but is only a few ounces lighter than the Foes Shaver. It is useless to compare a downhill bike to a trail/all-mountain bike, especially when the price difference is so large.

If you have a few grand burning a hole in your pocket, go ahead and spend it on a high zoot carbon frame mountain bike. The rest of us who are on a budget will save our pennies for a more affordable aluminum frame that is just as strong and only a bit heavier.

Hard core riders who are tough on their gear and depend on it to handle whatever the trail can throw at them simply demand bikes like the Shaver.

And by the way, the Foes Shaver is made in USA while Trek has off-shored nearly all of its OCLV carbon production.