Might as well start the thread with the proper year now, right?
Been riding the SE1 for weeks now. Came out of the box (with tubes) at 25lbs. I swapped the XT and hollowgram wheels for AXS and industry 9. Even with adding some hefty Minions (a must) and heavy post...24.9 lbs. The new SID 35mm is really stiff actually. Didn't have high hopes, but super impressed for sure. It's actually 100g LIGHTER than the aluminum Ocho. The SE could quite possibly come out of the box weighing almost as light as the XT Scalpel Carbon 2 XC. It still maintains that XC feel, though, even with 1° slacker angle (67°). You definitely notice the extra travel when it counts but not when it doesn't.
This scalpel is much more efficient than all of my others. Previous were pretty simple frame designs and relied heavily on shock tune and performance. With its Horst link, there is a lot of efficiency built into the frame design and it's noticeable. My previous Scalpels would all get a Fox Float CTD (3 pos damping) upgrade for this reason. Climbing was not all that efficient and I certainly didn't wanna climb locked out. This bike doesn't need that middle platform climbing, even with the extra travel. The rear end with SID LUXE tracks very efficiently, up and down. It takes fairly decent sized drops easily without much worry. Easy to hop and clear large trees and other trail garbage bc of it's weight. This is legitimately a very raceable XC bike.
I chose the SE1, which is the hidden gem of the whole lineup. I've never really paid attention to the SES in the past, but full XT 12 speed, super light frame, carbon wheels, super light stiff SID 120/120 at 25lbs for $5500? Wow. And super stealthy looking paint job.
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Been riding the SE1 for weeks now. Came out of the box (with tubes) at 25lbs. I swapped the XT and hollowgram wheels for AXS and industry 9. Even with adding some hefty Minions (a must) and heavy post...24.9 lbs. The new SID 35mm is really stiff actually. Didn't have high hopes, but super impressed for sure. It's actually 100g LIGHTER than the aluminum Ocho. The SE could quite possibly come out of the box weighing almost as light as the XT Scalpel Carbon 2 XC. It still maintains that XC feel, though, even with 1° slacker angle (67°). You definitely notice the extra travel when it counts but not when it doesn't.
This scalpel is much more efficient than all of my others. Previous were pretty simple frame designs and relied heavily on shock tune and performance. With its Horst link, there is a lot of efficiency built into the frame design and it's noticeable. My previous Scalpels would all get a Fox Float CTD (3 pos damping) upgrade for this reason. Climbing was not all that efficient and I certainly didn't wanna climb locked out. This bike doesn't need that middle platform climbing, even with the extra travel. The rear end with SID LUXE tracks very efficiently, up and down. It takes fairly decent sized drops easily without much worry. Easy to hop and clear large trees and other trail garbage bc of it's weight. This is legitimately a very raceable XC bike.
I chose the SE1, which is the hidden gem of the whole lineup. I've never really paid attention to the SES in the past, but full XT 12 speed, super light frame, carbon wheels, super light stiff SID 120/120 at 25lbs for $5500? Wow. And super stealthy looking paint job.
