It's basically the same frame as the 2008 and 2009, just a tad lighter carbon layup and the lighter magnesium shock link. It may look hot... but IMO, it performs even hotter. Light, stiff, quick precise handling yet stable at high speeds. The rear suspension works very well and the RP23 shock lets you tune it to be a good FS that can be ridden for hours or almost hardtail like for shorter smoother race courses. It also has the best racing fork on the market... well, half a fork, and it's still much better than all the whole forks ut there. The parts spec is also nice, nothing extremely flashy on the Scalpel 1 but, XT and XTR, it's a workhorse build: durable, efficient, it does it's job very well.