Just want to pass along what my LBS guy told me when I was looking for a new bike. He says that there are a lot of good bikes out there but that Specialized does a lot of R&D for their bikes. They come out with innovative designs and then other bike manufactures copy their designs. I guess you could look at that in several ways. Save some money and buy from a less innovative company or pay a little more to cover the costs of R&D and support a company that is a leader in the industry. That probably didn't help at all, huh?