I bought this bike to replace "Lester", my 140mm trailbike (a 2010 Specialised Stumpjumper FSR Comp). The name is that of my grandfather Bruce Hatfield's trail riding horse, Mouse. I originally considered a Cannondale Habit SE, due to my love of the Lefty front suspension platform, but it would have been much more expensive; and already out of date in terms of componentry standards. This bike ticked all the right boxes at the right time: it was a good price for the spec, had modern geometry, up to date standards of axle and shock sizes, and looked like a heck of a lot of fun. The only downsides I could see were the Shimano Deore brakes, and the PressFit Bottom Bracket. I was going to give it the Lefty treatment, but decided not to after I heard Cannondale were to discontinue the long-travel Lefty fork soon, and after feeling how good the RockShox Pike really is.
The suspension was simple to set-up out of the box; and the recommended settings for my weight have been perfect. I haven't felt the need to change any of them, except to go a little softer in the rear as I'm not a particularly aggressive rider. The bike gets airborne with little effort and is a blast to ride; staying on line exactly where you put it. The stiffness of the frame and fork is unreal compared to the last bike, and the novel 'Knockblock' stem is barely noticeable. It's a very small price to pay as the stem and bars are fine although I may cut the bars down to 760mm.
I do dislike the PressFit BB; it began creaking on the first ride. After it's free service the creak went away for a few rides, but is now back albeit only when there's a bit of horizontal load as well, when I'm pedalling squares for instance. I'll look to sort that with a thread-in BB eventually.
The brakes that came on the bike, Shimano Deore BR-M447 + BL-M506, never inspired confidence. After a couple months I replaced them with SRAM Guide RSC brakes and upped the front rotor to 200mm; which is closer to what the bike should've been specced with in the first place. I see the 2018 version now has Guide R brakes specced, and GX 1x12, which makes me a little jealous. I've always preferred the the feel of SRAM/Avid brakes and these just plain stop you faster as well. Swapping the brakes out really also highlighted how painful internal routing can be. I'd really like to see a 'tubes in tubes' type system for alloy bikes.