that one had me laugh so hard.

I think the xc/am trend getting stronger everyday proves that the average user mostly wants a do it all bike. People don't want to buy 8 bikes because most of us can't afford it. So smaller companies, like devinci for instance, covers the entire mountain bike range with 3 bikes (110mm/145mm/216mm). It's not perfect but their accountants probably told them that creating "in-betweens" for niche markets wasn't worth it, much less keeping older models into production. Now if some big companies like trek/specialized want to make 100mm/120mm/140mm/145mm/150mm/160mm/180mm/200mm bikes with different geos and all the different specs that come with it then so be it. Don't forget that they are more popular and distributed much more broadly so they'll sell more of each bike and in the worst case, they won't mind losing some money on the less popular models as they'll make up for it somewhere else. I'm pretty sure they'd rather keep the visibility and the market shares than supress those bikes from the lineup. As for keeping older models/designs into production, well, what does it say about your "new tech" if the old tech is still in the line up because it does the job just fine?

Except an awesome day spent riding with the said mates!

Went there with a 8" (set ultra plush for local trails) last year and I thought it was an overkill. I wish I had less suspension. Still had a lot of fun but I didn't feel like a 8" was best suited for that terrain. Lots of jumping/berms and most trail are really smooth and flowy. If you have a bmx/dj bike bring it too, they have amazing dj setups, not just trails.

Highland is a 5 hours ride for me compared to whistler which is 5 days. Definitely more appealing! Seriously though, if you haven't been, just go. Tons of fun garanteed, regardless of your riding skill level. Spent a 3 days weekend there last year. We had so much fun we're planning on going back as often as we can this year.