Originally Posted by GeorgeBMac

I have no disagreement here: But, after buying a Trek DS 8.5 a couple months ago I have a slightly different perspective: Reading the specs on the bike and looking at it prior to my purchase, I believed the bike was a Deore groupset with an SLX RD... But, after buying it, I was able to get actual part numbers of the components and check them on Shimano's site and found that the bike was actually a mixture of: Alivio, Deore and SLX. But Trek somehow neglected to mention anything related to Alivio in their specs. Specifically the: hubs, brakes and crankset are all Alivio but not listed that way in the specs. Instead, they used vague descriptions or Shimano part numbers in the advertising... So, essentially, Trek led one to believe that they were selling a Deore groupset (or better) but instead, it was an equal mixture of Deore and Alivio with a token SLX derailer.... Buyer beware!