I went and looked at bikes today and am also considering the 8.6 now. The 8.5 has the color scheme I like better and is $140 less (which I'm less concerned about since I want to keep this bike long term). Here are component differences. Am I right in thinking the crank is the only major difference? Even that, how noticeable is the upgrade to an outboard design in practice?

Here are the component differences:

Crank: FSA Dyna Drive vs. Shiman T551
Brakes: Shimano M395 vs. M496
Shifter: Deore vs. SLX (9sp vs 10sp)
Cassette: HG20 vs. HG62
Hubs, center lock: RM35 vs. RM66

Interestingly they had a few different 2014 models and both 8.5 and 8.6 bikes I'm interested in (because of paint) had RST Vita forks whereas the other had the Suntour (like all the 2015 models). I'm not thrilled about this to be honest. They were not replacements or anything of that nature. Both had paint matching the rest of the bike.