ColonelSanders post reply: Your questions. I checked the Specialized.com site last night and an error message came up saying the site was in the process of transferring to a Microsoft App interface so no one could get to the Site until that was complete. Prior to that I was on the Specialized.com site two weeks ago (and have printed Specs on the Expert from it) and it showed all the Specs of the 2016 Expert with a Shamano 1-11 drive with 11-40 cassette. I asked my Denver Store Mgr. if that was true. He said yes, it was a 2016 change to the Expert, but I could still get the Pro with 1-11 and a 10-42 cassette from Sram. I ordered that for reasons in above post and it's here; but they are waiting on the Paragon fork to deliver the Bike.

Your next question that "did I know you said the previous Expert's 2-ring drive was just or even more effective than the Pro's 1-11 drive and I could stay on one ring almost all the time" -- I understood that you inferred 99% of my riding could be done on one of the Expert's two rings. While I believe that to be true, I just felt "why have two rings when one is totally sufficient for my purposes". A rider who needs more gears might make another decision. A 1-11 suits my riding purposes. As I said above, your logic for the Expert was (is) very convincing. And if I hadn't gotten enamored with a SIMPLE 1-11 drive (as being more than sufficient for my needs and being less complicated), I could have gone with either case made by you or Badger1.

Although I wrote a novel-length post above, I forgot two things. Why did I order a Paragon Gold fork vs. just stay with the stock Suntour? Probably not significant in everyday riding, I just wanted a true AIR shock and not a Spring shock. Regardless of the confusing language used in Specialized description of the Suntour shock "intimating" that's it's an Air shock -- in my opinion, it isn't an air shock based on you guys looking under the caps to see if there's any air injection points. I wanted an air shock. I'm sure the SRAM RockShox Paragon Gold will be up to the quality standards of all RockShox products. Enough said on that, RockShox Air is proven.

Lastly, you "Regulars" make this site far and above any other Bike site on the Web. For those of you only viewing this Thread, go over to the dedicated Crosstrail Thread and see ALL the Regulars who participate and make the thread wonderfully interesting and informative. Thanks to all of you who spend time to help others.