with the Fox Vanilla and Marzocchi MZ-3 and TruVativ, its heavy by just looking at it. the parts and drive gears/chain is not design for racing altho Kona makes great FS frames. Do you need a FS for racing? its really heavy ...for XC...if you say going out for fun and all mountain, its a gd bike...but i would get better parts...but to answer your title "race this on xc" i will choose not to