I have a Jekyll, I really like it. I ride my hardtail for when I really need efficiency because my Jekyll feels slow compared to the hardtail. Then again, practically any dual suspension bike feels slow compared to my hardtail especially giving my riding style. The best part about the Jekyll is that the travel is plush as hell on both ends. Mine has taken plenty of abuse considering I rarely ever ride it for anything but light freeriding. I like to take it jumping and bombing down hills and such.. but I wouldn't race it or really even consider it a cross country bike.. I think it's more of a trail bike than anything. I also seriously doubt that you could build most of the bikes that have been mentioned in this thread for 4000 bucks with full XTR. The Spyder VP is like 2 grand in itself. It really just depends on how he's going to be riding it. Personally if I were doing any freeriding there wouldn't be any XTR crap on that beast whatsoever, least of all their wheelset or brakes. I'd buy the Jekyll frame and put on my own fork. I've got a Fatty fork in the front end and three inches of travel isn't nearly enough for a bike with almost 5 in the rear end.