It is a very tough question to answer. Yes, Competitive Cyclist does have specials on Yeti frames but mostly XC frames. I was thinking about getting an ASR-c but they are out of my size. Not sure you would want a short travel frame giving where you live.
As far as reliability goes, i'm on my second Chiner frame and haven't broken any of them. Granted i'm not racing but i'm pretty hard on my M06. Not sure what's going on with charlesrg but he seems to be breaking frames left and right 
This weekend i'm taking my M06 to some lift serviced trails and am going to ride hard and jump a bit too. We'll see how it makes it through.
As far as price goes i'm into my M06 build for $2850.00 and that's with all new parts. I'm running Shimano XTR rear gear with Raceface carbon crank and cockpit. X-Fusion Slide fork with X-Fusion shock. I had both pieces custom tailored for me and my bike for maybe $100.00. I bought a carbon set of rims from Yishun and absolutely love them!!! 27mm inside width perfect for 2.35 Maxxis Forecasters.
So, you can build what you want for your price point you just need to make sure you get a frame that's good for your riding environment and shop around a bit for parts. Personally i wouldn't be afraid of a Chiner frames. Like I said before, i'm not sure what's going on with charlesrg and why he is breaking frames. We'll have to see if his seller ponies up and honors his warranty. My buddy is a huge Cannondale fan and he has cracked one road frame and broken two mtb frames, none of them from crashing. Carbon is carbon, it's always subject to breaking. Riding a name brand frame doesn't guarantee it won't fail. I guess the question is can you get replacement under warranty if it does? That why i feel it's important to be choosy who you buy your Chiner frame from. I only purchase from sellers i know and have have researched their responsiveness to those that have had issues.
I agree all frames can break and I've seen many brand frames broken at the end of races. However the response from a chinese manufacturer will never beat walking to an authorized shop and asking for warranty.
Breaking is about how much you weight and how hard you ride. 195lbs racing cat 2 here, almost cat1. Like your cannondale friend, he is probably happy as they replace whatever brakes under warranty.
What I'm trying to put is that there is not such a huge price difference from chiners vs US brands. Frame + paypal + shipping + shocks and you are already at $1000. For $1500 I can get a Yeti. I would definitely go with the YETI.
For $2999 you can get a 2018 scott spark rc 930 with warranty and built for you. Or a bmc agonist 02 for the same price.
The problem is when you look at MSRP if you want to compare Chiner to MSRP than chiner wins, so just learn to wait and not buy MSRP because your Chiner frame will take 45 days to arrive anyway.
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