Which bike? Specialized Chisel or Rocky Mountain Instinct or Norco Fluid FS C3

Hey y'all,

I'm buying my second bike after spending years on my first ever MTB which was a $500 D-Back HT that I bought off Amazon. I rode that thing everywhere and loved it. Learned a lot, but now I've outgrown it and replacing parts with what I want is more expensive than the bike itself. It's time for a real bike. I'm down to three options. All are in my budget but $3k is pretty much max.

Specialized Chisel 2024 – $2,600

Rocky Mountain Instinct A30 Shimano – $3,000

Norco Fluid FS C3 – $3,000

I ride in southern Arizona on mostly flowy single track with some rocky tech. I'm not a crazy downhiller, but I like moving quick and getting 10-15 miles in on a ride. I'd say I'm a moderate dad-bod weekender rider. SOMO and Hawes are my two main areas, IYKYK.

The Chisel, to me, looks and may behave like an XC bike. The rear is only 110mm so I'm concerned I won't get what I want out of it after a while as I progress. However, it's light and snappy which can be really fun. I really enjoyed my HT.

The Rocky Mountain has really good reviews and seems to be a great all around bike. I'm pretty confident I'd love this bike but I want to throw it to the community in case there are red flags.

The Norco I know next to nothing about other than the specs are close to the RM with slightly less travel, but it's carbon.

I'm leaning toward the Rocky or Norco but curious which you'd choose and why. I don't know enough about components to know what's good and bad. Thanks.