[Wa-Aw]

As a rider who rides for neither company and works at a shop that sells both, here's my input. As has been said, I think both bikes are good choices, but maybe not the best. Transition's track record with reliability isn't the best, but their new generation of bikes is certainly moving in the right direction. The Evil's have had issues as well, so neither is a sure thing in terms of reliability(nothing is really). Both companies are small, which means two things. 1. They will probably be pretty cool to you if call them and need something. 2. There's a good chance you will end up waiting for something you need, calling several times, ect. This is a generalization, but in my experience is the trade off you get with small companies. Sure if you buy a Demo 8 you can't call and bro down with someone, but you can bring in a 4 year old, haggard, cracked frame and get a brand new one out of their warranty stock in a week. So that's something to consider, there's something to be said for the big guys.

Take a really good look at the geometries and see which one sounds better to you. For example, I ride the Commencal Supreme DH, which is one of the only frames where I can get a 63 degree head angle without going excessively low on the bottom bracket (13.9). That plus the ability to run really long stays makes the frame my absolute favorite bike on the market. Little things like stay length can make a night and day difference in the way you feel about the bike. You may not have been riding long enough to have a really well developed idea of what you like, but let me just say that people tend to follow trends in geometry, and a super slack, super low bike is NOT right for everyone. The Evil and the TR450 both have nice moderate geo settings that should work for an intermediate rider.

Be really careful what advice you listen to on threads like this, most people will defend with their life whatever they happened to buy, whether they have tried the alternative or not. Based on your price range and the two frames you are looking at, I would throw the 951 into the mix as well. It's adjustable, low, slack, racy, and splits the difference in price between the two other frames. Intense has really gotten their act together in the last couple years, and has been great with CS and the new frames are rock solid. The new Glory and Demo 8 are both priced very well, and the previous generations of those bikes were probably the most reliable DH bikes on the market.

To the OP: Read this post and ignore the last 9 Pages.