Brand new, completely unused white X-Fusion suspension fork with uncut steerer. 120mm travel (adjustable) and will work with 26" or 27.5/650b tires. 29er won't fit, I checked. That probably means that 27+ tires won't fit either.

Would make an excellent match with the RockShox rear shock I'm also selling if you were planning on building up a CS-136 full suspension 650b bike.

Got a CS-041, had some issues with it, got a warranty replacement and decided to go another way in the meantime. So now I have a brand new warranty replacement CS-041 frame in size medium, still in the shipping box. I also have extras - seatpost, seat clamp, two derailleur hangers, carbon handlebars, rear axle, extra frame fittings (cable stops, etc) to go with it. Everything together was nearly $800 with shipping. Everything is matte UD finish. Peter has confirmed that the remainder of the 2 year warranty on the frame will be honored, as well, and the issue I had has been addressed. If you're looking at a size medium 29er hardtail, it's ready to go and could be shipped quickly. You could have a brand new frame with the extras much faster than getting it from China.

Can post photos if there is interest.

Two weekends ago, we had a big snow storm in the NE US, we wound up getting around 31" (over .75 meters!) of snow. Had to shovel out three times over the weekend, and each time it looked like we hadn't done anything. Got out on my fat bike, had a bunch of fun in the snow. The reactions of folks walking in the street when I went by with the big tires was always funny.

After one of the rides around town - the photo doesn't do the blaze orange Plasti-Dip paint job any justice at all - the bike positively GLOWS outside.


One of my buddies out on his 27.5+ bike


Streets were deserted:


Snowbeard the not-quite-pirate:


So yeah, had a bunch of fun on the fat bike. Wife joined me for one ride on her 29er and even airing her tires down to single digit pressures, she was having a bunch more trouble riding the deeper stuff.


HOWEVER... fast forward a week and we're going up to Connecticuit for the weekend, where they got less snow, but still got a decent amount, and I have to choose which bike to bring. Do I bring the fat bike, because I know there's going to be snow on the trails, or do I bring the Epic, the short-travel, skinny-tired XC bike that I've been loving?

Well, I decided to make it interesting and bring the Epic, and you know what? It was AWESOME. The Epic has skinny, low-tread, fast rolling 2" tires, so it was constant work to maintain traction, and I certainly didn't go as fast as I could have gone otherwise, but the lack of traction made it an absolute blast. Snow on the side of the trail was softer, so gave some traction, but rolled slower. Snow in the center had been packed down by other riders, and rolled fast - but it also had next to no traction, so it was a balancing act of choosing the line to optimize between traction and speed. Then, in some spots, someone had ridden through when it was soft, and that had frozen, so there was a 2.5" wide rut down the center of the trail that was ice - had almost zero traction and my tires really wanted to follow it. On one downhill, I kept jumping over it as I switched from side to side on the trail to avoid the rut. On some trails, low spots in the trail had formed puddles, which froze over, offering virtually no traction - but it was the low part of the trail, the ice was flat, and I was going fast, so I aimed straight down it, and got through before the tires could realize the dumb thing I did and let go on me.

It was an absolute hoot.


So what's the moral of the story? Just because it's gonna snow doesn't mean you need a fat bike. Sure, a fat bike can be fun in snow... or a bunch of other places, but so can any other bike. Hell, back in the day I was riding a rigid 26'er with 1.95s in the winter because that's all there was, and I still had a blast. What's important is that you get out there and have some damn fun on a bike - any bike.

Hey all-

Need to build up a backup bike for my wife so she's got something in case something happens to her primary bike. Conveniently, her primary bike is a Scott Scale, a bike whose geometry has been copied almost verbatim in several frames, so that'll make the decision easier. Looking at Peter's site, I see that the 057, 256 and 041 all have comparable geometry. I need to do a little research here on the 041 as I haven't kept up on it, but am familiar with the 057 and 256 as they've both been popular here.

As I see it:

057 Pros:
* Peter's site lists the 057 as on sale, and it was less expensive than the 256 last time I checked, so it could be dramatically so if it's on sale.
* A well known frame with a proven track record

057 Cons:
* Heavier - listed weight is ~200g more. She's a weight weenie, so this is a concern.
* The head tube is 10mm taller vs. the Scale in her size, so I'd have to run a pretty agressive negative rise stem to get the bars back to the right spot.

256 Pros:
* Pretty well proven
* Lighter than the 057
* Same head tube height as the Scale removes the need for a funky stem
* More expensive

256 Cons:
* I think I remember some folks having cracking issues near the wishbone.

041 Pros:
* Lighter than the 057
* Same head tube height as the Scale
* Probably more expensive
* 27.2mm seatpost makes more sense for a smaller rider. Always thought the 34.9 post on the Scale was silly.

041 Cons:
* Don't know much about it. (I'll be fixing that)
* 2mm longer chainstay, although I really doubt that'd make a big difference
* Update 6/21/16 Unproven and untested design. I wound up going with the 041 and it cracked behind the seat cluster after a handful of very light rides. If any testing was done on the frame at all, this would have been caught. I'm being told it was a "bad batch" but now to me the entire frame design is suspect.

Thoughts? I think there's a couple folks with experience with more than one of these frames, so I'd be interested to hear your input.

Thanks!

Update 6/21/16: With the recurring cracking issues on the 256, and the problems I ran into with the 041, the only frame I would recommend at all is the 057. I know several big, strong guys who have been riding them for a while with no problems. Unfortunately the same is not the case with the 256 or the 041.

So I've been demoing bikes for a while, looking for a backup for my trusty Rumblefish. Have demo'd a bunch of really cool bikes so far:

* Scott Spark 29er with XTR
Nice bike, but something just didn't work right for me. Felt not very comfortable on it in the technical stuff.

* Giant Anthem 650b
My first experience riding XX1, where I was almost immediately sold. Funny how the 11-36 cassette used to look so huge and now it looks like a road cassette to me. Also funny I used to ride 11-32 all the time. Anyhow, the bike seemed really nice, but the place I got to demo didn't help, and I haven't had a chance to demo it on home turf.

* BMC Four Stroke
Just got to try this one out, it was nice, but like the Spark, not quite exactly what I was looking for.

* Specialized Epic World Cup
Holy hell, this is probably the best bike I've ever ridden. Wanted one almost immediately, then saw the price tag. Yikes.

Obviously what I'm looking for is a short travel, XC-style full-suspension rig.

So, with the successful sale of my little-used commuter bike (I just ride the road bike anyway) I'm looking at an 036 full suspension from Peter. He says that the bike is available in my size now, but with a BB30. BSA would be 25-35 days. Considering trekcarbonboy's wait (now, granted, that was for a gloss 3k finish which seems less common now) I'm a little worried about that. Unsure if I'm confident enough about the BB30 to just go with that to be able to get the frame quicker.

Anyone have any experience with the B7 straight handlebar with the dimples in the front vs the old style B4? Unsure what benefit that's supposed to give.

And thanks for the detailed info VP. I was actually unaware that Lenovo bought out Motorola - I think I'll start doing some research into the best unit. Until reading your posts, I guess I hadn't realized I was missing out on so much gadgetry coolness. I love me some tech.

Just googled "best selling cycling gps unit amazon" and looks like the Garmin Edge 500 is a pretty clear favorite: http://www.amazon.com/Best-Sellers-Electronics-Cycling-GPS-Units/zgbs/electronics/617648011

A bit pricey at $200 but I'll dig into the features and see what it offers and if I need to step down a level to the Garmin edge 200 for $130 which is also very popular. Either way, looks like the Garmin Edge series may be the way to go.

The Garmin 500 is a nice little unit - my wife runs one and likes it. Very simple, not nearly as bells-and-whistles as Garmin's higher end stuff, which borders on a little bit extreme. Easy to work with, supported on most OS's, but also shows up as removable storage so you can just access the FIT files directly and upload from there.

Don't forget that there are knockoffs of the Garmins available. While I've been using a Holux M-1000c GPS datalogger (no display, just records the ride for later access) for a while, I am pretty sure Holux (and many other manufacturers) offer GPS bike computers for a fraction of the price of the Garmin. I don't want/need a display on my bars (thus the datalogger) but if I did I'd probably try something like this:

http://www.holux.com/JCore/en/products/products_content.jsp?pno=415

No doubt there's many options on alibaba as well.

Hey all, quick question. Upgrading the wife's bike from 10 speed XT to 11 speed XTR, and discovered that the KMC X11SL chain seems too narrow for the top jockey pulley on the XTR M9000 derailleur. Anyone else try this combo? I know I can go to an XTR chain, but I've run the KMC X**SL chains for a while now with great results, and they're damn light. Might try the slightly wider 10spd chain and see how that goes.