P.S.  Your pics looks a bit squashed to me making the bike look a bit longer (left to right) than it probably should.  What gave it away was the wheels look more oval than round, maybe just the result of a camera phone lens  .

I think it's the angle of the shot and the camera phone. That said, the wheelbase is absurdly long. I got the largest frame I could from them. The wheelbase on this puppy is a fair bit longer than my old XC hardtail as well as my AM/Enduro  bike.

Love the paint scheme.

Also, curious your impressions of the Velvet fork?.. It's been on my list of maybes for quite some time now.

Thanks dude!

I really like the velvet. So far I've only ridden it at 100mm. I did race this past season on it.  It's a bit heavier than comparable 100mm air forks but it is noticeably stiffer as a result. That's pretty much what I wanted because as a 210 lb guy I can usually feel forks flexing quite a bit. I think this will translate well into the longer travel modes. Damping is really good on this fork, I've never bottomed it out and the small bump is nice. I do really like the factory tune in terms of performance. This is aided by X-fusion tending to ship with the proper amounts of oil in both the damper and the lowers, unlike some other companies (fox, rockshox are particularly guitly).

I have the 2014 OEM version which differs from the regular version as it ships with a slightly different air spring. It's a little heavier and more difficult to change the travel on, but otherwise identical.

Overall, it's probably the best fork in the bracket for the price.

I'm not sure what you mean. If you get a shimano with a seized piston you put the caliper In the garbage. If you get an avid with a seized piston you can replace the piston.

What up guys,

Got my frame and most of my stuff in the other day so it looks like I'll be ready to begin building soon. 90% of the parts from this build are being cannibalized off of my Aluminum Hardtail. The only things that aren't are the shock (duh), headset, and two BB Spacers.

I went with a matte grey on matte black carbon look for my  frame as I wanted to be stealth but not quite as stealth as a black on black. The shade of grey turned out to be a tad lighter than I would have preferred but all in all I'm pretty OK with how it looks.

I decided on the 650b because I was doing a frame swap. It also has a bit more travel than most of the 29'ers do at 120mm which is fine by me.


Here's how it looks right now w/ rear shock and wheel mounted. I wanted get an idea of how the wheelset would look on the frame. The rims are various shades of matte grey so I think the overall build is going to look pretty good



Build List
Frameset
Shock - Monarch RL - Decided to go cheap here. I'm really a goon when it comes to the feel of suspension. At 210 lbs I kinda just plow everything. I run very little sag and therefore wouldn't appreciate multiple damper modes. I prefer RS over Fox as I'm much more comfortable performing service on RS stuff. Plus, RS is kind enough to include a shock pump and service kit with every shock, so bonus.
Headset- Cane Creek 40 w/ reducer crown - Keeping it classy & simple
Fork- 2014 X-fusion Velvet RL- I'm going to raise it first to 140mm then 120mm to see how each feel.

Cockpit
Raceface Next 720mm Carbon riser bars
Raceface Ride 50mm Stem
Octane One Saddle
KHS Junk seatpost - It'll be a dropper or carbon post in the spring once I'm back working at a shop
Hope  QR seat collar

Drivetrain

XT Race Crankset 26/36
XT Front Derailleur
XT Shadow+ Rear Clutch Derailleur
XTR Siltech Chain
XT 11-34 10 spd Cassette

Brakes&Wheels
Raceface Turbine 650B Wheelset w/ Bladed, Straight pull Spokes
Maxxis Crossmark Rear Tire - I hate these things, will swap to another ardent or an Ikon or something later
Maxxis Ardent 2.25 Front Tire
160mm Magura Disks Front and Rear - May swap to a 180mm front. 160 was fine on the hard tail but I think I'll be pushing extra hard on this
Avid Elixir 5 Brakes



First thing I did was take the whole thing apart and grease all the bearings and pivots, as well as removing paint overspray from the headset recess and a couple other bits of the frame. I thought I'd have to face the Bottom Bracket but its looking like I won't need to. That's a plus! threw everything back together with generous amounts of lube and a bit of locktite some places, and torqued it to my own spec since the torque specs printed on the bolts are absurd.


I'm just waiting for my headset to come in and I can go to town on this build. I also need BB spacers since my old frame was 73mm and this frame's got a 68mm BB. These won't be hard to source but it is preventing me from getting my drivetrain together.

I just put my order in for one of these. Sadly its got a 40 day lead time since I need big boy sizes.

I'm planning on going all out and sticking a cc dbinline on there. The rest of the build will be an xt 2x10 drivetrain w/ xtr chain, avid elixer 5 brakes, an x fusion velvet out front, at either 120 or 140. Tire duties will be ardents front and back, wheels are raceface turbines (25mm wide, bladed spokes, straight pull spokes). Cockpit is a mix of carbon and alloy raceface stuff. Probably going to be cane creek 40 for headset.

I already have everything except the  frame shock and headset.  There will likely be some paint shenanigans too.