... the 3.0" tire is the future of mountain biking. 

Every new fad in biking is proclaimed to be the future of mountain biking. I personally am still loving the hell out of my undersized and lower traction (but fast as blazes) 29x2.0 tires. Not everyone values ultimate traction over other considerations. Plus does seem to be a better solution than fat bikes, but "the future of mountain biking" remains to be seen. So far the only fad that's delivered that is larger wheel sizes. Good luck finding any top level bike that comes in 26" wheels anymore.

Sounds good to me, I'd be happy to contribute as well.

ebruner - saw the Kona photos, but had to notice the Miata. Beautiful color, looks like a serious bar. Curious to see more about that.

Update: Wound up going with the 041, and it cracked behind the seat tube after only a handful of VERY light duty rides. Extremely bad design, poorly executed. Being told it was a bad batch, but if there was any quality control at all, this would have been caught.

Considering there have been multiple reports of the 256 cracking, and now this bad batch of 041 frames showing that there is no testing or QC happening on these frames, the only 29er hardtail I would recommend is the 057. I know several big, strong guys who ride the 057 with good results. Stay away from the light frames.

The problem with Titanium is that depending on quality it will be stronger or weaker then steel. I'd bet that the CB Ti spindle is high quality (but such expensive!) when the cheap ones are weak. I'd stick to steel.

No. Got a degree in mechanical engineering and was into bikes when I went to school so was particularly interested in the materials aspect. Titanium is _not_ stronger than steel - it may have a higher specific strength, which is to say its strength relative to its weight, but there is no grade of titanium that is stronger than any decent grade of steel.

Looking at specific strength, there are grades of aluminum that are stronger than steel - relative to their weight - but you wouldn't make pedal spindles out of it.

Even with the highest quality aircraft grade titanium I would _NOT_ run Ti spindles if I were over 180lbs or so - the diameter of the pedal spindles is just far too small, and the penalty for a spindle failure is too damn painful.

base on the pedal you use, I believe you when you say the bike was not ridden "seriously" when it broke ... ;-)

Yep, exactly. It's had maybe a total of 6 rides under a 120lb woman and a 150lb man - the last ride with the plastic flat pedals.

but if the seat post went pass the section where it broke, that means the seat tube has room for the post to "move around", and enough so that it cracked site tube.

I'm sorry, that just doesn't make any sense. If the seat post is inserted far enough into the frame, especially as the frame is reinforced at this point, then there is no reason whatsoever for the frame to have broken here except defective product.

Just follow every single recommendation of this book
http://www.wheelpro.co.uk/wheelbuilding/book.php

I can agree with that. I've been building wheels since the early 90s (yeah, I'm old, what of it? ) and got that a while back. Thought it was probably the best book I'd seen on the subject.

Very good! I have been lazy and just used the frame/fork to build the wheels. It still worked but a stand is definitely better. You will also need a dishing tool. I've been VERY lazy on this one too, but I really like this solution. 2 mugs/glass and some coins :

LOL - that's brilliant! That stack of coins might be worth as much as a dishing tool, but at least then you can still use them to buy more stuff.

Thank you for sharing.
I just sent an email asking about a seatpost.

To re-build my CS-041 I need a seatpost of 420-430mm to be sure it goes far enough.
A 400mm is ok, but I would prefer it a bit more inside the frame.

Holy crap... if a 400mm seat post isn't long enough, you sure you're on the right size frame?

They may have a design issue on that frame.

You ain't just whistlin' Dixie...

As mentioned elsewhere, we got an 041 for my wife as a backup bike. She's ridden it maybe four times, and never anywhere too technical, mostly local trails. Plenty of info about her thoughts in the linked post.

A couple weeks ago, I had a buddy try it out so he could check out MTB. He wasn't a fan, but he's a city boy and doesn't like being in the woods. Freak. 

Today, another buddy gave it a try on the same trails, which are _very_ non-technical. It's called the Green Ribbon trail, and it's easily ridden on a road bike with 23c tires. Some roots here and there, but otherwise glassy smooth hardpack. While we were out riding, I hear a loud crack, and look back, nothing seems amiss, huh... guess something just shifted on the bike or something. My buddy jokes that he just broke the bike.

Get home and I'm bringing the bike in the shop and I remember this post, so I run a finger on the area shown in dudleik's photo, and...



Considering all the other issues we had with this frame, I'm supremely unimpressed at this point. I pulled the seatpost out and compared it to this junction, and the post went past where it cracked.

At this point, considering the age of the frame, I would think long and hard before getting an 041.