Replacement parts shipped out this morning. 

Been frequenting the local dirt jumps with my son and friends trying to get a little skills building session on the new frame.  Finally getting it reliable and dialed in.  Frame is comfortably handling 2-3 ft jumps and drops to flat with 230+ ride weight.  Ghost shifting and clicking under load are completely gone after setting the rear pivot bearings in place, and carefully loc-titing the bolts.  The rear no longer feels vague or loose under load or over chop / roots.  I knew these issues would go away once i got everything to stay tight, so I didn't mention them before.

Next task is working on the suspension to maintain suppleness over chop, yet improve the efficiency.  On longer rides, going from my old 140/100 frame to 150/150 now, this bike feels much bigger and heavier to lug around.  Some extra care setting up the suspension should go a long way towards closing the gap.

Thanks Emu.  That reminds me, I gotta update that thread, I have quite a few more shots to post from the last few months.

I have a temporary fix for my clearance issues while I wait for the new parts to arrive, though I'm not going to publicly post what it is.  But anyway, I got another ride in on the new frame last night.  This was a 13 mile ride, the first half is just grueling relentless climbs, and the second half is fast, weaving trees, and some tech.  the climbs were a bit challenging, and as the miles went on, I developed some ghost shifting.  Towards the end of the first half's climbs, I noticed some tire rub and finally stopped to check things out.  The pivot at the rear axle drive side had completely come loose.  The bolts were just floating, completely disconnected.  The seat stay and chain stay were completely separated.  I cant believe I didnt lose the bolt.  Anyway, go over and loctite all your pivot bolts.  Its not enough just to snug them up.  Put fresh loctite in there just to be sure.

After fixing the pivot issue, the bike was climbing and shifting much much better, and still felt supple on the downhills.  Ripping through the trees really felt amazing.  It felt like I had a TON more traction than my previous FS27 frame.  Really leaning the bike over and pushing into turns the bike didn't ever feel like it wanted to break loose.  Pedaling on flat and mild uphills I didnt notice any appreciable bob with the shock set to pedal platform level #2 of 4.  I was very happy with how it handles fast moving singletrack.  Uphills were a bit tougher, but I really need to go back and revisit those climbs now that the pivot and shifting are fixed.  I also have a few more pedal strikes compared  to my last frame, but always on compression events.  I may need a touch more air in the chamber to ride a little higher.  My sag was closer to 35% which is a bit much for me, though It felt great on the downhills.

All in all, it was a good ride, and I finally felt quite happy with the frame.

By the way guys, the Flip Chip offset is actually 13mm.  Not 10.  Not 15.  Its 13.   Not sure the reasoning, but its close to a half inch.  Rear travel is not impeded by anything other than the tire hitting the seat tube.   IMO a 185 shock should fit just fine, and you probably wont hit the tire to the seat tube at full compression.  A 195 should would probably also work in the 200 position, as long as the tire clears the seat tube, it will just sit a little lower.   More questionable is the 185 size.  With the 13mm offset, the 185 shock is actually going to put the seat stay arch 2mm closer to the seat tube than my 200mm shock, and clearance was already tight.

But all this goes away since nobody knows what the new casting for the rocker piece looks like.  It might have more clearance all the way around.

Hi everybody, I am having a question here regarding the fork length. I didn't see TanTan indicating the correct theoretical fork length. At least I didn't find it. When they say that the frame travel is 150mm, I assume I can't use a fork with 160mm which has a bit a too long overall length? I guess it would destroy the geometrie and the way how it feels and how the bike behaves while ridding, isn't?
Maybe you guys who bought this frame already may help me? What is the fork length of the fork you chose? Do you think it would work with a fox 36 grip 2 29wheel 160mm Fork?
I would really like to buy this frame but I am a bit insecure with these figures, also with the shock length, after I read the previous posts... 

Thank you very much!

I just took a guesstimate that a common fork would be the Fox 34 29er 150mm travel.  That fork has an axle-to-crown measurement of 557.  I stretched my 27.5+ Manitou Mattoc out to 150mm travel which gave me 559mm axle-to-crown which is pretty close to the fox.    Your Fox 36 has the same axle to crown as the similarly sized F34, so at 160mm travel you have 567mm axle to crown.  IMO thats not too bad, and within reasonable proximity to  the intended fork size.  Between the two, I'd always rather go slightly overforked than under forked.  Certainly the 160 shouldn't slacken out the head tube angle to the point of it being dangerous.  If it were me, I'd run that fork without hesitation.

I think 185x55 will be the same travel as 200x57.  But its always nice to have options for different shocks, especially if you already bought a 200mm one.

The manitou does have a rounded profile as opposed to teh fox's squared off nose, however I dont think theres much difference in profile.  Certainly not more than a mm or two, but I guess that could mean a considerable difference.   Still, I think this is a design flaw.  They provided a nice recess to give the shock nose plenty of clearance in the fully extended position, yet they didnt account for clearance as the suspension cycles, and the nose rolls upwards.  Should be an easy fix with a revised arch profile.  And a total non issue if you plan to use the shock in the smaller flip chip position.

The flip chip looks to be 10mm offset, not 15mm, assuming my eyeballs are properly calibrated.  If 200mm fits as it does in my frame, 190 would fit the same in the other position.    That said, I would think both 185 and 195 would fit just fine in the 190 and 200 positions respectively, however they would effectively be already 5mm into their stroke, so the bike would ride a little bit lower.  The 185x55 shock at full compression in the smaller position should finish only 3mm past a 200x57 shock, so depending on the rear tire, I could definitely see it working.