Just a long term update on my N019 bike experience --in short,  the bike is still running great!

I've tweaked a few things over the years, namely around the stem length and drivetrain.

Stem length
It took a while for me to dial in the turn-in feel caused by the long fork+spacer induced rake. I adjusted the front & rear tire pressures and stem length, and I also went to a flat Ti bar. The only surprise really was the impact the rear tire pressure seems to make. Up or down a few Psi transforms the bike substantially. I expected this for the front tire pressure,  but the rear tire makes a notable difference as well. I suppose it is because the rear ride height changes, hence the head angle...

Drivetrain
The XT/XTR 10 speed setup gave way to the Di2-ification of the rest of my bike fleet, I now run a 1x10 Di2 setup with a 6770 Ultegra rear derailleur and an XTR shifter. It works just fine with the derailleur hanger extender and a 42t cassette big ring. With a 32t oval ring up front, there’s plenty of gear going up.

I’ve taken the bike almost 1000 miles and now live on the west coast, where single track is either up or down 15 degrees. Not much flat anymore, and I’ve been really impressed that, we’ll, the frame hasn’t snapped from the foolish descents I’ve taken on it. No I’m not hitting 10’ drops and ramps on it, but there have been dozens of “whoa” moments where I pondered my sanity and the structural integrity of the head tube.

My greatest annoyance with the bike is the fork axle and crankset — neither of which are the frame’s fault. The drive side BB screw just loves to back out 4mi in regardless of threadlocker. Since moving west, my MTB trail vehicle is now a Porsche Boxster which while cool as heck requires removing the front wheel 2x per ride. Pulling out the 15mm Bitex axle is a pain, and I may be switching to a Mendon Cyclery Lefty fat conversion this winter.

The bike is a huge collection of unique weird hacks and oddities, and I admit I enjoy the befuddled look of dudes on their cookie cutter Specializeds. Especially passing them uphill 

Here’s a short compilation video featuring this project bike and the Boxster bike rack rigging.
Cheers!



-Robert

Looks awesome dude! Love the deep rims too!

With the crazy warm weather we've had, I haven't been in snow yet on my 019--Looking forward to it!

Have one question:  Since the steering tube is tapered and your spacer plus the crown equals around 12+mm, how is your bearing making good contact with the tube since the ID goes down to around 40mm at the point where it makes contact?  I've tried with the Niner's 5mm crown and noticed after tightening the headset, the shock would wobble at the bottom due to not making perfect contact between the tube and bearing?

Howdy Nash,

The steerer on my particular fork (not sure if this is true for others) has a non-tapered section that measures about 10mm up from the crown. This provides more than enough bite for the spacer to grab and center the steerer into the bearing. After now 15+ rides on the thing, there is no wobble or funny business from the spacer mod--I'm very pleased!

Very nice looking build! Happy to see that you built the wheels yourself too.

Keep us posted.

I'll measure the clearance on my 019 for you if you like... Other than that, I can't say.

Sweet! Congrats man, I'm envious.

That's awesome you found such a solid solution to the fork clearance issue. Something like that probably would've scared me from doing the build, but it was no big deal, really. Looking forward to hearing if it's functioning well, and other ride impressions, and also total bike weight.

Thanks for sharing.

Cheers Izzy, thanks! 

Total bike, ride ready is 29.3lbs. Its a tad heavier than I originally estimated at ~27-28, but we all know that weight forecasts are notoriously underestimated.

I wouldn't say that it was "no big deal" to figure out a solution for the fork clearance issue. I worried about it for several days, and only with the help of CMH and Chris @ MTBtools did it get solved. I'm hoping that Chris will make a commercially available adapter for this to solve others' problems, because the end result worked out great.

A couple notes on the build an assembly:

Internally routed cabling.
I knew this would be a little tough for me as I've never threaded a shift cable internally before. Well, it was. The sewing thread + vacuum cleaner trick just didnt work for me... the outlet holes were too small on the 019 frame to get enough suction. I ended up forcing the cabe into the down tube, then catching it with the bottom bracket off and precariously sliding it out of the correct outlet. The rear brake hose cable (on the left side of the frame) came with an inner liner, so pushing it through to the other side was easy. Why couldn't the shift cable have that too?

Seat tube paint cracking.
Upon tightening the included seatpost clamp, I noticed a hairline crack at the collar. I think it is just in the paint, but still... it's a bummer. It's on monitor status now.

Headset
The MTBtools elevated race worked perfectly. It lifted the exact amount needed to clear the pressure cap of the fork: 11mm. The 45deg bevel that Chris machined centered perfectly on the lower headset sealed bearing (a chinese copy of the FSA 42/52 internal). The upper side of the headset was a disaster. No combination of spacers would get it to turn freely, and I ended up questioning my sanity on the assembly of the upper section. As it turns out--- the chinese FSA headset that I got for $25 was junk, at least for the upper section. The spliced centering collar sat about 2mm too low, causing the top dust cover to compress against the frame: making it turn like shit, and very quickly flake off the paint  I ended up finding another spliced collar from my parts bin that sat the dust cover high enough. In hindsight, I'd probably just order a new FSA 42/52 internal headset for $60 or whatever and have it done right from the beginning. Future builders: don't bother with the "included" chiner headset

Tires
I've never seated tubeless fat tires before, so when I decided it was time to mount the tires (5:12pm on the day before Thanksgiving), I realized that to do this correctly you need an inner tube! And with holiday, all of the bike shops were closed.  Here's where REI came in for the win, for the second time actually. They had a fat inner tube, and were open late. Sweet. I was going to really lament not having the new bike rideable on a 4 day weekend with 60deg F outside!

Handlebars
Once she was all put together and I was done just staring at the bike (mesmerized), I did some late night street riding to sort out the issues. Well, the stem+handlebar combo was the first issue I had to handle. After riding the bike 10 feet it was clear that the long stem (100mm) and narrowish handlebar (660mm) were just not gonna work with 4" fat tires. I had a spare chiner carbon handlebar (that hasn't broken off yet) that was marginally wider (680mm) and I salvaged the 70mm stem from my 29er. It's better but still not perfect. I will be ordering a 730mm Ti bar shortly...

And?! How does it ride!?
I've ridden one other fatbike before, and only briefly. A Specialized Fatboy SE. Entry level rigid, and super slow, but enough of a hoot to greenlight this project.

In short, this ride is STUNNING!!!! I just can't believe it! It climbs, descends, accelerates and brakes really well. And it corners like SEX!

I have already gone on two rides on my usual loop. The first ride found myself laughing the whole way; I was goofing around on the thing, experimenting with different tire pressures, cornering positions and lines, and still managed to almost tie my PR set by my hardtail 29er. The second ride today was a little more sorted and focused, and I totally crushed my PR. 1h15m on the N019, versus 1h23m on my 29er. I just couldn't believe it!

Upon some reflection and a beer since the ride today, I've concluded that the time saved comes from the sheer cornering speed and resulting leg energy on reserve. There is so much traction, even when the bike is pitched over that it just becomes less necessary to touch the brakes. It's almost scary. The slightly raked front fork (resulting from 2" of lift, between the race adapter and the suss fork) means that sweeping twisty sections are confidence inspiring, and it doesn't get unsettled when pitched over and going over changing terrain. The tire absorbs a lot of the tiny bumps too, so you have the encouraging impression that the trail is smooth asphalt. So, higher cornering speed, higher exit speed, less gas burned on accelerating out of the corner.

The Fatboy SE that I rode had heaaaaavy wheels, and boy did you feel it. My legs were burning quickly out of tight cornering sections. The N019, however didn't really feel any slower than my 29er on acceleration--a miracle given the sheer size. The 135/197mm axles, 80mm carbon rims, and tubeless Husker Du's are a truly awesome combination. It tracks alarminlgy well overall and really doesnt seem to care how you pitch the bike.

A couple negative points:
-   At 0-2mph, the handling is... well, super sluggish and it takes some getting used to. I'm holding out until I get the 730mm bar really. But there was a moment in a technical rocky section where I slowed down to a crawl, bonked and couldnt twist the front wheel out of it (like I usually would). I ended up dropping the bike and scratching the seatstay on a rock. Oh well.

-  No Lizard Skin that I've found fits the huge chainstays. I installed an adhesive chain smack guard, but it still clacks the frame pretty hard on rocky descents.

-  The rear brake mounting bolts seem to be too far to the axle; my Hope brake only bite into 70-80% the 160mm rotor. I may go 185mm in the back and shim the caliper out later on.

Overall, I'm very pleased!! Yes, it ended up being more expensive and heavier than I planned ($2150, 29.3lbs), but good God is it fast and fun (I'll admit, it's gorgeous to me  too!)

-RVC

Looks great! Let's see some daylight pics!

Also, I received the spacer ring from MTB tools and will need to tweak the ID slightly to get to fit. The craftsmanship and speed delivered by Chris/MTBtools was simply fantastic though!

I'm really looking forward to get it installed and ridden! Lately work and other activities have been crazy though and deleted my freetime to work on the fb project...