Enter

I snowboard in the winter.
Orienteer/adventure race in the other seasons (which is my reason to mountain bike).

I used to rockclimb indoors a lot but stopped between tearing my labrum and moved to NYC (Jersey City) where there's no great options nearby to head to on weekdays (also they're f'ing expensive up here). NYC Metro area also hurts me for my mtbing takes a while to get to nearby trails and I don't have my friends to ride with anymore.

Flyboarding looks awesome.
I want to get into speed-flying, i tell everyone that's how I plan to die. ()

Had some unexpected expenses, held off but going to start sourcing parts soon. Sadly won't have bike ready for some of my earlier races at this point.

Reverted to waffling between running my lefty max at 110-120mm or selling it to pick up a fox float 120 ctd with remote.

Hopefully have good news soon.

Still running the old prophet a bit longer.

Agree its all kinds of special

Any update as to the quality of those rotors?

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/2013-NEW-red-full-carbon-fibre-bike-bicycle-MTB-Handlebar-seatpost-stem-top-cap-washer/1458357729.html

Any reason to think the bar/post/stem in the above link is subpar quality. Looks like a great price for a carbon bundle.

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/fox-32-float-29-ctd-remote-fit-100-tapered-qr15-432377/wg_id-8720

Anyone know if this is a particularly good price on this fork?

Also for the IP-036 with a L or XL frame 100mm or 120mm appropriate?

Have been away a while and lurking recently again. Did a bunch a research a while back when my bikes direct bike HT was stolen. Picked up a used cannondale prophet FS 26er to race on in the meanwhile.

I'm getting back to the desire to build a bike instead of pick up another used or bikes direct bike.

Never really solicited crowd advice yet, curious what y'all think.

My background:
My primary bike use is adventure racing (or bike orienteering) which tends to have lots of road riding and usually less technical mtb terrain. I mean it is really not fun hauling 30+lbs of Cannondale prophet with a full race pack up the side of a mountain. My only other use is training for races and sometimes I join the roadies on my MTB for long rides instead of using my old trek road bike.

Id consider myself an early intermediate mountain biker who is willing to be ballsy come race day... Or if biking at night (always love doing things at night I wouldn't do during the day!) Anyway if stuff gets too steep/ hairy I'm walking. But been getting better over time.

I'm guessing light weight and road efficient is probably my number one priority while being technically capable.
Oh and some nice big disc rotors... Had run in with brake fade while trying keep my bike under 60mph on a very steep long mountain road on a mcguyverly repaired tubeless tire that delaminated, bubbled and exploded on me leaving me a tennis ball sized shredded area.  Long story short I'd like to try to reduce having to worry about brake fade again if it makes sense.

I'm trying to keep the build around 2k give or take a few hundred and will be selling the prophet to help fund the new bike (which is sad since the FS was fun to ride, definitely made things a bit easier too)

So suggestions? I'm thinking HT 29 spending the money on the rims and frame with moderate components otherwise and a lockout fork. Imagine a FS with lockouts on both rear and front might be out of my budget... and maybe even counter intuitive to meet my needs.

Not in a rush as I still have the prophet so I will try to snipe good deal on the components but I'd like to try to get the ball rolling soon. Really appreciate any advice!