Originally Posted by chelboed

Flow didn't work out for several reasons. _______ so after 1 day of riding...it's been disassembled and taken to the slaughter house.

There was just one thing that I couldn't get past. The PIKE is a beautiful fork. After riding the Fox this season...I thought the PIKE would feel similar, but maybe not quite as smooth as the "legendary Fox" butter. I was gravely mistaken. The PIKE is noticeably smoother than the Fox. 20mm TA is nice to...so what's the hold-up?

The PIKE steerer tube is 185mm. My Komodo HT is fairly tall at 140mm. I have a super-low stack CB headset at 20.56mm. My stem is about 40mm. That adds up to around 200.56mm of stack. Add 3mm for top cap breathing room, and it's a no-go.

The solution will be here this weekend:
((picture of Spank Spike stem))

This is slated as a DH/FR stem, so it should be (fingers crossed) tough enough for me.
HT-140mm
HSet-20.56mm
Stem-26mm
Total stack 186.56

This should give me plenty of top cap room + a mini-spacer! (I have a 2mm on the shelf)

Back to the "1 bike to rule them all" theory, I guess. I'm sad that the Flow didn't work out, but my other reasoning is that I felt pretty selfish building a completely new bike for myself when I am not a wealthy guy and I have a family to take care of. It just seemed a bit childish, I guess. The Komodo is a nice bike. I can't deny that. I'm not gonna break this frame. The wheelset is stronger than I thought too. I was beating the crap out of it downtown on the Flow, and when I got home...they weren't even out of true.