Best parts upgrade in past 12 months.
 

Starting off, this is not to be a wheelsize debate.

Name the one upgrade that has made the best impression on you. It's easily the rigid fork for me now that I've got the small details dialed in.

I didn't actually get it in the mail yet, but I Know it's going to be my Hilo seat-post. We don't have any big hills around here, so you have to either suffer poor seat height 1/2 of your ride, or stop at the top and bottom of the hill every 10 minutes to adjust your seat height. The telescopic post is gonna make a huge difference in my riding.

Tubeless (on my new not to be mentioned 29'er bike). i bought the Stans kit yesterday and installed this morning. first ride this afternoon. nice difference in ride quality and traction. lowered the pressure to around 25 front 27 rear. i could probably go lower but that was about right per the guidelines on stan's website. i only have a little over 20 trail miles on these but made a very good first impression.

gw

Harbor Freight gram scale. Went all weight-weenie on the 303R last year - - relacing lighter rims with butted spokes, featherweight saddle, lighter fork. Shaved over 3 lbs. from the porker and improved its character overall. Stopped shy of a Ti spring but only because I couldn't find one at the price I wanted to pay. Still looking but the first money this season is going to Renthal bits and Minion DHFs.

replaced the 6" front rotor on my xc bike with an 8" ---- brakes are '06 era XTR's with centerlock mounting ---

bikie is a 4" travel XC/marathon type bike (Santa Cruz Superlight), but i really appreciate not having to set the brakes up in full "lockdown mode" like i did with the 6" rotors -- the bigger ones have more power with a better feel at the lever for modulating (i like a very slightly spongy lever feel in the first few mm's of lever travel -- this works great with 8" -- not so good with the 6" rotor where i had to set it up at full lockdown with the slightest finger pressure to get any power out of it

----- to a bike guy, the big rotor does look a tad out of place on a 25 lb bike, but my MX buddies think its trick as hell

Most noticeable difference, moving to a light Fox F-100 from a heavy Manitou Axle fork. Next, going to tubeless tires on Mavic (817's I think). Third, moving from Alivio level to LX level derailers.

Moving from Kenda Kinipton 2.3s to schwalbe marathon 1.5s.

Dropper post and Crank Bros Iodine carbon handlebar on my Kona Satori last year. The seatpost and super-wide bar made made everything so much easier. I can never go back to a bar narrower than 750mm.

I went back to full suspension.

I went from a Titus RacerX (26" version) to a fully rigid single-speed. Loved that, but then bought a Specialized Stumpjumper EVO R (carbon frame, 1x10 drive train, weighed about 21.5 lbs), and thought that was the best bike for the Boise foothills.

Borrowed a buddy's full-suspender on a quick lunch-time ride, and said "Oh yeah! THAT is what it used to feel like on a suspended bike!", and bought a Salsa Spearfish 2 the next weekend.

Sold the single-speed, and think I am gonna sell the Stumpjumper. I just don't see any scenario where I WON'T choose the Salsa.

It is a smile factory....


(To do what I was supposed to in this thread, I bought a RockShox Monarch RT shock, and them some other stuff to bolt that shock to. :D)