laura,
that niner is scott namken's, not scott my roommate. do you know him? he's my one of my two friends named scott with tons of tattoos that work at cyclist and ride orange ss 29er's. hahaha this scott is the head mechanic at cyclist.

also, are you coming to the track tonite? i'm racing. last week i did pretty well... 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in my races. i did loose to a woman though. everyone was giving me crap. hahaha

dutret,
i agree rigid is best. it makes you really have to ride smooth and pick the best lines. the carbon fork is made by pace. i think they make a 26" version as well. again, i cannot speak highly enough about this fork. it works beautifully. it flexes, as it should, so perfectly.

as far as staying away from ebb, i disagree. there is no real effort involved in the chain tensioning. just get the chain on the cog, and put the axles in the dropouts... bing! the ebb moves until the chain is at good tension. i know three folks with ss mtbs with ebb's and they all love them.

speaking of rigid forks, does anyone have experiences with the on-one 29er fork? i'm tired of my future 29er parts bin collecting dust, so i've decided to go with the 29 inbred frame. i'll probably want to go with their fork too, but i don't want something that rides as crappy as the surly 29 fork. that thing is way too springy.