Old 12-20-06, 09:49 AM
  #11  
euroford
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arrrrrrrr!! stupid lost posts....

what was it i said in your other thread? something like "buy an all-mountain bike and give us a nice build thread" LOL

First off, let me say you've gotten a real score on that frame. its absolutly gorgeous, and i think it will fit your needs very well. not that i really know you, or know what your needs are, but from what i gather your in the perfect position to really love a nice "fun bike". thats kind of the way i think of the marketing term "all mountain", its just simply a bike that will be good enough over the largest variety of terrain to just simply be lots of fun.

So it needs to be pretty bombproof while keeping weight within a realistic margin. it needs to have enough travel to ride over about anything a normal person is brave enough to encounter, but not be a squishing boinging mess when you want to climb, you need brakes tough enough to handle descents, but not over the top DH stuff, and a drivetrain thats dead reliable and provides enough range to cover realisitic conditions.

seams like we are talking forks first, and i'm going to make a slighty diffrent recomendation that the others. look into something like a Marzocchi Z1 with the ETA. this way you get 150mm of cush travel when you point it down, and for climbing with the ETA engaged you get a reduced head angle and a near rigid platform. you can look at any of these from 2003-current as they havn't changed that much over the years. 20mm axles are definitly not for the weight weenies, but they do offer significant and noticable gains in rigidity.

brakes are kind of like a relegious discusion. everybody gets hooked onto whatever they believe in. my experience is limited, but i've found avid juicy's to be too graby, and new xtr's i tried were too mushy. the shimano saints i own are just lovely. hopes and magura's are bling. so heck i dunno, but of course your going with hydro's. i'd probobly go 180 or 160 in the rear, and 180 or 200 in the front depending on fork.

for your drivetrain, let me suggest you consider going with a 1x9 setup. you see, front derailures are the work of the devil, and unless your XC racing or trying to climb with a downhill/freeride bike and not worth the bother. if you go with a 9sp in the back, and a single chainring up front (with a guide, such as the MRP Slalom 3) you get a couple of good advantages. slightly reduced weight, slightly reduced cost, greatly reduced complexity and maintance, and a chain that will never fall off. what are you going to be missing? not much, with an 11x34 cassette and a 32-36t chainring (you might want to experiment a bit) you'll definitly be able to spin downhill faster than your mother would approve of, and anything you can't climb will be faster and easier to just hope off and push the bike up.

and oh god, lets not get into the sram vs. shimano thing. but let me just say this, i have two shimano xtr equiped xc bikes, and one sram x.9 equiped "heavy am/light freeride" hardtail, and now i'm bummed about having to replace the xtr stuff on the other bikes.


here's some 1x9 porn for ya.




edit: doh, i meant ETA not ETS while talking of marzocchi shocks.

Last edited by euroford; 12-20-06 at 04:10 PM.
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