You guys are my favorite forum ever so that's why I'm posting the thread bragging about my new ride here, even though it may not necessarily be topical.

I don't have much to say besides I freaking love the thing and a year of hard work definitely pays off.

The bike is a one of twenty-five edition of the Niner MCR built to benefit IMBA. As a high school racer, this bike is a little piece of history for me.

Shimano XT, King hubs laced to Velocity Blunts with DT Rev's, Moots post, Fox RLC...OK, I'll shut up and let the pictures do the talking.









Action shot:

very cool bike. I think I'll go 29r here soon if I can get a few key parts together.

That's pretty! And nicely spec-ed out. I dig the decals made from topographic maps.

Cool. What area do the maps represent?

Nice

Drietz...awesome, as expected from you. Really cool mtb.

VERY VERY nice!!!

Thanks guys - especially Toytech, who owns the crankset that is so rudely equipped on the bike.

From what I could gather, the maps represent a good section of famous East Coast singletrack. Very cool decals underneath the clear.

I've still got to get my own crank and some new XT brakes, but after that I'm done buying things for bikes for a while. Also got most of the parts to finish up the Mercian in the garage, which I suppose is more relevant to this forum's discussions.

Nomad: I highly recommend the 29er format to anyone over 5' 4". I race high school cross country and from my shake down ride (only a brutal 35miles), this bike handles as quick and sharp as any 26" machine I can get my hands on. It's so smooth of a ride that I see no need for a FS, and almost went with the rigid fork that came with the bike.

Love that frame! The rest of it is a little too white for my taste, but still an awesome bike!

Killer! 26lbs?

Lester - I went a little heavy on the bling, what can I say?

Jan - a tad under 27lbs. I think it'll get down to 25 when I set it up tubeless with folding bead tires.

You and Chris need to take me on a tour of Lake Chabot, so I can get hat thing mudded up in person.......

I'm always up for it. We seriously need to take a tour of some local climbs...

As long as you wait for at the top

That looks awesome, I've been bitten by the 29er bug myself, and I hope to build a nice steel one similar to yours. Everybody try not to slip on the collective drool puddle!

Finally, a bike with thicker tubes than you!

My first thought was that I wanted to see your skinny butt on a phat-tube mountain bike.
My second thought is that we need to see it really dirty. Go play in the mud, eh?

Robbie, there's specks of dirt visible under the BB shell. Don't worry - I have a feeling it will be put to good use.

Awesome. I've got a Reynolds 853 29er, too (Jamis Dragon 29), and love it. I'm running mine fully rigid with tubeless Racing Ralphs, 29 x 2.25 in back and 29 x 2.4 in front. I run the tires at about 25 psi and get a pretty plush ride. Sometimes I'm tempted to go to a suspension fork, and if I did, I'd want the same fork you're using. Congrats on the cool bike!

Awesome bike.........the 853 is is great stuff! I have ridden 853 rather extensively and it seems I wore out before it did

that is a great looking bike. i absolutely love the frame and the white parts set it off nicely.

if we had land like that i would still have my mtb.

That thing is hot!

Then you want Diablo Foothills. I did just under 10 miles there yesterday, with 1800' of climbing. Max grade was 23.8% (pretty sure I walked up that one), but most all of the climbs were comfortably in double digit territory.

Wow! Some roadies would be afraid of messing up something that looks that good. My guess is that you won't have that problem.

i thought you just posted "... but after that I'm done buying things for bikes for a while." i've said that myself once or twice and yet the UPS guy and me are on a first name basis and exchange christmas cards.

or have you already got the folding bead tires? just yanking your chain.

Hey now - it wasn't all that muddy out there, last time it rained was probably a week ago. There were muddy sections, but you're right...still too clean!

The Pleasanton Ridge also has some fairly steep climbs. Stuff out this way is just sustained, sometimes steeper but usually pretty mellow.

And, as a matter of fact, I already had a Nobby Nic and Racing Ralph here before the bike was built. I have those set aside for race season.