This bike never showed up on the waitlist, because it was partially a surprise for my good friend Rusty (his birthday was yesterday) from me and his lovely wife Natasha.
But it's worthy of a writeup, since I'm incredibly jealous of it and most of the parts have been hidden in the back of my garage for like a month so that Rusty wouldn't catch wind of what was going on.
So, first, the bike is way fancy, obviously. And it's way light - 23.5 pounds as shown, and it'll be pushing 23 once Rusty puts his fancy seatpost and saddle (shown are my old junker Bonty saddle from the mid-90s and a Thomson I had sitting around) on there. If you really went nuts on a few parts (cassette, rear derailleur, tires, ti bolts, etc) I bet you could get to 22. Wow.
Geometry:
100mm travel front and rear
71* head tube, 71* seat tube. Rusty has LOOONG femurs, so it's a very slack seat tube angle, and consequently a shorter front center (65.7cm) than you'd expect given the toptube length.
109.5cm/43.1" wheelbase
62cm/24.4" toptube, 50cm/19.7" seat tube, 77.5cm/30.5" standover
44cm/17.3" chainstays
13.5" (unsprung) BB height
130mm/5.2" head tube, for a tapered steerer
Direct mount for a front derailleur, if Rusty ever decides to run one.
And of course, there's the parts spec. Rusty geeked out about pretty much every part on the bike (except a few bits like the wheels that we surprised him with):
-Enve 29" XC rims laced to DT 240 hubs (15mm front, 10mm rear)
-Easton EC90 bar, Ritchey WCS stem and foam grips, Easton EC90 post (not shown), SLR saddle (not shown)
-Fox RLC 100mm taper fork and King HS.
-M970 cranks, Crank Bros with ti spindles, Paul chainguide
-X9 shifter and rear derailleur, PG1080 11-36 cassette, Homebrew 36t ring
-Magura MT-6 brakes (I am very impressed with these) and Storm SL rotors
-Ikon 2.2 tires front and rear.
What would something like this set you back? About $6200.
How does it ride? Well, so far we've only ridden it around the parking lot, so who knows, but I will say this - it is disconcertingly light, and disconcertingly stiff. Those are probably both good things. I'll get the full report from Rusty when he's back in TX on dry trails.
6 comments:
Nice! Could not make up my mind whether to ride road or dirt today, this post helped me make up my mind.
Dayumm, that is a sweet ride.I thought I was going to get big-time sticker shock when you talked about fancy spec. But for that spec, it's not too bad when you compare it to big-mfg bikes of the same spec. I can't believe I'm saying that about a $6100 bike, but it actually seems true. Well done, Walt. Rusty is a lucky dude!
THAT is a nice freakin' bike!!
Nice craft there Walt!
Badass!
Super cool bike. Very impressive. That blue also rocks.
That's awesome...
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