The handlebar is surprisingly narrow. I had read that it was but I really had to ride it to tell. I will probably upgrade it and the stem. The pedals are those off my Ruckus, until my Crank Brothers 5050XXs come in next week.

The suspension design is pretty rocking - all sealed bearing pivot points with six inches of travel. The rear shock has more technology than the front on my Ruckus, it has a lockout kind of thing with rebound adjustment and also makes toast. The Bomber on the front is pretty nice, 140mm travel with lockout and compression adjustment and it brews a hell of a cup of coffee.

Scales is going to get powned.

Badical bike.  I want it.  Having a fresh set of nice gears should really help out at Scales.

sweet looking ride, it has a very interesting frame and suspension layout. What kind of components is it matched with?

The bar, stem, seat post and crank are all RaceFace Ride. (I swapped in my Thomson post and Selle Italia Flite saddle before I even put pedals on.) Shifters and rear derailleur are SRAM X.7, front derailleur is Shimano Deore LX. Brakes are Hayes Stroker Ryde hydraulic discs (180f/160r). Hubs are generic Giant sealed hubs, rims are WTB Laserdisc Trail. Fork is a Marzocchi 600 TST2, rear shock is a Fox RP2. Tires are Kenda Nevegal 2.35" which look like they will be great. Headset is a Cane Creek, I would guess IS-2 but I am not positive.

I have Crank Brothers 5050XX pedals coming next week. The RaceFace Ride stuff is all XC oriented so I will probably upgrade the bar and stem soonish. The bar is too narrow for my taste anyway. I may actually keep the crank, it is fairly stout.

No pictures, but last week I picked up a Gravity Light handlebar from the only bike shop that matters, Dan's Comp.

The stock bar on this bike, a RaceFace Ride XC, was 640mm (25.2 inches) wide. The Gravity Light bar is ... <drumroll> ... 800mm (31.5 inches) wide. Pictures to come when I install it. I will probably wait until I get a new stem too.

You're going to get stuck between two trees.

There's only that one spot at Scales, going around that one section of the lake with the really steep, narrow hill. I take that slow anyway because I'm a talentless hack. I'll be fine on the rest.

I told him he must have the wingspan of a pteranodon. The width of these bars must be witnessed to be believed.

They are a LOT wider than most bars but I think I'll adjust pretty well. Just trying them out so far without them on the bike they feel great .. of course I haven't been on my bike in months so I don't really have the muscle memory of narrow bars.

If they are too wide I can cut them down but I think they'll be fine. As I mentioned to Frank, I am 6'3" with a 36" inch sleeve so it's not like they're tremendously out of proportion to my body.

So, your bike is going to look like this in a couple of months?:

Probably a little closer to these:

Those are all excellent angles from which to judge handlebar width.

THANKS COCKMASTER

Those pics were mostly to give an idea of what my book will look like overall when I'm "done" with it. Here's a comparison pic of the 800mm vs the 710mm (28 inch):



Of course the 710mm model is already three inches wider than my current bars so you'll have to use your IMAGINATION

Here's a pic of an 800mm on a bike, but the dude cut it down to 780mm:



I unfortunately won't be able to get a picture of it compared to my old bar until I get a new phone. My current old-ass LG doesn't get along with Vista.

Damn, those will definitely feel different.  They look HUGE.

Those handles bars should give you a much more stable landing on your next x-games jump. 

take me to the moon.

Bad picture quality because I'm not a photographer and my cell phone sucks. NEW FORK AND WHEELS HI

Fork is a 2009 Marzocchi 55R: 160mm travel, 35mm stanchions, 20mm through-axle
Wheels are: red Hope Pro II hubs, white Sun Ringle Equalizer 29 rims, black 14 gauge spokes (Frank would probably know the brand), red alloy nipples

Derek also put my fancypants wide bar on, and man do I love the feel of it.








My old wheels, fork, and bar are for sale if anyone is interested.

I'm guessing this is what happened:

You tweaked your rim last season so you wanted to upgrade to something beefier.  Once you had the rims picked out you decided that as long as you were getting new wheels built, you might as well upgrade the hubs.  While shopping for hubs you started thinking  that if you were going to buy some really nice ones you wanted them to last a while, so you better make sure you upgrade to a 20mm front axle.  Finally, you ended getting a new fork that was compatible with that axle.

Am I close? 

That's kind of backwards, but yeah.

I wanted the front end of the bike to have as much travel as the rear, plus I wanted a slightly steeper head angle. So I wanted a 160mm fork (the stock fork was 140mm). I figured if I upgrade the fork I might as well get a 20mm TA and bigger stanchions. With the new fork I would need a new front hub, but I wasn't in love with my wheels anyway so figured I might as well get some new ones. And if I'm going to spend the money I might as well get good stuff.

The rims were Frank's recommendation and they look pretty beefy. I wanted Hope hubs because from what I've read on MTBR they last forever and are super easy to service. Plus they're red which is pimp, and they don't cost as much as Chris Kings or Hadleys.

I briefly considered a Fox 36 Van R but it was almost twice as much as the 55R and the name doesn't mean much to me. I would've saved about 1 lb in weight but even still my bike only weighs in at 33 lbs right now.

My bike is nearing "done." Really I just "need" a new stem now, but I'd like to replace the brakes and crank eventually. Speaking of, you still want to sell me that BG?

Buy me a season pass to Scales and it's yours. 

I could just give you one of my cards, they gave me two. But sure thing, that works for me.