Looking for a Good Home...

Found this poor, naked, thing on ebay, looking for a good home... look at those eye(lete)s, how can you say no? Actually, it was a steal considering the headset, seatpost and the fork that came with it.


This is a "29er" meaning that the wheels are larger than on a normal mountain bike (26"). Everyone who rides a 29er raves about it. "Once you go 29, you never go back." That sort of thing. So now I have drank the 29er kool-aid.

Part of the attraction of this frame is that it is not a hardtail (which has no suspension at all) but is rather a "soft-tail" meaning that the suspension is derived only from flex. There are no pivot points. There is a tiny little "shock absorber" right behind the seat. it is actually a wound spring wrapped in rubber, not a "normal" shock with air/oil and seals. Lower maintenance is a good thing. So the rear flexes a bit and the little shock changes "square rocks into round ones."

So although it doesn't have the 3.5" (or 5") of travel that the Rocky has, the 29" tires definitely roll over things better than a 26" bike (think of a skateboard wheel hitting a pebble). Also, the fact that the frame is made from titanium, means that the ride is smoother than a bike made from, say, aluminum. So, though I was looking for a 29er, I was thinking that full suspension was too much and that a hardtail was not enough, hence the focus on the soft-tail.

So now I've got a frame that needs to be built up...lots of choices...