She ain't pretty, for now

Well it's done, finally. For now. The reduce, reuse, recycle of the Blue XC Carbon is finally done after a few of these and a few of those changes. For now!!

Why do I say for now, well lets just say that it isn't a light as I was hoping. This girl has a little junk in the trunk but it's more in the front end. There is a reason that it's tipping forward. It's not that bad but I'm pretty sure the current setup weights more than my Anthem. HMMM Carbon hardtail versus Aluminum full suspension. Well considering I salvaged things of a bike a don't use and didn't go weight weenie with the parts I had to buy it's pretty good. For now.

So the build up. Drivetrain is a mix of Shimano XT and Sram X9. I used one of two of the Race Face Evolve crank set's that just happen to be laying around. It's wild how much stuff you acquire. Not bad stuff for weight but bomb proof shifting. Time ATAC's to stand on. Not changing there.

MTB/Mavic wheel set. Another acquired thing as these are the stock wheels on my Anthem and came off and hung on the wall, till now. The weight isn't bad but I may switch on a set of SLR's from time to time.

Hayes 9 brakes. After being bugged about the first set of brakes that I started to put on, Jacob was nice enough to repair another set I just had hanging around. I now know why I had to move to a bigger house, to much stuff. Next purchase, a bigger house again??? Naw may just have to get rid of one of the spare bedrooms.

One place I can drop some weight and this is one of those for now type thing will be the seat post, currently it's a tank allow, carbon will more than likely happen. Seat, it's a seat, it's light, it's not that comfortable but it's for short races, it will work. There is a lot of standing in mountain biking right??

The front end, where she sags. Currently there is a RoxShox Duke in the front. 80mm. It was another one of those things just laying around. There also happens to be a Manitou Skareb but I'm a little certain that she is beyond feeling 100 percent safe. A minor tear down sometime may happen. I'm currently looking for a year old 100mm with remote lock out. Any sellers?? The only other thought will be that I upgrade one of the forks on the Anthem's and put the Sid on the Blue. For now she is going to be fat.

So what was the reason for this build up. First it will keep both of my Anthem's put away for endurance races only, they will only come out for races longer than 3.5 hours. The Blue will be for used for training and short races. The bigger reason. If we end up with a race season like last year where there were on more than one occasion races where you needed to shoulder your bike to run, it's much easier to carry a hardtail than a full suspension. The linkage and the shock are just not in a great position unless you like puncture marks in your shoulder.

Of course the other thing, I still like riding a hardtail. Feeling, acceleration, reminder that you have to be smooth because you don't have a 4x4 between your legs anymore. I also could not let a good frame go to waste. If I start falling pray to the weight I can see with a little work that the bike will end up around the 22 pound mark. Still not the lightest bike out there but like last year O-cups are training for me so a heavy bike is good, right????

Weekend is shaping up, the weather is shaping up, the coffee is, Perfect!!! Gotta go, for now!! It's Friday!!