Only could do a little urban playtime this afternoon, but so far, it's ****in' sweet. Smoooooooth. 27# right on, according to the local shop scale. A pound lighter than the old. It could easily get lighter, but that would involve some more money and compromises to tha parts I like to run, which I'm not willing to accept. For a Not a DH beat the crap out of it hardtail, but just a tough, general take a beating do it all bike. Other than the slightly longer TT (only size change i wanted.) it felt just like the old ride. Beautimous.
Everything bolted up/threaded in/dropped in just fine. Gene faced and chased things before he shipped it out. Nicely shaped and minimal in look gussets. Me likey the aesthetics.
The lowly chainhanger. An oft overlooked feature, and a nice touch to me. I wanted one. Not nearly as many bikes come with them these days. My bikes usually go on top of the car, on the rack. The chain hanger is nice for those once in a while times of throwing it in the back instead, since I generally take the wheels off for that.
38mm diamater downtube, 22.2mm chainstays, both with 1.2mm thick walls. Nice and stiff, lotsa' weld area. The rest of the frame tubing is 0.9mm thick. Braced disc brake side stays and the headtube junctions are the only actual gussets.
Fatties Fit Fine, to steal from Surly for a moment. That's a 2.6" Kenda there, with a bit of room for more. Same clearance as the old frame. That's about average size for the tires I like to run, though sometimes a bit larger or smaller for specific rides.
It'll get a nice shakedown cruise tomorrow afternoon at Sprain Ridge, just over the border from me, in N.Y. 27# near exact per the local shop scale. It was fluctuating between a bit under and a bit over.
Only new thing needed during the parts swap was a new seat collar/clamp; different downtube diameters. Everything swapped just fine, and the old frame is halfway through it's transformation to a rigid SS playbike.
