Mean Joe Queen - Amature Mooto-X Pilot

The last few weeks I've been scouring the internet reading reviews and shopping for bike parts for my upcoming hoopty bike build. I also visited my favorite bike shop and placed an order for some other sweet goodies. A couple of days ago the USPS lady showed up toting the fork that I purchased from On-One. I decided to order the fork from the factory rather than from a retailer. The exchange rate that we currently enjoy with the folks from England means that I get the fork for about a 100-150 dollar saving over purchasing it in the US.

The On-One Carbon Fiber (or as Old Greg calls is plastic) fork is reasonably light, but not so light that it has a rider weight limit, which is good for me, cuz with gear, i'm usually teetering on the max weight limit for most uber light bike stuff. I digress i'm not a weight weenie anyway. The main reasons I chose this fork was the offset or rake is 47mm which speeds up the steering on a 29er over traditional geometry forks ranging from 38-42ish. And I'm hoping to reduce some of the trail vibration that reaches my paws. I'll also be riding a Ti frame with Ti handle bars which should smooth out the trail also.

There seem to be 2 schools of thought on 29er front end geometry. One school uses a super steep head angle, 72-73 degrees and a shorter offset/rake of 38-42mm. The other school uses a slacker head angle 70-72 and longer offset (Fisher bikes famous G2 geometry uses 69.3 (they use a little steeper angle on the larger frames) head angles and 51mm fork offsets). My new frame will have a 71.5 head angle, the same as my Karate Monkey. The Karate monkey fork had 42mm of offset, so I'm hoping to increase the speed of the steering a bit, hopefully it won't be twitchy.

Also, picked up a new XT crank online at Chain Reaction Cycles, again the exchange rate swayed my decision. I considered other cranks on the market but this is my 4th XT crank, it's reasonably light, stiff, reliable and just works.

Ergon Grips. Again I considered other grips, but I've owned 2 other sets and know that they work. They take the edge off of the trail and have a handy little bar end (bigger on this one than my others and made of magnesium instead of aluminum, big deal). They work, for me YMMV. I went with the small size this time. My first pair was small on my 1x1 and I picked up lage's when I built the KM. I think I prefer the small size, or lady's size, thank's ergon for de-masculating me (is that a word?).

Wood N' Wave Steve ordered me other parts i'll need to finish up the build. CK headset, XTR BB (I like to keep a spare around cuz I tend to go through these). And something I've never tried before, a WTB Silverado saddle. I've used the Speed V(on the Cross Check now), Pure V Camo(on the 1x1 and curently on the KM), and Rocket V(on my old Hifi), I liked all of them. My least favorite being the Speed V.

I'll use my Magura Marta's and AC single speed wheels that I have collecting dust in my garage to add to the build. Also, I plan to purchase a Moots stem, handle bar, and seatpost after the sale of the sexyest bike in the world....the Karate Monkey.

BTW anybody need a KM? I'll be offloading in in 4-6 weeks.