It was a Friday night bike buildin' party

And in this corner of Redstone weighing in at 7.03 lbs is a Large Turner Sultan d dub…

My frame arrived Friday. Talk about anticipation, with this mild winter I was getting amped about riding full suspension again. All the great things I heard about the new suspension, plus a 29er offering 4.7” of travel in the rear, slacker head angle (70.5 when compared to Spyder 29r HA of 72), superb craftsmanship and built in the good ol’ USA made me pull the trigger on this. Honestly I had been waiting for the Intense 5.5 29er but after being teased for the past two years it became apparent it was not to be. After riding rigid for a while I’ve realized that big travel is not needed even on the nasty trail goodness we have near Lyons.

Dave was cool enough to rearrange his schedule so we could build it up Friday night after closing. That’s service…plus I think he was as excited as me to build up the bike. Thanks Dave!

And of course Friday night’s means Happy Hour at Redstone. It was a particularly lively happy hour several of the redstone crew + beer + bikes = good times. The full offering of OB beer was there and I brought in some Alaskan IPA that turned out to be a crowd pleaser.

Dave in action: selecting the right tool for the job.

Now back to the bike. Built it up with a combo of new and old parts. New XT cranks and front derailleur, 1 season old XT shadow rear d, old SRAM cassette made the drivetrain.

Old Joplin seatpost and WTB V rocket saddle. Old formula bianco brakes- still looking sexy as new. Old maverick duc 32 and old front flow with maverick hub. Dave built me up a new stan’s flow with a hope II pro. Instead of a bell on the handlebars I prefer a loud freewhelin’ hub to announce my presence on the trail to others- the hopes are louder than my American classics.

New rubber front and rear- WTB 2.3 stouts great hook up with small penalty in weight. These tires come with big whiskers. Get those tires a shave or do some road riding to the trailhead to scrub them off.
Good bling -new Pedals on the bike and cane creek 110 headset. I chose Acid 2 crank bros. They complement the raw/black/red theme of the bike wonderfully. Nice pedals too with a magnesium / carbon mix on the platform. Went with these to alleviate some of the pain in my foot I get after big rides. Chris L. was calling them Victoria’s Secret Lace Panties at this point cause they looked so damn good and he had a couple fo beers in him. Here is Aimee and Chris modeling the panties. I think Chris would make a great hand model.

Chad getting fresh with the panties too.

This all-mountain epic riding build finished in at 31lbs. An XC build would be around 28. Looks great just need to sort out the cockpit and put it through the motions once the trails dry out.