I only have a few rides on my new VT 1. Great bike and lots of fun to ride. It is an able climber and rocks on the downhills. Photos are from Wakefield in Northern Virginia. Visited the new Air and Space Museum after that...a definite place to visit if in the DC area.

Sweet bike!!!
How do you like that minute fork?

-mtnbikerdude87

The Minute 1 fork is great. It is pretty plush when you need it and stands up to hard stroking very well.

"stands up to hard stroking very well"

oh my:eek::D

Hi
I am a french mountain biker and I just got my VT2 2 weeks ago.
Very good bike but a little heavy so I change wheels with mavic 223 rims
and DT240 hubs. It's better now.
I have a Next LP crankset in stock so I have some ways to lightening it.
The setup is the european one. this bike wasn't importated here during 2003. It's a new model for us !
The fork doesn't have external setup but it works for the moment. It's a
Manitou Black comp.
Perhaps I will change for a marzocchi or a fox vanilla 125 next year.
Laurent

I guess that I was a good kid during the year and Santa left a new frame for me. It arrive early so I got a chance for a headstart and it's complete. The bike had some parts missing when the pic was taken.

I love the way the suspension works and how it handles bumps and climbs.

testing image

I enjoy a solo New Year's ride into DC most years. Traffic was very light, weather is fantastic for January (50 degrees and sunny). The security around the white house and capitol is very much there...as it should be.

You can see that I also cleaned her up nicely since the Minute photo in the post above.

Spongedog,

Come on, tell us what you have installed on that beautiful rig.

Mine is finally complete, here's a recent pic.

http://forums.mtbr.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=148

I enjoy a solo New Year's ride into DC most years. Traffic was very light, weather is fantastic for January (50 degrees and sunny). The security around the white house and capitol is very much there...as it should be.

You can see that I also cleaned her up nicely since the Minute photo in the post above.

Can you give a review of the Minute yet? What model is it?

The Story:

I was a BIG fan of my 01 NRS 1. It was my first full suspension bike and I piled on the miles, both on the dirt and in the urban jungle. One day, while out on a dirt ride, I incurred some frame damage, and Performance Bike/Giant offered to give me a replacement frame. Since I had beaten the NRS to heck and back, the Giant rep offered me either a new NRS 1 or a new VT 1 frame. I always wanted more travel, and frankly, I wanted a bike with a plusher ride. I believe the NRS 1 is made for racing, and is really a great bike for that, but after a couple of years on it, I thought an all around trail bike would be best.

Giant would only give me a frame, so I had to do something about the front fork. The Minute 1 seemed like a perfect fit...I tried it on a demo model...so I ponied up the big bucks for one and have not regretted it a bit. I sold the SID from the NRS to one of my buddies for his wife's NRS. The Minute 1 is easy to set up, and fun to ride. I have changed the setting from 130mm to 100mm twice, but found that I prefer the 130 for all conditions, including climbs. The fork is not nearly as flexy as the SID on my old NRS. The fork is also nice and light for so much travel. I give it a big thumbs up!

As for the rest of the bike, the front derailleur had to be replaced because you need the bottom pull..new XT was about 20 bucks so no big deal. From the top on down...I have the Monkeylite composite mid rise bar, Hayes Hydro Disk Brakes, XT shifters, (for night riding, I am using an L&M Arc HID bar mount). The headset is a Cane Creek ZS-2...which is one of the only replacements for the original zero stack integrated headsets. The stem and seatpost are generic Titec that came with the NRS. The NRS was pretty light as it was, so I did not think about replacing them. With the bigger VT, I am now looking for lighter options. I am running XTR rear derailleur, XT hubs, Mavic UST wheels with Huch Pythons. I know the Pythons get a bad rap, but I have had great luck with them in pretty much all conditions except heavy mud. If is sort of messy out, I just lower the pressure a few PSI and then I can get some good grip. I also see a set of Crossmax wheels in my future. I am running a Raceface Prodigy XC crank, which I have mixed feelings about. Raceface replaced rings for me in the past, but it seems pretty easy to bend of the teeth. I am looking to either go with a Next LP or XTR crank as replacements. With some of my Chanukah gelt, I bought a pair of Crank Bros Egg Beaters. I put 40 miles on 'em on New Year’s Day around DC and another 10 miles on the dirt the day before. The Egg Beaters replaced a pair of Times. I think the Times are great, but I have to say that I really like the Egg Beaters so far...they work great and look pretty cool too!

Have a great day!

Being an X Giant owner, gotta say all those VTs look really good, nice to see all your bikes. I'll have to get out and test ride one some time!

was just wonderin what front der you guys are using have a '03 vt with shimano deore front der my mechanic suggests i change to an xt or xtr since it has more clearance for the chain, my prob is btw the noise of the chain when its at the middle and at the smallest ring, he also added that due to the vt's rear flex it might be that the deore isn't suitable coz of the clearance

I currently use XTR der (front & rear) on my bike.