I finished the build on my SJ expert the other day. It will be my xc race/marathon bike so the parts are all light, but nothing is a compromise on strength. It weights 23.75 lbs as pictured.
Build list:
FRAME- 21" 2010 SJ expert carbon
FORK- Fox F29RL, internals swapped to a RLC fit damper and custom tuned by S.EX
HEADSET- Stock Cane Creek
STEM- Thomson X4 120x0
HANDLEBARS- Specialized XC flat, cut to 620mm
GRIPS- ESI chunky, red
BRAKES- Formula R1, 160mm F+R
FRONT DERAILLEUR- Shimano SLX
REAR DERAILLEUR- Sram X-0, long cage, redwin
SHIFTERS- Sram X-0 gripshifters
CASSETTE- Shimano XT, 11-34
CHAIN- SRAM PC-971
CRANKSET- S-Works MTB, 175mm 22-32-44
PEDALS- Time Atac xs
WHEELSET- DT 240s laced 3x to Stans Arch rims, 32h, brass prolock nipples
TIRES- Geax Saguaro 29x2.2, set up tubeless
SADDLE- Selle Italia Flite xc gel flo
SEATPOST- Thomson Elite setback, 30.9 400mm
EXTRAS- Incredibell, Trektime clock, Specialized plastic bottle cages
The only thing that may change over time is tires, maybe something a bit lighter for racing. The trail manners are awesome, it climbs and descends great. Im coming from an older alloy version of the bike and the combination of the OSBB and carbon frame make this bike feel much stiffer and much faster.
nice, what did the damper upgrade run you? Is it just RLC or is it the FIT, or are they one in the same? I called fox and they said the FIT upgrade was $240 retail. May be worth looking into.
Well i just got off the phone with fox and got a FIT RLC cartridge ordered for the F29RL on my expert 29er. They said the fork is just a 100mm F29 with a limit spacer in it, so they sent the 100mm FIT RLC cartridge over to me, if anyone is wondering, they are $240.00 retail.
I had a rlc fork on another bike, and as this is the 'A' bike I had the dampers swapped, only had to pay labor for the swap and tuning. Mine was from a 80mm fork, but thats also just a 100 with a travel spacer.
I see, the new fit cart. doesn't change the travel, that would simply be removing the spacer. Not sure how you are getting the C part of the RLC though. Does the FIT cart include the compression adjustment knob?
Yeah, the fit cartridge includes the r(rebound), l(lockout) and c(compression) all of the damping occurs in this side of the fork. The right side of the fork is the travel and air spring. It controls the air pressure(duh) and the travel via a spacer. So by adding a different damper the travel will stay the same because the air side is unmolested.
Yeah it should be a nice setup. The fox rep said its a nice improvement from the stock setup, and its a sealed cartridge. Not sure if there is any weight difference or not. Trying to decide if i should get the remote lock out or not.
just found out you can only get the lockout on fox forks that are spec'ed with the lockout, and the lockouts/cartridges are not available for individual sale. The fox guy said they were working with shimano on them, and was not sure why they are not available for purchase/replacement yet.
Just got mine FIT cartridge installed this evening. The install went real smooth and relatively quick. Too bad we just started to get even more snow, i want to take this thing out and give it a try! It added right around 30gs to the bike, but i think its well worth the performance upgrade!