Squirrel:
Thanks! ![:slight_smile: :slight_smile:](https://static.tarck.cc/images/emoji/apple/slight_smile.png?v=9)
Jimmy:
That’s just a fault from my end, when I fired up BikeCAD the first time I didn’t really take note on the chairpole. It was more or less just a way of showing my current saddle height. Then when I finalised the drawing they had updated the program and added the option of a dropper. Since I’m gonna run a dropper on it and it doesn’t have any set back that’s the correct drawing.
Liquify:
Ouuuuuch…
I glanced over the article at pink bike at it looks like a fun bike with sensible geo! Haven’t looked at their build specs and what not, but 5 bongs usually gets you a sw8 biek. Personally I couldn’t buy a carbon frame with a clean conscious but I sure as hell could see my self riding the “moss green” alloy frame. Gonna get into paint and suspension below ![:wink: :wink:](https://static.tarck.cc/images/emoji/apple/wink.png?v=9)
So since this is a custom frame from the UK there really was only one colour option for me, sure I could have gone full-fadez-über-bonkers but that would mean a longer wait and hella £££. But hell no this in going to be British Racing Green, a colour I’ve loved for soooo long!
This is a sample of “Joe’s take” on it, since there are as many BRG’s as there are paint shops. Almost.
It also made sense with BRG together with all the purple ano Hope stuff that I already own and love! So then it was just a matter of deciding logo colour from the 11 colours Starling works with.
For me it was a pretty easy choice and I went with the “Signal Yellow”, complementing both the BRG and purple ano in a nice way.
Onwards to suspension!
I love coil suspension. I love the feel, the ridiculous grip, the low maintenance, the solid performance over long-ass descents in heat. I just love it period.
I rode my old Giant frankenTrance with a RS Vivid and my Reign SX came stock with a Fox DHX2.
Mojo suspension was the UK distributor and pro-fiddle-gang for all things Fox in the UK since forever. Starling worked with them so it seemed like a good idea to get another DHX2. Then Mojo went bankrupt and belly up. Suddenly it wasn’t just me that had a problem, Starling did too since they where his main suspension supplier. After some back and forth and what I thinks was one really stressful times for Joe he had some new stuff going on. I could get another Vivid for a nickel and change but I was kinda hesitant. For a really silly and superficial reason. Putting a Vivid on a custom bike is really fucking boring, call me stupid but that’s my main gripe… I see Pike’s, Yari’s and Vivid’s allay long in Åre. So when I heard that Joe had stricken a deal with DVO I became curious AF.
Sure it might make great sense to put an air shock on a fairly linear dampening curve but Joe and many of his customers had great luck with running a coil on his frames. I picked the DVO Jade over the Topaz, I mean look at it! Bladder instead of IFP customisable with air pressure, LCS, HCS, rebound and pretty much everything you could ask.
A 500 lbs spring should suit me just perfect, might get a ti spring later on when everything is dialed in. For maxXx bling and also some weight saving! If this little “experiment” turn out not great I could always sell the Jade onwards with no loss and get an air can instead.
Fork wise I’d really love to go with a Fox 36 Elite performance or Factory it was a really great fork on my Reign SX and I was a tad bit sad to see it go, but let’s be honest. Putting almost 1800$ on a fork is pretty insane. I looked at MRP, Formula and other smaller brands because it’s fun to ride something else than what 95% of everyone else rides. Even though it might be stupid and superficial unique snowflake…
Then I happened upon an unused Mattoc Pro in box with all the goodies aka the IVA and IRT on pink bike for 50% below it’s already amazing low retail. NO BRAINER! I really loved that fork on my Trance, plenty stiff and just super supple and with all the bells and whistles of a fork costing way over double the Mattoc. I might look into something else down the line, but probably not before I’ve completely ridden my Mattoc into the ground…
TL;DR: Opinions, I have them.