[MadCowRider]

After working out some kinks and a few test rides, here is my new ride.

Frame: Salsa Dos Niner, medium
Fork: 2005 Reba with remote poplok (85+/75-)
Wheels: Sun Rhyno Lite rims, DT Swiss 440FR hubs, 36h/3x (built by MC)
Skewers: Airborne Ti
Tires: Maxxis Ignitor 2.1 (with Stan's FR kit)
Bars: Easton Monkey Lite XC
Grips: Ritchey TrueGrip
Stem: Kore Elite
Headset: FSA Orbit UF
Brakes: Avid BB7, 7" front, 6" rear
Brake Levers: Avid Ti
Brake Cables: Avid Full Metal Jacket and Shimano XTR mix
Front Der: Shimano XTR
Rear Der: SRAM X.O
Shifters: SRAM X9 triggers
Shift Cables: Shimano XTR
Pedals: Eggbeater C
Crankset: RaceFace Turbine LP - ISIS
Cassette: Shimano XTR 12-34
Chain: SRAM PC591
Bottom Bracket: FSA PlatinumPro Ti
Seatpost: Bontrager Select
Seat: Specialized Alias 155

Weight with tool kit, pump, etc. = 26.5 lbs (bathroom scale)

 

[rryyddeerr]

tell me what you think

Im planning to build a very similar incarnation of this bike when the 06 frames come home. i have been riding a specialized fsr 100 for about nine months and am tired of the bob up the hills. back down is great, but otherwise it feels sluggish.
tell me what you think of your new bike. that and what is your history, like what other bikes have you had and what kind of riding do you typically do?
looks from here to be a sweet bike. love the mud.

 

[Monte]

Curious, why didn't you get a small? With that tiny bit of post showing it looks like a small would have fit, and been lighter.

Monte

 

[MadCowRider]

My thoughts are...

Im planning to build a very similar incarnation of this bike when the 06 frames come home. i have been riding a specialized fsr 100 for about nine months and am tired of the bob up the hills. back down is great, but otherwise it feels sluggish.
tell me what you think of your new bike. that and what is your history, like what other bikes have you had and what kind of riding do you typically do?
looks from here to be a sweet bike. love the mud.

I'm 5'8" and 175 (during the summer) and I'm a spinner. I ride primarily XC with some occasional trials obstacles -- but only the easy ones like low bridges, low teeter-totters and some elevated hairpins. Big air scares me, I haven't the nads to huck off anything bigger than about 3'. I like long rides of 35+ miles on hilly terrain. I tend to be pretty hard on my equipment, that's why I asked for the beefy wheels. I often ride over things that might more elegant riders would ride around. Previous bike = Trek 8000 (hard tail). I decided on the Dos via the following logic train:

1) I really like how light and quick hard tails are. Most of the FS bikes I have demoed (26ers only) never seemed as zippy in acceleration or made me feel really connected to the terrain like a HT.
2) I like hills. I like long miles. I am starting to get into enduro racing in a semi-serious way and hard tails beat me up too much after about 8 hours.
3) So I was looking for a soft-tail and not a FS bike, 1" with big wheels is plenty. I rode this (exact) frame before I bought it (from Nat) and, what can I say, when you ride a bike and it fits -- you just know.

This bike feels fast and steers fast. It doesn't handle really tight twisty stuff as smoothly as my Trek, but it excels on the rollers and the climbs. Flat stuff and fire roads are just a blur. Descents, too. I am much faster on the downs with the Dos. This coming race season it will be interesting to see if I am actually any faster or if I just feel faster. ;-) This bike has no bob in the rear end. None. I find that it's plenty stiff enough for me to hammer steep climbs out of the saddle in low gears without noticable flex. That said, I think this bike climbs better if you sit and spin. I notice some brake dive with the Reba but I haven't spent as much time as I should dialing in my fork. One potential downside which hasn't bitten me in the fanny (yet) is the ~1" of toe overlap on this size frame. Time your pedal strokes right and it doesn't seem to be an issue.

 

[MadCowRider]

That does look a little funny, doesn't it?

Curious, why didn't you get a small? With that tiny bit of post showing it looks like a small would have fit, and been lighter.

Monte

My buddies say it looks like a monster truck.

Logical anwer:
I need about a 23.25" ETT length. The ETTL of this frame is 23.5", which is about as close as you're going to get with a stock frame.

Zen answer:
I rode this frame for 2 hours before I bought it and it just fits my body really well. Smiles ear to ear for 2 hours. Smiles on the drive home, too, when I'd see it in the bed of my pickup in the rearview.

 

[lanpope]

Curious, why didn't you get a small? With that tiny bit of post showing it looks like a small would have fit, and been lighter.

Monte

Looks like the bike is setup pretty well to me...no real way to judge "fit" w/o seeing him on the bike...

Plus I think the small Dos has a much larger seat tube brace connected to the top tube and is therefore actually a heavier frame.

Nice ride, enjoy it!

LP

 

[SKullman]

I just got mine this fall also, my post doesn't look any better in my small frame

 

[Lutarious]

Stand over

Looks to me like they both have plenty of stand over. Mad Cow seems to be running a pretty long stem too, leading me tobelieve that the frame sizes are a little weird because of the seat stays. I'm going to guess that they had to position those stays really high to make room for a 29 inch tire and the shock, effectively forcing the actual seat tube to be cut long, but not raising the height of the bike.

Am I making any sense?

Nice bikes, both of you. Makes me wanna go ride in the snow.

 

[MadCowRider]

Waiting for coffee to brew...

I managed to convince my ever-patient wife to take some shots of me on the bike. I may drop the stem another few mm and see how it feels, I'm still tweaking the fit.

Looks like the bike is setup pretty well to me...no real way to judge "fit" w/o seeing him on the bike...

Nice ride, enjoy it!

LP

 

[xc_xtc]

Nice ride. Let us know how you like it once you get it dialed in.

 

[Nat]

My buddies say it looks like a monster truck.

Logical anwer:
I need about a 23.25" ETT length. The ETTL of this frame is 23.5", which is about as close as you're going to get with a stock frame.

Zen answer:
I rode this frame for 2 hours before I bought it and it just fits my body really well. Smiles ear to ear for 2 hours. Smiles on the drive home, too, when I'd see it in the bed of my pickup in the rearview.

Nice build, Michael! I looked at the first pic before I noticed it was you. In my head I was thinking, "Whoa, some of those parts look pretty familiar...ohhhhh hey!"

Monte, there's not much post showing but look where the top tube joins the seat tube. On a hardtail frame the seatstays would attach there, and the exposed portion of the seatpost would be a couple of inches longer (and therefore "normal" looking). The seat tube is unusually long on this frame because Salsa had to squeeze a shock in between the rear wheel and the seat tube.

 

[Tracerboy]

What front derailleur are you guys running, and how is it working for you? I have a traditional pull XTR with a race face deus crank and I'm not happy with how it's shifting between the granny and middle ring. I've tried all the adjustment tweaks I can think of to no avail...

 

[mgersib]

... front derailleur

sweet build mad cow... your experience with your dos pretty much mirrors mine.

as far as front derailleurs go, i'm running an xt low-mount (run by an xc pro thumb shifter), and it works good. i had to back the low set screw all the way out though, so it swings as far to the inside as it possibly can. perhaps your traditional-style xtr mech doesn't swing quite as far in??? not sure on that. you might try spacing the crank over to the right a couple of mm to help the shifting, if that's the case, but I always hate to mess with chainline if I don't have to.

good luck!
mg

 

[OneGearGuy]

I managed to convince my ever-patient wife to take some shots of me on the bike. I may drop the stem another few mm and see how it feels, I'm still tweaking the fit.

Nice build on a nice frame; I hear they ride really well.
It looks to me like your fork is set up too soft. In the first pic, even with you sitting, the fork is way down into it's travel. I know you said you were going to mess with it some more, so I thought I would chime in.

OGG

 

[Salsa Cycles]

Sram

What front derailleur are you guys running, and how is it working for you? I have a traditional pull XTR with a race face deus crank and I'm not happy with how it's shifting between the granny and middle ring. I've tried all the adjustment tweaks I can think of to no avail...

Even though they aren't pretty like the rest of your components, they do work really well on the Dos Niner.

Nice bike by the way.

Jason
Salsa Crew

 

[mgersib]

dos pic from sunday...

that's my 20" dos in front with my buddy mw's pink custom soulcraft 'niner ss in the background.

as an aside -- mw also has a matching (but graphite grey) soulcraft 'niner gearie. both fully rigid... i'm not that much of a tough guy. 20 screws and two plates in my right arm make rigid forks a bit, ahem, rigid in the rough.

cheers,
mg