2009 Anthem X0 - cheat machine

[Justin Fox]

I've been trying to ride fast on XC trails on an 07 Reign for a while now and I've been getting better, and faster on it, but I'll never get up the front of the pack on an XC ride with it and it's always been something that's nagged at me.

An XC bike was always on the cards, as well as a return to SPD's. The hardtail thing just never worked out for me (as Jing suggests, maybe later?) and after a test ride of Eddie's Anthem X2 a while back I was pretty sure that was THE bike for me so I've finally done it.

Here she is:


At MCC, in the box whoo hoo!!!


On the stand, set up the clamp on the bike stand soft as it's a carbon seatpost. LOL.


Shimano chain (good) on Sram gear. Snap. She'll never be this clean ever again.


White everywhere, not smart, but who cares.


In the time that it took me to build my bike Sam and Ash at MCC had done 3 bikes each! Grant said I'd be fired if I was going to be that slow, but fuck man I was putting a bit of TLC into this build!!!


Fuck yeah!


XO carbon goodness. Actually it's not about the carbon, it's about how much better it shifts than XTR. I've officially a convert now, been planning this for a long time.


Stupid carbon seatpost.


Stupid carbon Next bars, carbon shifter pods and carbon brake levers. Stupid stupid.


Speedy machines.


All set up, amazingly it comes set up as tubeless too from the box. IE: No tube, it's already tubeless. Still I took the time to part both tyres to put sealant in there, and fucking hell it's a bitch getting the bead to set and the tyre to hold air. If it was a race I'd be fucked (I'd have to whack a tube in there). The rear shock feels great, wish I could say the same about the SID fork. I've put the recommended amount of air int here for my weight but I'm only getting 5% of sag! It's basically a rigid fork!!! If I set the air pressure down to 70psi the travel drops to 80mm instead of 100mm, so strange. I assume bedding it in will go a long way (I hope).

Loftus Monday night, cyas there!

Thanks to Grant and team at MCC for looking after me. Love you guys, a lot. Here's to cutting the steerer tube down, to Loftus, and Dirt Works, and more XC races to come

[evil]

First in :P

congratulations man


Awesome bike man, and looks a million bucks too. I keep looking at it, its such a clean colourway that just looks fast sitting there. White is pretty messy for an mtb but looks so damned good.

Can't see what you will need/want to change - can only see the bars and seat post changing away from carbon! and im ashamed to hear you say stupid carbon :P LOL

Cannot wait to give this a try soon man Will never be able to keep up now!

[a.davis12]

very nice
id kill the wheels but.

[Tim]

That looks amazing.
So what upgrades do you have planned already? Hehe
Got a target weight for her?
Looking forward to seeing it made into an even more incredible xc machine

[Justin Fox]

LOL Andy.

Originally Posted by a.davis12

id kill the wheels but.

Why? Have you owned a set and had bad experiences with them?

Originally Posted by Tim

So what upgrades do you have planned already? Got a target weight for her?

XTR pedals on order, saddle will go if I don't like it after a few rides, grips might go if they don't work well too and I'm new to tubeless so I hope it's as great as they make it out to be. Apart from that nothing for now as I intend to just ride the thing.

Weight wise I'm damn happy with it. Sure I could weenie it but damn these Mavic skewers feel soooo good to use, so much better than any other skewer I've ever used. I just can't see myself putting weenie KCNC ones on there at this point. And if anything I am not a fan of carbon on mountain bikes. The bars, the seatpost. I'd much prefer solid shit there, but it will all stay for now.

[a.davis12]

Originally Posted by Justin Fox

LOL Andy.


Why? Have you owned a set and had bad experiences with them?

nope. just saying im a fat ass
i can't imagine me and tubeless working well together, i would hit everything that would burp air out of them because of my lack of skillzorz

(the comment was not referring to you needing to replace them or anything of the sort, if that's what it sounds like)

aero spokes on mtbs are soo cool!

*EDIT* internal cam skewers are still the best. Also good list of upgrades as evil said. i really want a set of XTR spds, but i just cant justify them.

[evil]

see list of upgrades already :P

But those all seem sensible to me; not replacing stuff for the sake if it, more for necessity really.

As for carbon bike parts, i gotta agree with you there. Seeing some of the things snapping is nuts, more than enough to steer me away from my favorites substance...

[64ponty]

Excellent purchase Justin.

I have the same wheels on my Specialized Epic and they are awesome. You'll love them. As you say the skewers are nice. I also like the half black half silver hubs.

You will now need to buy a HR monitor to see how hard you are going. These kind of bikes NEED to be ridden fast to get the best out of them.


Looks like the BMU brag for best time in the dirtworks just got a little more interesting!!

Enjoy

[Clifton]

you better keep up now justin!

[Terryukon]

looks marvelous justin.

nothing else i can say except, YOU BALLER!!

looking forward to seeing this on monday.