Picking up the Spider

I picked up the Spider tonight, and so far I couldn't be happier. I showed up at the shop around 5:30, and they had most of the build complete. I'm still waiting on my easton monkeylite bars and Intense saddle, so I'm borrowing some shop parts for the time being until those two final pieces arrive. I also decided to use my old Shimano M505 clipless pedals, because I had them laying around and the build was getting really expensive, so I had to save some money where I could. Maybe I'll ask for new pedals for Christmas.

Here are the final specs:

2008 Spider XVP Frame w/Manitou Swinger 3-way shock, midnight blue color, size medium.
2009 Fox F100RLC fork with 15mm QR thru-axel.
Shimano XT Shifters
Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes (lightly used, purchased from STR)
Easton Monkeylite MX handlebars (arriving soon)
Thompson Elite X4 Stem 100mm
Chris King Headset (blue)
Ergon GC-2 Grips
Shimano XT front derailleur
Shimano XT Shadow rear derailleur
Thompson Elite seatpost
Intense saddle (arriving soon)
Shimano XT crankset
Shimano XT cassette
Salsa flip-off QR rear skewer
Shimano M505 clipless pedals (used)
SRAM 971 chain with powerlink
Custom built wheelset, with blue Hope Pro 2 Hubs (front and rear) laced to Mavic 819 tubeless rims with DT Swiss competition spokes.
Kenda Nevegal UST Tubeless tires

It weighed in at about 27.5 lbs on the shop scale, including pedals. I figure that number will drop a little with the lighter bars and seat when they're installed sometime next week.

I plan on taking it for an easy first ride tomorrow with the Skyline MTB group at Spring Canyon, and then am looking forward to really testing it out Sunday at the Cuyamaca Poker Ride. With all the climbing at Cuyamaca, it should be a good test for whether the benefits of a lighter, more XC-style bike are really worth what I paid.

I have a generally good impression of the guys over at Bike Bling. They seemed to do a good job on the build, and the pricing was very competitive. Its so close to work that I'd love for it to be "my local shop," but I have the underlying suspicion that Kerry is a little bit of a "salesman," and is more interested in profit margins than relationships. In this economy its impossible to fault him for that, but I don't know if I'm ever going to feel at home at this shop, or if I'll always feel like a customer. Time will tell.