Couple of eBay scores. The saddle on the right was shown at the SDG booth at Sea Otter in 2010. Allegedly it was a prototype I-Beam saddle designed especially for Sam Hill and team Monster Energy/Specialized.

Managed to track down a 30.0 I-Beam seatpost on eBay too. Should be here by end of the month.

What a rad day out on the SB66! I’ve had a LOT on lately. Car meets, World Time Attack Challenge and my cousin’s wedding. It’s all caught up to me and I’ve been down with a flu the past few days. Really wanted to get out on the trails yesterday but nose was running and I was still having the occasional coughing fit, but old mate Eugene insisted a ride would make me feel better, and right he was!

The Yeti felt WAY too soft in the carpark. Forgot to bring the shock pump, but once we were out on the trails the suspension felt unreal! Super plush but also super efficient. The front tyre at 17psi felt so good. Using up all the travel in the shock but not using all of it on the fork, that said it’s got way more small bump sensitivity than the Fox 36 on my Amflow (maybe because the Amflow for is e-MTB tuned? Or has too much grease in it? No idea).

Honestly the bike doesn’t ride like a 26″. It just rides like a modern trail bike. The faster I went down the chunder the better (unlike the Chisel which feels WAY sketchier down the chunky stuff). The extra travel over the Chisel is super confidence inspiring! It climbs up tech great too. Having much grippier tyres makes out of saddle pushes up tech a breeze (in comparison to riding the Chisel with XC tyres for the past few months). I’m wondering WTF am I going to do with the Chisel now as this bike is just so much more fun in every way.

Eugene and I swapped bikes towards the end of the ride. His Trance felt like a rigid MTB, and way too short too (super cramped). He loved the Yeti though! In his words he thought the steering felt sharp and the bike felt so modern, fast and light.

Bit annoyed I have to wear a hydration pack again, but apart from that it’s rad AF. Might let some air out of the forks so I can use up a bit more travel (which might explain why I was feeling the dampening from the front tyre so much). Saddle can come up a little bit more. The ZTTO cassette was OK, but thinking I might get a microspline freehub and run an XT cassette to make the most out of the groupset. Speaking of groupset; Di2 and the wireless dropper is overkill and totally unnecessary but overall I’m Super happy with the bike as is!

Tuned up and ready to go!

Found an 83mm SRAM X0 carbon crankset cheap on FB Marketplace. Ordered a new BB, but when the cranks arrived I realised they’re GXP so had to order a GXP BB.

Got the Hope 34T DH chainring on using a Stone 3-bolt to 104 BCD adapter from AliExpress. Was on the piss when I installed it as I’ve just realised I installed the chainring on upside down.

All good though as I want to replace the OneUp chain guide and bashy to a chain guide and bashy with a lower roller (for a more period correct vibe more than anything!).

I’ve zoomed in to a lot of Sunday pics to figure out how people have done their chainstay protection as the rear stay has 2 tabs for zip tying the rear derailleur cable directly to the chainstay (putting it in harms way). I ended up using a protective sleeve which is pretty much what Sam’s mechanic did to his 2008 bike.

Chainline is good, gears shift great! Just got to cut the brake cables + bleed.

Shimano XT Di2 M8250 Medium Cage (468g). Shimano Deore Di2 SW-M6250 I-Spec EV (100g).

Dropper: FOX Transfer NEO, 30.9mm, 125mm (576g).

Dropper Lever: FOX Transfer NEO (62g).

I-Spec EV is annoying to set up, but I admit it’s got a lot more adjustability than SRAM MatchMaker.

Carbon wheelset came in too from ZEN Carbon Bike! Dynamic 32mm tubeless (17g) tape went on easy and the trusty Airshot did the job.

ZEN Carbon Bike 30mm int, M340/Hope Pro V, Sapim CX Ray (1413g).

Geo is actually looking good sitting next to my Amflow!

Cranks came in the mail, same short 155mm carbon cranks that I have on my Chisel.

Will look really nice once the fork decals are on and the orange is gone.

I totally fucked up the brake install and crushed an olive. I’ve never bled brakes before but fuck it I’ll drop into CCACHE next week to get it done right!

SRAM GX DH derailleur.

Thank Jesus for SRAM Matchmaker.

Hope 40mm 31.8mm 0 Degrees direct mount stem. I swear they had “gold” in the dropdown menu, but turns out they don’t make gold, and the box it came in says “bronze”. Pretty annoying as it’s a completely different colour to the gold Hope chainring I also ordered (these things piss me off!).

Robert (guy I bought the bike from) gave me a Ti spring which came off a small, or extra small DH bike. Can only assume that it’ll be better suited to my weight so I thought I’d swap it out (thank fuck I paid careful attention to him when he told me how to remove the rear shock).

Robert also just found the Sam Hill rear shock decal. He’s posting it to me so I might leave the shock out for now until the sticker gets to me (not a massive deal though as I’m not really trying to make an exact Sam Hill replica here and you can’t really see the shock piggy anyways).

Adam’s Dad Santo is in town for Adam and Josie’s wedding this weekend and he flew his Colnago Art Decor over! He’s not ridden it in 6 years and it was badly out of tune. Derailleur cage was straight, turns out the first gen Di2 must have lost it’s tune. Easy fix!

Kashima!

No Wife Happy Life!

I actually missed the DHL delivery of these forks yesterday when I was out at Avalon Beach to pick up the Iron Horse Sunday. Kinda freaked me out as I’ve lost some pretty valuable packages when couriers have left them outside my building.

These required a signature though, so I rescheduled for today and voila! They got to me from the USA safe and sound.

I’ve got some decals on order; “FOX Kashima” for the FOX and 36 typography and “almost black” for the other design elements. Should look great!

Last week I saw a ‘Wanted To Buy’ listing on Facebook Marketplace for an Iron Horse Sunday. The listing used a photo of the incredible build by Austrian downhill racer and machinist, Julian Neubauer.

I thought to myself, yeah right! Good luck with that mate! But I noticed that someone had replied to his listing with some photos of a Sunday frame with the iconic Sam Hill 2008 Val Di Sole World Championship Edition livery.

Julian Neubauer’s Sam Hill replica Sunday rebuilt with modern geometry. Full feature here.

The guy who posted the photos of the frame commented “how much are you willing to pay?”. I direct messaged him right away and he let me know that the guy who posted the WTB listing had already contacted him and was mega keen on it, but that he would keep me updated if the sale fell through.

I nudged him a little over the next few days, and it was looking like the sale was wrapped up as he was getting a shipping quote. Fair call I figured as I wasn’t the one who put up the WTB post.

Fast forward to this week I got a message from Robert to say the sale fell through and the frame, forks, shock and wheels were mine if I still wanted them. He left a number, I called!

Turns out Robert is a collector that has way too many bikes and builds on the go. He’s sad he didn’t get to finish the build but he’s got ore than a few dream bikes he wants to get going on. We had a great chat with more than a few laughs (I swear our chat felt more like an Al‑Anon meeting!). The legend also threw in a spare shock, extra decals, the original headbadge and a Ti coil spring from a small bike (that should suit my weight better).

In 2008 I went to watch Sam Hill race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup at Stromlo and took this photo of his bike in the wash bay.

I was a huge Sam fan (still am!), so much so that I had Sam Hill 5:10 shoes and even bugged him for an interview for BMU (Bikes Move Us Forums) a year after Worlds. There are dream bikes, but I honestly never dared to dream of owning his Sunday though. I’ve actually never owned a downhill bike (just nowhere to ride one close by), but I’ve always been tempted by Giant Glorys, Konda Stinkys and Orange bikes that pop up on FB Marketplace, but this thing takes the cake!

I’m chuffed, but I’m also well and truly in the red. It’s not the first time I’ve had multiple builds on the go, but I really should focus on the Yeti SB66 build first, so for now this Sunday is on display as art.