You can remove the bosses its fairly easy. Just take care. I think most cut with hack saw then file and sand the rest off (i.e not too close with the saw).
Theyre welded on so no affect to the tubes.
I think if your pretty space concious with bikes, you have come to the wrong place haha!
Yea the slx crank comes with a BB if I buy new... Even the deore version does.
I'm going to look at second hand bits before buying new. I've already got xt rear mech and lx front mech and a set of lx shifters.
The crankset and cassette have seen far better days hence replacing them.
Not looked at forks yet bit out of touch with the current models. Orange have advised something between 100-140mm for travel (current models have 140mm fox forks).
Bike will get chucked about a fair bit as I start riding more I expect. It needs a reasonably hefty build as I'm now about 18.5 stone.