INDEPENDENT FABRICATION 69er

Wanted to try IF for quite some time. At the same time wanted to try 69er for some time..
So this ebay auction was two in one for me and i saved a lot of money!

I picked it up at the post office yesterday. Its supposed to be custom frame from 2008.
Welds are gorgeous. So are dropouts and other details. I have NOS WB 29 fork so I'm gonna use that.
Apart from that i must say that colorwise im quite undecided about the direction of the build..
The biggest surprise was to find out that the actual color of the frame is greenish. In the auction it looked like slightly beige metalic silver..
Its gonna be a bit tricky..

Forgive my ignorance but wont the use of a larger wheel and suspension fork ruin the handling.

I thought the rule of thumb was to up the wheel size and reduce the fork AtoC to compensate.

Looks a lovely frame

The geometry is specifically made to accept bigger front wheel and fork. Its different from normal geometry. Im curious about the ride. Theoretically you need bigger wheel more in front to get over things more easily. The standard wheel in the back ensures that you dont loose the acceleration, low center of gravity and ability of lifting front wheel up as always..

There is something about IF.... Clean looking bikes!

Want to see this one build!

That is nice, very nice

I love my pink IF 29er and also have a set of WB forks for it, you'll have a blast! WB makes some nice forks that don't look out of place on even a svelte steel frame. FWIW I was watching that auction, but have already gone over to the "dark side" of big wheels and did not bid.

Enjoy!!

Watched this for some time when it was a buy-it-now. Lovely frame indeed. Ill watch this thread with great interest

haha, exactly..i watched the whole time when it was buy it now and couldnt decide.. its a pity that the wheels were sold first. green kings with custom golden ztr rims. im thinking going with green king set also..

i emailed IF and they were able to find original geometry chart for this bike. COOL!

Im going through the geometry now and one number that cought my eye is quite short wheelbase 106,5cm steming from conservative head angle of 71.5deg.
So i started searching more about head angles on 29ers.
It seems that bigger wheel and trail value affects turning differently and that this number in 29inches means something else when translated into the feel one is used to on 26inch bike.
So I went through websites of big companies and compared angles on their 29er hardtails..
Turns out there is a wide spread..

Cannondale F29 - 71deg
Specialized S Works SJumper - 71.5deg
TREK Superfly Pro - 69.3deg
TREK Stache 8 - 68.3deg !
SCOTT Scale 900 - 69.5deg

It seems there is a trend of relaxing head tube angles on new school 29ers.
Im thinking about trying WORKS 1degree angled headset to make mine 70.5deg.
Bike will feel bigger, more stable in downhill, but still pretty average in its angle in comparison to others

Just looking at the head angle is not enough, I own and ride 29ers with angles from 70 to 72 and as high as 74! degrees. Most notably rake and A to C of the forks affect steering geometry. But stem length and bar width & hight come into it as well plus a host of other aspects.

If you have the original build sheet does it have those values as well? The guys at IF will have put this together with care, and notably keeping their eye on the wishes of the customer.

Enjoy!!