Giant ATX-D 990: 650b conversion

[DuncanDesigns]

Re:

Love it. I am toying with the idea of building up my ATX 990 to its former glory and have been buying parts for it over the past few years. This has just given me all kinds of new ideas! Well done for thinking outside the box and breathing new life into an old classic.

Do you have a list of alternative rear shocks that would work with this frame (180mm) as I am struggling to find a suitable fit??

 

[Osella]

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Well the 165mm I went with would work just as 'well' with 26" wheels. 180mm shocks are reasonably common - it's just a case of gettnig the right Top Hat washers/spacers to fit with the type of shock.
Fox and X-Fusion seem slightly more uncommon than Rock Shox/Manitou/etc. This one is currently rocking an X-Fusion O2 RL which I had to make up some custom bushing/sleeving for to fit right with the top hat mountings and the through-bolts.
I've got the original 180 i2i Fox Vanilla coil shock that came with it, but I don't like coil shocks at the best of times! I never looked too far into other alternatives as I had the 165mm already and wanted to try out the slacker-angle experiment!

 

[Osella]

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Just some more pics from this week's ride; not much else to say apart from: 1) The bike just gets better, I have no other 650b to compare to right now, but it's definitely better than the HT it replaced, even with everything on it being 'wrong' 2) Dukes cope well as bounce forks on a HT, they are not good on repeated bumpy/undulating ground though, especially on a full-sus and will be replaced at some point with some Maguras.

Bit of coast-edge singletrack:

 

[kyle888]

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Good work with the atx! Nice scenery too!

Kyle

 

[DuncanDesigns]

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Just reading through this thread again as im currently doing something similar with my ATX 900. I have custom made linkage plates to reduce the head angle abd bb height. Im struggling to find a repacement rear end to fit a disc brake on to. Can you show close up oics of what you did? You had mentioned a A2Z adapter but im not sure how it fits. I would be interested to see if my other fix doesnt work out.

Thanks again

 

[Osella]

Re:

Sure, I'll see what I can do - didn't realise in all the pics I've got that you can't actually see it!

Changed the brakes last year to some J&L Superlights (better than Deore's surprisingly, no squeaking and very good modulation, at a cost of outright full-on power..) so probably should grab some pics Same a2z adapter, but much better ride now as also fitted DT Swiss RWS QR axles.