I've wanted a WTB Phoenix for as long as I've known about them - if only because virtually everyone who's ever ridden one has raved about the handling.
The two problems are that they're rare as hens teeth, and that they tend to come up quite small (i.e. until 1998 they didn't make anything larger than an 18" - and I'm at least 6ft 3in).
I was therefore quite excited when this came up on eBay as a complete bike the other day, and have spent the last 36 hours negotiating with the seller to sell me the frame alone. Voila, one 19.5" singlespeed WTB Phoenix. Given the low production volumes (5-600 frames over an 8 year period) and the relative rarity of both a singlespeed version and the largest size, I'd hazard a guess this might be the only one like this in existence:
The build on this one will likely take me the winter (at least!) and will probably be Phils on 517s w/ White Industries freewheel, possibly a Potts Type II fork depending on how much they are, CK headset, post dependent on what size it needs to be (Moots layback?) 180mm Race Face Turbines, RF bars and stem, and perhaps just some cheap Avid SDs after I've splurged on all the rest of that!
The two problems are that they're rare as hens teeth, and that they tend to come up quite small (i.e. until 1998 they didn't make anything larger than an 18" - and I'm at least 6ft 3in).
I was therefore quite excited when this came up on eBay as a complete bike the other day, and have spent the last 36 hours negotiating with the seller to sell me the frame alone. Voila, one 19.5" singlespeed WTB Phoenix. Given the low production volumes (5-600 frames over an 8 year period) and the relative rarity of both a singlespeed version and the largest size, I'd hazard a guess this might be the only one like this in existence:
The build on this one will likely take me the winter (at least!) and will probably be Phils on 517s w/ White Industries freewheel, possibly a Potts Type II fork depending on how much they are, CK headset, post dependent on what size it needs to be (Moots layback?) 180mm Race Face Turbines, RF bars and stem, and perhaps just some cheap Avid SDs after I've splurged on all the rest of that!