A GT Arrowhead frame or a (very)poor man's Zaskar, I had lying around.
Nothing very good but it'll be good for messing about on
It'll be built up more like a 'jump-bike', with DH/Dirt bits :?
Even though it won't be jumped at all unless I dress up like a ninja, creep up on it and shout 'BOO'. It may jump then, you never know :!:
As far as I'm concerned you should go for the LXs. It says a lot that the new XTs don't have the parallel push mechanism any more. Besides on a SS simpler is better.
Too late now. They should be on his bike by now, unless he decides it'd be better for me to do it for him (as well as putting on his cranks, sort out his rear wheel, gears, forks etc).