monster bike revealed

For some bizarro reason, with the xc race season rapidly approaching I find myself dreaming about what I could have done differently at this February's Winter XC so that I would have been able to give the two pugsley's a run for their money. I know for a fact that I won't be able to buy my own pugs or better yet get a carver built up for next winter but one thing that I may be able to pull off are some minor mods to the El Mariachi to make it even more snow worthy. With some fat 29'er tires, the El already cranks through the snow but put it up agains the pugs monster and all of a sudden I look like a clown trying to ride a quarter bike in the snow. (speaking of clowns, you should check out my pissing match with a carnie over on DAMNelsons. I made a remark about circuses yesterday and rubbed his short, hairy body the wrong way. check it HERE. Hopefully he responds)

With that in mind, I've been scheming on ways to improve the float of the el without spending a pantload of jing. The obvious first step would be to get fatter 29'er tires but my Rampager 2.35's are only slightly narrower than the fattest tire in the 29'er line-up right now, a WTB something or other at 2.55. I will probably get the WTB for the rear next year but I'm thinking of upping the ante for the front. My current though is to get a Pugsley fork, a rim and an Endomorph tire for the front end. This is a 26" set-up but since the Endomorph is 3.7 " wide and SUPER tall the circumference is almost identical to my Rampages once everything is mounted up. As a bonus, the Pugs fork is slightly steeper than my El's so that should make the front end a bit quicker to hopefully counteract the Endo's sluggish turning.

Who knows if any of this will actually happen next winter or not but it's fun to think about.