Cheers Alex, i've just been on MTBR.com and read a couple of the reviews on the sl ata, loads of problems with wrong air pressures, air leakages, the travel changing, deffinatley not getting them now.

I will probaly look at getting the Rc2x eta, the eta looks hand for riding to the local DH.

i already have a 2 week old x.7 shifter knocking around somewhere, as i used to run gears on my msisle, i bought an x.9 mech and it went into the spokes and snapped in half, bending some links in the couple hour old sram chain i bought in the morning.  :'(

I'll probaly will see if i can get a SS cage x.9, i wish they did SS x.7's. I am now used to running a mid range gear on my msisle (2:1 ratio) so i cassette wise i am think something like a 11-28 cassette (if i can get one) with a 36T chainring, which should give me a nice range.

would a blackspire ns-1 chain device work? they seem fairly generously priced.

pedal wise - shimano DX's look mint

brake wise - now im thinking about saints they are quite light

saddle wise - sgd bel air Ti

Any Sx trail build is incomplete with out Fox 36's.......

66 look shite on them in my opinion!!

my little buddy marshall just got back from Whistler

he found his Fox36 lost rebound control when riding from Garbanzo down to the lower park (30 minutes of DH!)

and then the seals blew half way into the holiday, he'd only had his forks serviced by Mojo about 2 months before going out 

the service people at Evolution got his fork up and running again for $70 and the mech. said something about the expansion bladder inside  the 36 not being able to deal very well with long DHs...

36's just don't do it for me, for some reason - they only set i rode i really didn't like, the bloke did have them set up fairly hard but they just felt a bit wooden. If i went to a place such as afan again i'd slap my pikes on to make the steering more nimbler and they would be easier to climb with.

thank again for your help

I don't really like the look of the lyrics, the pike's ibought in pctover have gone a bit creaky and the stanctions chip/scratch fairly easily. I used pylso before these and something also went very creaky, i was unsure weather it was where the stanctions/crown met of the steerer/crown met. I would like to put my faith into another make.

As for gearing im am still unsure, i will probaly use a 36T chain ring with an 11-26T roady block with either an lx shifter/tiagra mech setup, or an x.7/campag mirage - i am unsure weather mirage cage designed for 10spd will be wide enough to accept a 9spd chain.

If i do more of a single track sesh, such as if i go up to afan again, i would slap the pikes off my msilse onto the sx to lighten it up and to steepen the head angle for the climbs, but still strong enough for it to handle the decents.