oicdn, i believe that the factory in taiwan you are talking about is owned by giant?
i used to ride quite a bit when i was in thailand. there used to be a lot of cool twisty singletrack near around where we lived, but now ever since moving to the united states-- a year ago-- i have not biked much. but i've settled down well enough here now to start again. in fact just this morning, a friend from work and i went to a local bike shop to ask them about local trails and to pick up a pair of shorts. hopefully, we should start soon. or maybe if one of you guys is from nj, we could meet up on a weekend to check out some local singletrack. that would be cool!
i have a pretty customized mountain bike bike, though the frame is nothing fancy, i bought a complete trek 6500 a while back and slowly updated most parts, my most prized possession being a nice pair of wheels with chris king hubs
(though i'll never buy another one again, xt hubs with dt swiss rims are the way to go). the frame is a little big for me, but i'll probably change it out sooner or later once i start biking again. i was planning to buy a fixie or a rigid 29er singlespeed some time ago, but i did not seeing as i could not make time to ride. but if i get back to it-- i hope i do soon-- i will surely pick up a haro masi fixie or their cheapish steel 29er. wee, that would be fun!
i've never ridden with 29 inch wheels and am looking forward to it someday. though, if i can ever afford it, i would really want to pick up a knolly endorphin fully someday. drroooool
btw, when i went to the bike shop today i was very surprised to see that a pair of kenda nevegals cost 55 bucks here!! is that a normal cost for a pair of decent tyres in the states? i brought quite a few of my spare nevegals from thailand with me which i bought for about 8 dollars a pair over there!! boy, am i glad i brought them along!
also, most importantly: this thread needs pics!