EightValveGrowl

I owned a fairly heavily upgraded '04 Shred, then acquired and upgraded an '05 Shred which I just sold this year. They are really fun bikes...definitely greater than the sum of their parts. I remember doing urban riding on it...taking it to dirt jumps, and ripping up some fun singletrack on it...embarrasing supposedly better bikes. I like the upgrades to the geometry in the current version, especially the shorter chainstays, as it wasn't the easiest bike to manual. As for the looks? I think it looks fine...I care more about how fun it is to ride, and this one looks like a fun little firecracker. I think the price is a bit high given the spec, but not outrageously so. Maybe they will offer it as a frame? that would be sweet. I wish they made a sliding dropout conversion...then it really would become a jack of all trades.

According to Stan's the Flow and Flow EX rims weigh the same, 510g per rim. So why not go for the wider, beefier rim? I like 25-28mm internal width for 2.35-2.5" tires. Makes for a far more stable platform for tubeless.