he got it for free (kind of) everything looks fine on it, BB isn't low and the head angle is still good. plus he has to ride XC all summer with it.

 She rides damn great too. better than those pig dual crown fuckers.

 doing anything today? I'll be down at lake shore in like 30 minutes.

 no thanks.

 Might actually even make it better, now it's more flickable in turns and probably weighs a tonne less.

 she's alot lighter now about 5 lbs from stock i'd guess. i tried her out today on a few jumps, pretty damn flickable.

 no way that fork made your bike 5 pounds lighter

 i've changed a few parts including the fork. tires and tubes, fork, front derail, no chainguide. i'm saving for an air shock and perhaps a new wheelset.

 you're going to regret the chainguide

 it broke my chain in the first place, why the hell would i put it back on?

 The bike came stock with a pos fork thats what. Trust me, the bike is designed to run with a 180-200mm fork. Currently, you head angle is steaper than the head angle i had with my hucker and 66. If you have to ride XC most of them time, get yourself an XC bike, not a freeride bike with a fork that isn't ment to be put on such a bike. I don't care if the fork is great or not, fact is the bike isn't design for such a small fork. Plus you can't compare 36 to some pos drop off... If you'd want a trully versatile fork, the 66 does it all. I can be great for small things, great on big things, and its an indestructible fork. Well at least thats how amazing my 06 66 rc2x was. Plus, you will regret removing your Chain guide. You'll understand when you chain keeps falling off, which will happen, trust me.

 You can't know for sure if the head angel is steeper than your bike from this picture. Also, if he finds the head angle to steep, he can always put it in the lower travel position that will slacken the head angle quite a bit.