I have the original Lefty Oliver from 2016, still rides great.
They’re meant to be setup with zero sag so you don’t get any suspension bob, but saves you when you hit some washboard or some bigger gnar. Perhaps not as smooth if it did have some sag though, if you’re looking for the cushiest ride.
Why do you say that?
The travel on a Lefty fork is in the fork leg, a Headshok’s suspension is above the fork crown. The fork legs are rigid.
I think you might have something mixed up here, here’s the details for the RYET fork listing. One fork, 454 axle to crown. 2.6 clearance
Yup, I get your point!
Those “specification” pages are often neglected in my Ali browsing experience. Their geo detail image detailing the fork’s specs specifically says it’s one fork that’s for both 29&27.5. That’s how i figured it’s one fork.
But to your point, I was sure if it when they replied to my inquiry and just pointed me to their geo detail image. I’ll order as things are discounted for the “winter sale” event!
Nice eye! @Upcountry, could you share more photos/angles of your build? Would love to see more.
The 3T wheels would be interesting, but not boost.
@wintermute I’m a full blown aero-weenie, and am running some of the Nextie rims, that @BCM posted just above, on my Mosaic. The 36mm deep, 30mm internal/40mm external version. When I ordered them, I inquired about having them built to boost hubs and they were willing to do so. With a 2.0" or 2.1" tire you could try to argue that there is a bit of “aero gain” in addition to the good looks. But when you start to get up to 2.3" tires and upwards, you’d need upwards of a 80mm deep rim in hopes of seeing any measurable benefit, and you’re talking about a pretty significant weight difference as you get that deep. Aero rims work by trying to get the air to “hold onto” or “regain contact with” the rim as quickly after contacting the front of the tire, and for as long as possible. With the frontal area of a >2.0" tire punching a pretty big hole into the air, you’d need a “long” surface for that air to reconnect with. This is all also kind of against the whole notion of these bikes. If you can ride at a sustained pace of upwards of 18mph/30kph, you might be better off on another bike, and the tire size of a Drop Bar MTB is probably unwarranted.
Hi,
I’m also building up a drop bar MTB for gravel and beach riding and racing, so there’s a lot of interesting info here.
Regarding aero wheels, I also ordered from Nextie. I went with the AGX45’s, so 45mm deep and 30mm internal width. I asked Nextie lace the rims on boost hubs, all communication with them was great!
The wheels arrived last Thursday (production time 3 weeks and 2 weeks shipping) and they look great!
I haven’t been able to install them yet, so I can’t comment on ride quality. I also haven’t checked if the dishing of the wheel is correct for the boost rear wheel spacing.
As @Upcountry said, whether or not there is going to be an actual aero gain is debatable. The external width is 40mm. A 2.2" MTB tire is substantially wider than this 40mm width.
Rim profile:
Stem length has nothing to do with twitchy handling, other than as a side effect it changes the front-rear wheel weight distribution. Check out Peter Verdone’s blog for a more in depth look.
I’ve found the exact opposite on my drop bar MTB, a 100mm stem moves weight distribution forward improving front wheel grip and making the steering “faster”. same bike and bar with a 40mm stem has a rearward weight distribution which feels more stable.
peter verdone has some (imo) very odd ideas about bikes that I have found to not really be accurate in reality.
found your blog posts on aerobars for your setup to be very helpful 
My hardtail is Shimano right now. My road/gravel bikes are SRAM.
The problem/cost is the frame and fork are both post-mount. All the new dropbar lever/caliper kits are flat-mount. Bare levers are available, but harder to find discounted and then you have to figure out which hoses/fittings to use. The Wolftooth PM-FM adapter is neat, but forces a +20mm rotor and I don’t want to run 180mm rotors on this bike. A.S.S. in Canada has adapters that don’t force the +20 - I need to measure the frame to see if they’ll work (they have much tighter tolerances).
AXS does make the conversion pretty easy - no cables, no pull ratio problems, etc. Even if I don’t go to drop bars, I’ll likely go to AXS (from Shimano 11 speed) later this season for ease of geared/SS conversion (I use the bike for SS racing at a local dirt crit series).
I really need to steak my neighbors custom Zukas monstercross for a week and see if I even like the style before committing any money to a conversion.
This is the article I used to build my Specialized Chisel into a Drop Bar bike. This thread kind of cracks me up with the amount of nerdery going to make hard tails into effectively gravel bikes. They aren’t. The Drop Bar MTB is an effective if you’re looking for long term comfort over long distances on challenging and changing terrain. It won’t be as aero as a gravel bike, and it most certainly will take more effort to get it up to speed, but the narrower form, and more ergonomic position than flat bars make it fast and comfortable. Two things that are paramount when spending all day, multiple days or weeks on a bike. Yes you have too look at specs and geo here for a bit but it comes down to just trying it. I’ve got thousands of miles clocked on mine on everything from black diamond Pisgah Gnar to flat and fast bike paths in Florida. It’s pretty well dialed. 
the “exchange kit” option is a good way to get just the brifters (includes hose as well). then you can choose whatever calipers you want. (sram has a webpage which goes through different brake caliper hose compatibility).
also there are random deals to be found on rival brifters with brakes that make be cheaper too - https://bikecloset.com/product/sram-rival-axs-d1-rear-right-f20-1800mm-shifter-caliper-oem/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnfmsBhDfARIsAM7MKi2OdFXjzZDVhvCh2pg5sux9xNDYYG4HMoxPhU0iEn5dGYWo9DkHPaEaAkWVEALw_wcB
Here is the compatibility map:
Can somebody articulate how one might feel the differences in geometry between a Enve MOG and an Epic WorldCup with drop bars
The geometry is messed up for the Epic, it’s bottom bracket height is calculated incorrectly probably due to how the bike had to be input in order to display the diagram. BB Height should be around 310-320mm.
For a general comparison like this, it’s also worth fixing the tire size on the Epic WC, and use the “align ground” setting in the top right corner… It helps you visualize the stance of both. These two are worlds apart… I wish they weren’t, but they are. As mentioned earlier, I wanted to justify a similar build, but its just so niche, and might be compromising on too many fronts. Headlines: a full 100mm longer front center is going to tough to overcome, weight distribution wise. This doesn’t even account for the fact you’ll be a full 60mm higher in the front end, exacerbating the problem of getting some weight over the front tire. With the 40mm-60mm stem you’ll be running combined with the 4d slacker heat tube angle, turning is just not going to be confidence inspiring with drop bars. The trail numbers are pretty far apart, and it would feel pretty wonky at low speeds.
The epic wc is going to have the front wheel much further out, and that will take a lot of attention to make it turn well. You will need to weight the front end harder. I find I have issues with this kind of thing, because with longer front ends I’m fairly prone to making drop bars slip and rotate down.
If you don’t get enough weight on the front it will feel wayward and prone to understeer
Thanks. I’m getting discouraged by the complexity of this conversion. OTOH Dylan Johnson seems to have gone pass through all this and appears to have no issues with handling.
