#Set timer 1 hour 25 minutes full
#Set timer 1 hour 25 minutes plus

I have no real complaints about climbing the Chainsaw, which surprised me considering the two extra jockey wheels on top of the rear derailleur and a bunch of travel. There's plenty of room for a longer dropper post yet, even without switching to a Wolf Tooth or OneUp post to maximize the drop for a given insertion depth and stack height. I swapped it out for a 175mm dropper and I'm happy. I'm never chasing the longest dropper post options, but the 150mm that's stock on the Chainsaw this year is a bit short when the trails get slow and steep. Contact points! It's remarkable how much better a budget dropper post feels with a nice remote. On a bike for 5K I'd also expect to be changing the dropper post remote, along with grips, saddle, and adding pedals. These are all changes I'd expect to make on any machine at pretty much any price point. I also changed out the grips to ones I prefer. I swapped the saddle out to a WTB Deva, which I had on hand and which happens to be one of my all-time favourites. This also necessitated a different stem and as I'll discuss later I'll be jumping back and forth between 40mm and 50mm lengths. RaceFace 35mm bars don't work well for me, so I immediately swapped it for a smoother riding 31.8mm bar with a sweep I prefer. Rocky Mountain Altitude A50 or A30 Shimano.Here's a short list of some examples of bikes that come up in conversation: For drivetrain my first choice is Shimano Deore running on a HG driver, but I'm happy with the Chainsaw's GX drivetrain at this price. I'd plan to flip the brakes, but I understand that Shimano stoppers are the easiest to sell as take-offs. I'm fairly suspension agnostic, I like what SR Suntour, RockShox, and Fox are doing in this price range. I've worked on a couple of bikes with storage hatches that rattle and all I can say is screw that. I'd prefer not to have in-frame storage but in most cases, it's not a total deal breaker. My theoretical bike will have an aluminum frame with simple cable routing - internal or external - that does not interface with my headset and I'd like to be able to carry a water bottle in the front triangle. But this seems to be the magic tipping point for a full-suspension rig where performance and durability stop improving exponentially by spending more cash.

#Set timer 1 hour 25 minutes plus

I want to recognize that 5K, plus ongoing maintenance, is a privileged amount of money to be able to spend on a mountain bicycle, especially a second bicycle to pair with my rigid #1FG.

This is a conversation I have with friends quite a lot and there is a range of bikes that are on my 5K list. When my budget allowed, I'd be buying a top-end set of after-market brakes.

I'd be ditching the rear hub for one with much faster engagement and I'd be swapping the saddle, grips, and bar to my preference. I'd be swapping out the same parts on pretty much every stock bike no matter how much more than five grand I was spending. But buying a complete bike at around 5K and selling the parts I don't want or need, often works out as a better min-max purchase than putting together a complete build. At a lower budget I'd only have my Waltworks with an extra suspension fork and multi-speed drivetrain to throw on when I fancied. If I had a significantly higher budget, then I'd be piecing together a custom bike from a frame-up.

#Set timer 1 hour 25 minutes full

And that full suspension bike would list for around 5K CAD. My custom rigid single-speed and an N+1 full-suspension bike. To quickly explain, if it weren't for testing bikes and components, I see myself owning two rigs. Ignoring it's back-to-the-future High Pivot & Idler (HP+I) suspension design for a moment, the Devinci Chainsaw GX sits in a broad field of what I call 'realistic' bikes.