Blogger has change things so this post is a relearn.
Pictures of trail riding were taken by Bell Rock and Court House Butte Trails where the trail head is located off of Arizona #179 six miles below the Sedona City Limits.
My experiences lately have been a learning lesson. When I was living on a sailboat in San Pedro I had several shore lockers to store bicycles, tools and parts. I had my S-Works with Fox suspension and a Hybrid that I used for gathering things at the market. My road bikes were basically complete and I my track bikes didn't need any work. 
When I was on the sailboat my neighbor was also a bike nut. He like to ride for transportation and fun. He also was always building something new. Something always different. He built a 29 inch and kept telling how it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. So after I moved to Arizona I started looking on E-Bay for a 29 inch bike. I found a hard tail that was from Nashbar and this was before they went out of business. This was being sold from someone other than Nashbar and was offered for $500.00 below the normal price, 
My experiences lately have been a learning lesson. When I was living on a sailboat in San Pedro I had several shore lockers to store bicycles, tools and parts. I had my S-Works with Fox suspension and a Hybrid that I used for gathering things at the market. My road bikes were basically complete and I my track bikes didn't need any work. 
When I was on the sailboat my neighbor was also a bike nut. He like to ride for transportation and fun. He also was always building something new. Something always different. He built a 29 inch and kept telling how it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. So after I moved to Arizona I started looking on E-Bay for a 29 inch bike. I found a hard tail that was from Nashbar and this was before they went out of business. This was being sold from someone other than Nashbar and was offered for $500.00 below the normal price, 
It arrived via a UPS truck in a normal cardboard bicycle carton.
The components were low line Shimano/Suntour and was a 3 chain wheels x 8 cog cassette set up with disc brakes. The tubes were paper thin and the tires were goat head magnets. The front forks lacked in air and were very flimsy. Since I have had very good forks in the past I started looking for an upgrade.
Suntour offered an upgrade for $100.00 for a $400.00 fork so I bought it. First mistake is not knowing what you have and what you are getting. Big difference. The new fork had a tapered steering tube and the Nashbar frame was made for a 1 1/8 tube. I searched the internet and then went to one of the local shops in the Village. I tried to explain it with drawing to the shop mechanic but he said to bring the bike in and he would look at it. Well there is no way I would show my Nashbar POS to him so I went back to my drawing board. I actually have one and a decent t-square.
So I made a bearing out of copper wire for the headset lower and with plenty of grease actually made it work (kinda).
This led me to start for a search for a frame that would accept the taper. I found a bare Marin hard tail frame on E-Bay and subtracted from my meager bank account. The new build would be all new stuff using only the Suntour fork upgrade. It took a while to find the exact lower bearing but Jenson had it and the part really fit correctly.
The last time I raced cross county at a Norba National in Fontana on my S-Works lots of riders were using these giant rear cogs and tiny front chain wheels. That was all too strange for me. So when I ordered new bottom bracket for the Marin I went with 3x9 not knowing it was no longer in favor.
It took a while to get pedals, seat post, bars and brakes. The wheels took a while as they came from China. The Marin frame had blue high lites so almost everything that was added were blue. When the bike was ready to roll I left off the remote handlebar lockout for the forks as it was disassembled and looked like too much work to figure out. 
So after riding the Marin for a while I changed the rear cassette for a bigger set. Then I took off the triples and left just a single chain wheel. The shifter was also removed. Now it was a 9 speed but still not geared low enough show I went shopping for a 46 tooth in the rear. With the pandemic it took for ever to get the part and when I did it took a while to get shifting and keeping the chain on to get past the mail box. Finally it shifted smoothly and reliable. 
But the remote lockout remained in a dish in my tool/parts cabinet. So I took the plunge and tried to install it. Getting the cable to go through the fork cap was driving me crazy. Finally after a day of going nuts I quit. Later in the middle of the AM I woke up and restarted the chore. Then I went on-line and found a YouTube DIY video. My problem was I had not realized there was a hole in the cap for the allen wrench to tighten the locking slug that depressed the ball bearing that controlled the fork pressure. 
I could not get the lock switch to return to normal so I increased the cable length and add a return spring to the cable end as shown. So how when climbing a hill I can depress the lever which lockouts the fork to stop wasting energy in bouncing. It actually works and snaps back to normal with a simple touch of the release lever,
