This is part two of my Stumpjumper 15 Alloy build series. If you missed the setup — why I picked an alloy frame on sale over a carbon build, and why reliability has mattered more to me than ever since a Cannondale carbon frame broke on me — start with part one. This post covers the single biggest change I made to how the bike actually rides: swapping the stock shock link for a Cascade Components 156mm mullet link. ...
Every build starts with a question, and mine was blunt: could I put together a trail bike I’d actually trust on the descents, keep running for years, and not spend carbon-flagship money to get there? This series is the long answer, broken out from the full build video below into a few focused posts — I’ll walk through the suspension, the drivetrain, the routing that nearly broke me, and the final setup and weight. But before any of that, it’s worth explaining why I landed on this frame at all. Parts come and go. The frame is the one decision everything else has to live with. ...