The Ideal Galbraith Mt. Bike?
Ellsworth Moment

This is Mongo's personal Ellsworth Moment, which is tricked out with a custom Ellsworth factory paint job ("toxic green"), Marzocchi Bomber fork with QR-20 through-axel, Fox DHX 5.0 shock, Shimano XT 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes with 8-inch rotar in the front, Shimano XT hollow spindle bottom bracket / crank, Hadley hubs laced to Sun Single Track rims, a 2.35 Kenda Nevegal tire in the rear and a 2.5 Kenda Blue Groove in the front, FSA K-Force carbon fiber handlebar, Thomson X-4 stem, Specialized Body Geometry seat with manganese rails, Salsa quick release seat post clamp, and e-thirteen lucite bash guard, among other goodies.

Depending on how you set it up, the Ellsworth Moment can be a brilliant (1) Light Weight Trail bike, (2) All Mountain bike, or (3) Freeride bike -- or an extremely capable combination of the three. The possibilities with this bike are almost dizzying!

The Ellsworth Moment rolls and smokes everything on Galbraith, from the Scorpion to El Pollo Elastico.

This is is quite possibly the best all around bike GalbraithMt.com has every tested -- or maybe we should say "the best bikes" (plural) we have ever tested. If you set this bike with with a high quality air fork and air shock and 5-inches of travel, you've got a 26 pound Light Weight Trail bike that absolutely screams on everything, including the climb to the Towers and Darrell's Death Climb. On the other end of the spectrum, if you set it up with a quality coil fork and coil shock, you can go huck yourself at Sandy Stone on Wonderland, or anything else you like.

Mongo's Moment is equipped with a Marzocchi Bomber coil/open oil bath fork with 6 inches of travel and a QR-20 through-axel, which is utterly rigid and has the great Marzocchi feel, yet is very responsive and manueverable -- and relatively light -- on the trail because of its single-crown setup.

The Moment rear suspension marries the super efficient Horst-link four-bar with Ellsworth's proprietary ITC technology, which is derived from Formula One race car suspension designs. What this means on the trail is that the Moment hooks up like velcro when you're under power, and when you're braking it doesn't stiffen like most mono-pivot and faux-bar designs. The Moment and the Foes Inferno boast the best performing rear ends GalbraithMt.com has ever tested.

Mongo's Moment is equipped with Shimano XT 4-piston hydraulic disc brakes, with an 8-inch rotar in the front and 6-inch rotar in the back, which is a great setup for Galbraith.

Like many four-bar, faux-bar and VPP designs, the Moment has a lot of nooks and crannies in the rear that require a little extra time to clean. It's not as hard to clean as the VPP Giant Reign, but it's not as easy as mono-pivots like the Cannondale Jekyll or Prophet.

This is an exceptionally strong and durable bike which takes advantage of the lessons Ellsworth learned with the Moment's predecessor, the more XC-oriented Ellsworth Id.

The Moment's 69 degree head tube angle is currently GalbraithMt.com's preferred set up for All Mountain use on Galbraith, and the 13.8 inch high bottom bracket is just about perfect too -- high enough to clear most rocks and roots, but not so high you feel like you're on stilts when you get up on a log or stand poised at the top of a drop like the Big Rock on Cedar Dust.