Introducing the Sinister F-Bomb

Been riding Sinister's since 2005 and rate the r-9 as my favorite bike of all time. the r-9 was getting a little long in the tooth and recent MTB Hall of Fame inductee "Frank the Welder" was looking to change things up. My ideal bike is a big bike that you can still pedal and would fit into the "freeride" category if you buy the term. the R-9 pedals very well for a big bike but...could be better. The Sinister Gruitr seems to be very popular but not quite enough travel for me and the Splinter series were fun but again low in the travel. My thinking with this bike was that FTW has finally made a bike that with the right setup could be my ultimate big guy, big bike. Frank got to work...
First up, he simplified and made the bike easier to build, maintain , laterally stiffer, while shaving weight. And lateral stiffness? Holy Shit batman this thing is out of control stiff which should make it track like a monster right?!....more on that soon. This review is based on my initial ride and more testing will really see what its all about.

First ride on the new machine was yesterday and though it was pretty much a X-C ride, it served as a good test with windy, flowy trails with lots of tight and low spots. my frame is a large and when you're sitting on it, the cockpit felt pretty tight or tighter than you'd think. pedaling out onto the trail head, it was very obvious very quick that this thing was for real. Took off like a ra%%d ape and just tracked straight ahead as i dropped into "poundcake" a trail that widely contributes to the Kingdom Trails network being named "Best Flow" in the US by "Bike Magazine". It never occured to me that the bike was "overkill" for the trail cuz it just hooked up and allowed me to instantly start railing turns and pumping the trail for all i'm worth.
Smiling the whole time as the bike just sailed through it all...i instantly thought "this is the bike i've always wanted"!
With the bike setup like mine, namely with a single crown like the Rock Shox Totem and a 32 T front ring on it, this is a "big boys big bike' that should prove to be very versatile. tomorrow will be a bigger test at the Highland Mountain Bike Park but my initial ride was pure Nirvana!!!!
big thanks to FTW, Sinister Bikes, Nick at SRAM, Adam at Pro-Tec, Ron and Paul at I-Ride Bike Shop and to dirt for being there.