Another pioneering bike from Gary Fisher, the 2002 Mt. Tam was one of the very first production 29ers. I had a touch of buyer’s remorse with my 2002 Sugar 2+. “VERY fun to ride, but you can’t beat a hard tail.” So when a Mt. Tam showed up on eBay a year or two later sporting reflectors and street slicks, a sure sign of a lightly used mountain bike, I jumped on it. It has since become my all time favorite bike to ride and has by far the most miles on it. Some quick changes made before I got it dirty were Shimano XT cranks, Thomson stem, Chris King headset, Lizard Skins lock on grips, and some proper WTB tires. After a few rides, I realized two Shimano XT V-brakes were even less effective on 29er rims than they had become on 26ers, so out came the trusted Avid BB7s. This was the configuration I went with for the next 13 years until a Shimano XTR M960 drive train and a pair of Bontrager Race Disc specific wheels got freed up by another project. There isn’t one thing left to change on my go to rider. Now it just hope it (and I) will last another 15 years!