My friend introduced me to mountain biking about 8 weeks ago. The first ride got me hooked. I sold my defunked motorcycle and started buying parts to start building my bike. I am a large man (280lbs) so I decided I wanted to build a bullet proof bike. My friend helped me find all the parts that would result in a bad-ass-steel-frame-all-mountain bike. We first looked at the Kona Honzo frames. I couldn't find a retailer that had them for sale so we kept looking. We happened to stumble upon a sweet looking frame that was in my price range. Enter the Ragley Blue Pig. It was perfect. I ordered it right away. It was on layaway so I had to wait 3 very impatient weeks for her to arrive. In the mean time I bought, or was gifted most of the rest of the parts for Christmas. I bought some beefy Marzocchi 350 R 27.5" Forks for it. 160mm of travel, coil and air to support my weight.the wheels arrived first,then the forksthe frame finally arrivedAs the parts trickled in I became more and more excited. On January 1st the build began.We started fitting all of the parts on the bike. Because we are broke college kids, we don't have all the fancy tools, so we had to improvise on a lot of things. The head set and race were the hardest part. We had to take the park tool apart to completely set the race. As you can see in the following picture there was a gap, but we got that figured out.We got almost all of the parts on the bike on the first night of the build.The brakes hadn't shipped by the first day of the build so we had to wait for those to arrive... arrive they did the next day. I got the avid mechanical disc's 200mm in the front, 180mm in the back to make sure this big man can stop when I need to.we took the bike down to the local bike shop so they could cut me the appropriate lengths of brake cables and housings, as well as cut the extra length of my fork tube.The second day of the build was short, I didn't have the last few pieces I needed to finish the bike: the chain, and the seat post. (I'm still short a few things: pedals, seat, bar grips, but I'm borrowing my friends for the time being)The chain took 5 days to get to my house. The longest 5 days of my life, but it finally arrived.We put on all the final touches, did the final adjusting, and I took my first spin around the block. It was dark by the time we finally got it put together so I will be riding my first trail tomorrow and will update with a new post on how she rides. But for now, lets look at how shiny and pretty she is.UPDATE: I took her for two rides totaling about 12 miles. Its an amazing machine, the 27.5 inch tires feel like you can roll over anything, and they hold a lot of speed through the corners. the forks are a little jumpy, so climbing is a little work, but down hill and obstacles are no match for them. This bike is more than i had hoped it would be! its a great first real mountain bike!UPDATE: I upgraded the pedals to Shimano MX80 Saint Flat Pedals. I installed them and rode once like they came from the factory, and I determined that the spikes werent highe enough, so i took out all the spacers (28 little screws later) and they ride great now! they are a sweet pedal, They eat shins though.