Re:
Sorry, dlr, Ignaz X is not for sale. I do slightly covet your Lightning Pro, though. Reading your story about it, I'm sure I've ridden it when the ATB Sales rep brought it to John's Bikes in Bath (where I was working at the time) as a demo bike to get the shop guys excited about the brand and hopefully to sell more of them.
I collected the Twister yesterday (you should have bid, you would have won it. I only placed the minimum bid in the view that "If nobody else wants it, I'll have it, but I'm not paying any more than the opening bid price.") and, as you'd expect there are some good and some bad things about it:
Good stuff:
It's a Breezer Twister.
It's the right size for me.
No apparent cracks in the frame.
The pivot isn't at all worn.
The paint is mostly good, with a few chips on the rear triangle, and some cable rub on the head tube.
It has only been lightly used.
It has an XT rear mech that is still nice and tight.
It looks like it still has the original bottom bracket, which is smooth and has no play.
Separate brake levers and gear shifters (8 speed RF+ for the rear, Gripshift for the front).
It rides, stops and goes.
The tyres hold air.
The cables all move easily with little or no drag.
Not-so-good stuff:
Horrible Planet X bars and stem.
Cheap, nasty, "Chili Works" forks.
Heavy wheels, with slight buckle in the rear.
STX chainset.
Loads and loads of dirty oil on the chain.
LX V-brakes with pads 3/4 worn.
Gripshift front shifter.
Nasty grips.
Front triangle decals not in great shape.
Coil shock with spring that is too soft for my lardy arse.
So, nothing too disastrous.
The plan:
Strip it down and clean it up.
Replace forks with a set of Marzocchi X-Fly 100s that are in the toy boxes (but have a Chris King fork crown race, so I'll end up putting a CK headset on the bike, thous more than doubling the spend).
Replace front wheel with a disc brake compatible one from in the spares selection.
Replace front brake with Avid BB7 from the toy boxes
Replace stem with ???? from the toy boxes
Replace bars with Ritchey ones from the toy boxes.
Fit a flite saddle.
Either replace coil or get a suitable air rear shock.
Then argue with myself about singlespeed or geared.