Upgrades

Your enthusiasm's great, no doubt of that.

I think I'd be trying to learn to get as much as possible out of the bike as a 100mm hardtail and saving for a good 4 or 5 inch travel dually instead, or maybe more travel if your ambition is to do AM type riding. Your bike is an XC bike and my concern is the frame isn't really designed to handle the kind of use you seem to be wanting to give it, and it won't do what you want very well.

Some thoughts:
* Dropper seatposts: Forget the ones with under seat levers. Go the lever on the bars instead.
* Putting 140mm forks on a 100mm XC rig is likely to exceed the frame's design limits for the rearward loads from the wheel as you hit trail obstacles. Check the manufacturer's stated maximum axle to bottom-of-headtube length. You risk folding your frame by going longer... that would hurt.
* Short stem... what length you contemplating? super short is a bit out of place unless you are going DH only. Steering likely to become quite twitchy. And wandery when climbing due to lack of weight on the front. For comparison, my AM/Enduro bike has 130mm travel, 68.5 degree head angle and 100mm stem.
* Wide bars good if doing DH. I tend to clip trees a bit on some XC tracks (eg, Kiwarrak, Ourimbah) at 685mm, so you may want to consider whether going the extra is going to cramp your style on twisty singletrack
* Forget the damper fluid for now.
* Citrus degreaser is good.
* Grips will fit. Treat grips as consumables.

Hope this helps.

A pleasure.

Tho' I must admit the increase in fork length concerns me a bit. That can end ugly.

Y'know, you can pick up a good 5"-6" dually only a coupla years old off fleaBay for around a grand? Not much more than you're planning on spending here.

Dually gives you a lot more control, you won't be wasting time and money trying to turn a pigs ear into a silk purse, and it will be built to cope with the abuse you'll dish out. Less expensive over not even the long run... trust me

I'm voting for the dually too... Find a decent one on ebay & sell the GT. I bought my Anthem and haven't regretted it for a second. It's a much smoother ride, & better traction riding bumpy uphill sections. My backside votes too. That's 2+

thanks all for the advice............should be useful when i nut up and tell my folks

just wondering what if i put the stuff on and only did like manly dam, a bit of red hill and like the biggest drop would be like evas Huck. I think this would enhance the ride quality, not having to stop and put the seat post down and also a more stable handlebar stem combo?

also have talked to gt and local bike shop who have assured me fork is stable on bike.

just because i play rep cricket which is my main sport (lots of comps+equipment is expensive) but mtb is a hobby.....and an expensive one as i think all would testify.

Anyway thank you all for the advice...i think i will end up getting a dually but first need to cram in some more hardtail goodness.

Thanks again will