That has been my experience as well Greg. Took me a while with lots of testing, grinding and welding. Once I got the right header length it made all the difference in the world.I found that increasing the head pipe lenth increases low end power and didn't hurt topend power.
Hey sorry I didn't reply sooner!What kind of bike is that? Also awesome looking build!
Oh LOL The bike looks loads like a Trek 3500Hey sorry I didn't reply sooner!
The frame is a Nashbar mountain bike frame.
http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/Product_10053_10052_173009_-1___202388
The company doesn't sell a complete bike using this frame. They just sell the frame. I found the bike in my local classifieds for like $220. Considering the fork is worth close to that alone (Fox Vanilla 32), I think I did alright!