I would strongly recommend the extender bar. Also, there's no real need to go for XT if you want to save money (I have the stock-spec albeit with custom wheels and brakes and shifting are more than adequate).
I know there no need for xt, i guess I just went for it as it what I always had on my mountain bikes back in the day. I was just interested to see what I could spec for a fair bit less that the standard build.
I would strongly recommend the extender bar. Also, there's no real need to go for XT if you want to save money (I have the stock-spec albeit with custom wheels and brakes and shifting are more than adequate).