XC racer Part III - Optional Extras

With most of the bits in stock, my attention wandered to tyres, Rocket Rons in particular as I didn’t have a decent all rounder tyre in stock and again, Pinkbike came up trumps.  Though I originally saw the ad on Bikeradar, I was too new to pm the seller but the tyres were also advertised on Pinkbike so I made contact through their messaging system.  The Seller was someone I had seen posting on Bikeradar, and had recently broken up his HT as he rides road now.  I almost bought his Focus Raven and the nearly new Rocket Rons that he had on the bike would be perfect for me, £30 delivered was the price agreed, half the price of a single tyre new, and with some elbow grease cleaning them up they now look practically new. 

http://www.schwalbe.com/gb/offroad-reader/rocket-ron.html

The plan for the cranks then took a lucky turn via eBay.  I had been keeping an eye out for a set of BB30 cranks that would come in under the budget for the adapters to run my HTII cranks, which would free them up for another build that needs them.  I hadn’t expected to get anything for that, but a set of FSA Afterburner cranks came up, these are a triple BB30 but 9 speed - something of a rarity as everyone is 10 speed and most people want a double or even a single.  This also got me thinking about 1x9 so I did some research, and this is a possibility for the future.

FSA Stock Image from CRC 

Actual Part

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/fsa-afterburner-bb30-triple-chainset/rp-prod54763

The FSA Afterburner Cranks were had for a pretty amazing £5 starting bid plus £7 postage.  This almost never happens to me, so the saving on adapters will help the budget, and may free up enough cash for a narrow wide chainring for a 1x9 set up.  Condition was excellent, they have been used and there are heel rub marks on the arms that have removed the lacquer  but the teeth are in very good condition.

So with all the new bits delivered I just have to dig the parts out of my storage unit and get the bike built.  With a one month old baby getting creative with ways to occupy my free time this may take a while so keep checking back and I will update as I go along.  

You can also see more pictures and bike stuff on my twitter page @jamescycles 

XC Racer Part II - The Bits

With the frame and forks secured, the hunt was now on for the rest of the components needed.  I spotted a well used but functioning set of Avid XX brakes with plenty of spares and three discs, 140, 160 and 180mm for sale on Pinkbike.  Again a few offers went back and forth before I secured the lot for £105.  The discs weren’t what I was after originally, but I decided running 160/140 would be enough for XC and nice and light, with the option to switch to 180/160 for trail centre action.

AVID Image

The Actual Brakes

https://www.sram.com/sram/mountain/products/sram-xx-hydraulic-disc-brake

Next I wanted a saddle, I have Selle italia SLR Flow saddles on all my bikes, but even used on eBay they were going to blow my budget as the cheapest reasonable examples are generally going for £50 or more.  After some thinking on the problem I came across the Cube X1 Ergo - which is a saddle made for Cube by Selle Italia - the dimensions are very close to the SLR and about 130g more which I can cope with.  New the X1 can be had for £35 on discount at CRC but I then spotted one on the Bikeradar Road Bike Classifieds for £18 delivered.  

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/cube-x1-ergonomic-mtb-saddle-2013/rp-prod91962

Next I needed bars - my preference was low rise carbon 650mm, but like the saddle - they were proving hard to find on my budget (£30).  Up stepped the ever dependable Merlin Cycles who were offering the Race Face Deus XC at half price for £29.99 with free delivery.  

http://www.merlincycles.com/race-face-deus-riser-bar-54072.html

Next on the shopping list were grips, I liked the idea of some super light foam grips, especially as they are about 100g lighter than lock on grips so would get me back what I’d lost on the saddle, but there seem to be lots of report of them sliding around.  Then I spotted the Prologo Feather lock on grips - they are lightweight foam and lock-on, but with only a single set of lock collars they weigh 60g so a good compromise.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/prologo-feather-lock-on-mtb-foam-grips/

The final items were less fun but required none the less, first off was BB adapters to allow me to run my Hollowtech II cranks with the BB30 that is already fitted to the frame.  My budget wouldn’t run to new cranks, and I didn’t want to remove the perfectly good BB30 to press in an adapter so I opted for these Wheels Engineering shims for £29.99.  They allow the 24mm spindle Hollowtech II cranks to be fitted to the 30mm bearing of the BB30.

http://www.wiggle.com/wheels-manufacturing-bb30-to-24mm-crank-spindle-shims/

So the orders were placed and the parts started rolling in, next I'd need to find some time to build the bike . . 

XC Racer Part I - the Frame

I decided to focus on getting the frame first as that would then dictate the forks etc.  After many months of scouring forum classifieds, eBay, Gumtree, Pinkbike and the like, I spotted a very good condition Whyte 20-CS on the Pinkbike Classifieds.  The owner was also selling the Rock Shox SID’s that came with the frame, the seat post and stem.  So we had a little bit of offering back and forth before we settled on £500 for the lot, with a very helpful mate of mine who lived near the seller collecting for me.

I had done plenty of research before finally pushing the button and Whyte are an exciting British brand led by Chief Designer Ian Alexander.  They have a wide range of bikes based around trail and cross country racing.  Their range is now based around 29 inch wheel bikes but the 2012 20-CS was one of their last 26 inch wheeled bikes.  

Full info on the 20-CS can be seen here:

http://whyte.bike/2012/bike_page.php?ModNo=W-1-007-12

With the current 2014 range of Whyte bikes seen here:

http://whyte.bike/2014/

Once back at home the frame looks great and I am super keen to source the rest of the bits and get this little cracker built.

Commuting in one gear . .

I changed jobs in November last year resulting in a commute that is a nice 28km from West London to Addlestone in Surrey.  Scything through Twickenham, Little Hampton, Hampton Court and Weybridge the route has a mix of busy main roads and nice quiet lanes.  Getting up to speed on the new job I have spent a lot of time out of the office on site ,but with the summer coming and better weather I'll be in the office more, and leaving the car at home more often.

From my four rides to work in 2014, this is the Strava link for my fastest time this year so far:

http://www.strava.com/activities/147054683

That was done on my Viner road bike with the use of 20 gears.  I have a single speed Cinelli that was originally bought as a winter training bike but, with a round trip of almost 60km, this will now come into service as my commuter to save the wear and tear on the Viner.

Today was my first ride in.  

My legs definitely felt the difference, having to spin at a much higher cadence to keep up a reasonable speed on the flat.  Sadly (for my training ambitions) there aren't any real hills on the route, so there is a lot of time spent around the 30kph mark and the legs get a fast working over.

The time was four/five minutes longer so my goal for this summer is to get that down to the same time as the geared bike.  What will be interesting will be if I do manage that will be to then see if there has been any change in my speed back on the Viner.

I have made some Strava segments on the longest junction free sections to help motivate myself and compare the pure riding elements of the ride, as traffic can change the overall time quite a bit.

The Segments are here:

http://www.strava.com/athlete/segments/created

I'll update with the Strava links for today's efforts and report what's left of the legs after the return journey . . 

XC Racer on a budget . .

After several years racing XC and Enduro (FNSS, Gorrick etc) my trusty Gary Fisher Ziggurat race bike got pinched along with almost all my other bikes in a daring raid on the sheds in my back garden.  After after climbing along a set of garages, scaling five of my neighbours' eight foot fences the thieves got to my back garden, cropped the locks off my two sheds to help themselves to three MTB’s and two carbon road bikes - the only survivor being my 1994 Kona AA that was in bits for a re-build. 

Fortunately they gave up on the road bikes five gardens down and left them in a neighbour’s garden, they called the Police and the bikes were returned the next day.  By the time the insurance company paid out for the other bikes (M&S - excellent service) I was in the process of moving house from Northampton to London and had been doing more road riding, so I decided to take the payout and plough the cash into the house. 

Eighteen months later I’ve been really missing racing and getting out in the woods with my mates, so the hunt started for a new mountain bike. I had been steadily saving up some cash, and set myself a budget of £750 to get a bike together. I also had my “spares” to help soften the blow, sadly my “good” wheels were on the Zigg but I had a second set of Bontrager Race Lite wheels with Mud tyres on for bad weather and winter riding, along with a Race XXX Lite seat post, Shimano SLX Groupset, some SPD pedals and an assortment of tyres, tubes and Stan’s sealant.

I wanted something fast and light, but still a bit trail orientated so I could also hit the trail centres and woods for fun.  The Zigg had been perfect for that so I had the geometry and data from my Retul bike fit to work with while looking for a similar bike.  Ideally I wanted a carbon frame (mainly as I haven’t had a carbon mtb before) and 100mm forks with the preference being Fox and 100mm - F100 RLC or similar.  Brake wise I had Avid Juicy 7’s before and had 160mm discs on my wheels, so something Avid was the way I wanted to go.  

On the hunt several bikes looked to be what I was after; On-One Whippet, Trek 8 or 9 Series, Focus Raven, and I also had an eye out for another Ziggurat or similar Genesis Frame to build up.

Component wise my spares left me needing:

Handlebars

Saddle

Grips

Stem

Brakes (160mm discs already in stock)

After looking at my tyres they were all in various stages of wear, so some Rocket Rons would also be nice if the budget would allow.

The hunt was on . .