2014 Orange Clockwork 29er tweek

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This topic has 32 replies, 12 voices, and was last updated 9 years ago by Clobber.

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2014 Orange Clockwork 29er tweek
whitey
Free Member

Hi, I have just purchased a clockwork 29er 17inch because it was so cheap. I was going to just buy the frame so I could pick a colour – which would have been £450. I got the whole bike for £699 so i could get out on it straight away – and at that price, seemed silly not to. The specs make the bike pretty heavy as it is the basic specs. Does anyone have recommendations of where the best place to start is on making this bike lighter – forks? Wheelset? Crank? Loving the bike, but want something much lighter.

Posted 9 years ago

khani
Free Member

Wheels and forks usually, look at the tyres first though, cheaper bikes usually come with cheaper wire bead tyres that can weigh more than the moon, a judicious tyre swap can lop a pound or two out of some entry level bikes..

Posted 9 years ago

digga
Free Member

Excellent choice – I had one of these to ‘try’ the idea of a 29er hardtail and they’re a lovely bike. The only snag I found was not quite being able to fit wide enough rear rubber between the chainstays for my tastes.

The cheapo forks work extremely well, but as kahni says, a set of RockShox Revelations would be a major upgrade for performance and weight and decent wheels would sort the weight even further.

TBH mine never ‘felt’ a heavy bike as standard.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Thanks. It is my first 29er, and front suspension bike I had an orange c16r for 14 years before this one – it was rediculously small, and light. Just need to get used to it, I guess – but would be nice to lighten it too. Just checked tyre wheights – yes kahni – I could easily loose a pound on a tyre swap. And several pounds on a fork change, digga. I’ll check the Revelations out.

Posted 9 years ago

khani
Free Member

I’d recommend Rebas as they’re readily available at 100mm travel and a bit lighter than Revs..
Revs tend to be 130-140mm travel and that might be too much for an XC bike like the Clockwork and I’m not sure they can be lowered to 100mm..
And if you want a 15mm axle check your wheels will convert or you’ll be into new wheels at the same time,
Though a set of Hope hoops on Crest rims will work wonders as well..

Posted 9 years ago

timc
Free Member

Personally I would start with the wheels & tyres, take the opportunity to go tubeless as well.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Khani – that would save me 800g – and they are on sale at the moment – thanks for the tip.

timc – any tips? I will be 50/50 XC and road – at the moment they are wire continental x king 29×2.2

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

The Clockwork was designed as fun 29er not just xc so the S model upwards has 120mm travel. Orange will warranty the frame to 130mm.

Again S model upwards has 15mm axel.

On mine I put Hope Hoops with Crest rims, Hope X2 brakes and went to 1 x 10. This all made a massive difference although I do wish I had spent the extra £100 on the fork upgrade at the time.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Curvature – sorry for my ignorance what is 1 x 10?

figured it out – crank cog set up. I definately need at least 2×10. Hills in Cornwall are not forgiving. 😀

Posted 9 years ago

digga
Free Member

You can put the ‘tokens’ into the Revs to reduce travel. It’s pretty simple.

No advice for tyres, as I never roaded mine much, other than ditch those cheap, hard Conti standard items because they’re the worst tyres I’ve ever used – zero grip in any situation and still seemed able to create drag on tarmac.

Posted 9 years ago

fitnessischeating
Free Member

I echo the disappointment with rear tire clearance, but overall really like the bike….

Wheels will always be a good upgrade on a 29er…
mine was an economical build, and has changed a bit since here.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/oyQci4]Untitled[/url] by ericpandrew, on Flickr

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

Eric did you ever get an acceptable conclusion regarding the wear to your forks?

Posted 9 years ago

timc
Free Member

whitey – Member
timc – any tips? I will be 50/50 XC and road – at the moment they are wire continental x king 29×2.2

I like the majority would recommend a set of Hope/Stans wheels but I see on one have Shimano XT 29er wheels at £200. I have these on my Solaris & would say that is great VFM. Shimano reliable, decent strength & tubeless.

No Idea what tyres would suit your riding but I recently picked up a set of Maxxis Ardent LUST 2.25 from the STW classifieds for £45 posted as good as new condition, couple of rides & so far so good!

If you could get Similar at £250 that would be a great initial upgrade IMO.

As mentioned above if you have the legs & lungs going 1×10 (gears) would also lighten your bike & make it more responsive.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Thanks timc. Good find on the wheel deal. But I’ll have to stick to 3×10 till the lungs get going. Then only go to 2×10. I can see that this ‘upgrading’ can get quite obsessive. My head is a jumble of prices, weights, and components at the moment. So, I’ll stick to wheelset and posibly forks – for now. Maybe just wheelset even.

One more question – When rockshox forks are locked – should there still be movement in the shocks?

Thanks for the advice everyone.

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

Yes you will always get a little movement.

They are designed so that if you hit a hard enough / big enough impact they will compress.

Keep us all posted with the upgrades and yes it can get a bit obsessive!!!

Posted 9 years ago

ratherbeintobago
Full Member

One more question – When rockshox forks are locked – should there still be movement in the shocks?

There is an argument for never using the lockout on shorter travel forks (don’t actually know how the lockout on my current Rebas works).

Posted 9 years ago

T666DOM
Full Member

I’ve got a set of Kashima Float 120’s I took off my clockwork, barely done 50 miles which I keep meaning to get round & sell. Depending on the Clockwork model you’d possibly need to change the lover headset cup though.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Thanks curvature, ratherbeintobago and t666dom.

t666dom – loving the idea of having some fox float 120’s. I have very limited knowledge on bike specs – so you may have to help me out. Could you tell the difference with the Kashima finish?

I checked myself – tapered headset, lower headset EC44/40? How many camels do you want for the lady? What year are your forks?

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Tweeks so far:-

Thomson seat post, Thomson carbon xc bars, thomson stem. Hope hoops stans flow ex. Not saving much weight yet. Tyres next that will save quite a bit. Just waiting for the right cheap seconds.

The one thing I am looking at is carbon rigid forks by eXotic. Incredibly light if i can beleive the website. And suposedly geometrically adjusted to suit the frame. Anyone have experience of eXotic forks?

Posted 9 years ago

Clink
Full Member

Hope hoops stans flow ex

They are the heaviest stand rims.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Still lighter than what I have now. They were such a good price – and to be honest came with purple hope pro evo hubs. As I decided on a complete build – I bought a chrome clockwork 29er frame with clockwork 25 decals which are purple. Apparantly, it is a clockwork 25 frame that never made the final 25 limited few – due to a small dent on the top of the frame. It came with hope bb, headset and seat collar. All in purple – hence the flow ex buy! As I said earlier – It’s a bit obsessive this upgrading business!

Posted 9 years ago

johnny5
Free Member

I have changed to deore brakes , 180/160
So much better than the avids…

I am running a 2.25 enduro smorgasbord tubeless on back . Only 20 quid
Great tyre . As large volume as will fit in the rear and big enough to allow me to run the rear quite soft to help the grip and take the sting out of the bumps. Slightly more draggy than the crossmark I had before, but traction is great for where I ride ( in the lakes so lots of mud and wet limestone on very steep climbs) . Actually, if u r riding on road a lot I would recommend the crossmark – very fast rolling surprisingly grippy in everything but really wet mud.
Have a minion up front. Haven’t tried the smorgasbord up front, but can’t see why it wouldn’t be ok- certainly a lot better than what came on the bike
Get a dropper seatpost as well, if u haven’t got one !

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

So am I right in thinking you are now building another bike?

Posted 9 years ago

fitnessischeating
Free Member

Curvature;
Sorry only just seen your question to me.
Nothing further came of it, and so I just put it down to experience.

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

fitnessischeating, sorry to hear that.

I personally agreed with you as I felt the product you had bought was not fit for purpose.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Curvature. What started as a lightening upgrade turned into a whole bike build. When I bought the basic Clockwork – I had been outbid on ebay over a Clockwork 25 frame with hope bits and pieces. But, then I got a second chance offer! It was too beautiful a frame to say no. So I am still riding around on my basic Clockwork and slowly building up the Clockwork 25 frame. I only need brakes, crank, forks, sadle, tyres and gears now. As soon as the Clockwork 25 is finished then I will probably just use the basic version for commuting. I’ll provide pictures soon. Trying to match the same spec as the Clockwork 25 but it ain’t cheap. So will probably settle for a SLX groupset. Which is a massive saving, rather than hope brakes and discs, and race face crank – They would cost an arm and both legs! Very tempted to go Carbon rigid forks on the commute bike and that alone will be a 1.5kg weight save immediately!

Posted 9 years ago

curvature
Free Member

That sounds good whitey.

A friend at my LBS has just put carbon rigid forks on his Whyte hard tail and now has the bike below 10kg.

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

Here is my part built clockwork. Went the carbon fork option. Purchased some whiskey carbon forks. Just need to sell the basic clockwork to continue the build.

Posted 9 years ago

DaveyBoyWonder
Free Member

I quite fancy getting one of these and getting rid of my singlespeed. Is anywhere doing deals on new ones that anyones aware of?

Posted 9 years ago

whitey
Free Member

I am selling a basic clockwork 29er, almost new – 525 knicker in orange. Curvature was selling a S version with custom build for £850. If you were after the 25 version there were only 25 made. I am led to beleive my frame (a 25) was rejected for the final 25 due to a tiny dint on the frame. Still came with 5 years warranty though.

Posted 9 years ago

DaveyBoyWonder
Free Member

whitey, I could be very interested in that. Singlespeed up for sale and I’m looking at something else a little different but if that sells before my Curtis does, I’ll be in touch to see if you have the Clockwork still.

Posted 9 years ago

fitnessischeating
Free Member

johnny5
I am supprised that your running a smorgasbord on back, I tried that and found it too big, it fitted, but when cornering hard or powering down found it buzzed the chain stays, enough for me to take it off again.

In fact, i’ve been thinking about getting a different frame to allow me to run a bigger rear tyre, but dont know what now cotic dont do the solaris in XL

Posted 9 years ago

Clobber
Free Member

New swift will just about take knards and will swallow 2.4’s easily

Posted 9 years ago