Bought a lovely Matt green Bfe frame just before Xmas, managed to bag some 2014 Fox 34’s too.

So with that in mind I’m thinking of the following:

Stans Arch/Flows on Hope hubs
Zee brakes
1×10:Saint shifter, XT 11-36 cassette,Zee rear mech with Radr cage.One up 42T expander, 34T chain ring on Zee cranks.
Raceface Respond Bars and Stem
Raceface Evolve Seatpost

Sound OK,don’t want to spend a fortune but want to it be a fairly decent build.

Cheers

The Zee brakes might be overkill, but they’re only £30 more than XT, so why not. Sounds like a nice build!

Maybe SLX cranks instead of Zee (lighter, nicer-looking, still tough)

Maybe Superstar Tech 4 wheels instead of Hope (just got a set myself, surprisingly good!)

Sounds good pretty similar to what I built onto my dialled alpine frame.
Would look at cranks and wheels 2nd hand as you can save a lot, (got saint cranks for the price of new zee and they worked fine).

Would spec a dropper post too.

I would suggest a dropper.

If you need to save some tokens Merlin have sets of SLX for £90, put the saving towards the dropper.

Bear in mind that Zee brakes are only £135 from ze Germans. It’s still £45 saving, but nothing like as much as it ought to be at UK RRP. A set of SH Hope based wheels or something like a set of MT55’s or XT wheels would probably free up enough for a Reverb though.

FWIW, my build kit for the Soul 275 I’m waiting for the frame went:
Revelation 130 RLT (2014, black stanchions)
Thomson 50mm Stem
Nukeproof blue 760 bars (it’s a blue frame and I’m a tart)
SLX M675 26/38
XT 11-34 cassette
Hope Hoops with Flow EX’s
Reverb
X9 type two rear and XT front on X7 shifters
SLX M675 brakes with RT 76 rotors
Dampf 2.25 and Nic 2.25 Evo’s
Charge Spoon.

The shifters and Spoon I already had, the fork was off a shop showroom bike and once a few grubby marks were IPA’d off the lowers was a total steal for £130 as it looks and feels new. Between the saving on the forks and getting the rest from Alltricks/Bike Discount it still ended up being more expensive than planned but means that my old 26 Soul is available to sell as a complete bike. Which may not be that helpful. Originally I’d planned to use a set of Shimano wheels for about £100 but got talked into spending triple that on Hopes. Alltricks are selling Thomson stems new for similar money to what people ask for them sh…

Definitely go for flows over arches on a BFe.
XT shifter is cheaper than saint, can’t imagine the performance being any different.
Fit the cheapest seatpost you can find because it won’t be long before you want to upgrade to a dropper.

My BFe with float 32 150 evo.
Stans flow on Pro2, Respond bars and stem. Now running 1×10 xt 11-36 and 32nw ring. Only need a dropper but I’m not in a rush for one.
I’d say go for it 🙂

I wouldn’t recommend stans at all especially for a BFe. Get some 721s on it and all will be well.

I have had the same 721s for about 5 years on a few different bikes and they are still great. 3 weeks with flow ex and they were screwed.

Get some shorter forks, that looks rediculous.

No 🙂

I ran Flows on my Bfe with no issues? Sure, they seem to dent a bit easier than Mavic but they’re wider and (I think) lighter. 721s are pretty retro narrow.

My BFe was built for a clumsy lump of a rider. Haven’t broken it yet.

Marzocchi 44s set at 130mm.
Flows on Superstar Switch hubs – Purgatory front & The Captain rear.
1×9 (11-36) drivetrain – X9 mech with Raceface Ride cranks (32T with a Superstar Plasma) & Superstar Nanos.
Reverb with Charge Scoop.
Ragley Stubbings stem holding Raceface Respond bars.
XT brakes (180r/200f).

721s night be narrower and heavier than flows but that has never slowed me down. What has slowed me down is having to true the flows mid ride because they are made of cheese so soft that they make dairylea look like a strong structural material.

Thanks for the advice, just trying to look at wheel alternatives in the hope I may get a bargain somewhere due to needing 26″, any suggestions in addition to Flows or 721’s?

Superstar are selling off a load of their 26 inch stock.
A range of rims on (typically) their Switch hubs which are great value and reliable…looking on there yesterday they even had some of their DH 26 inch wheels on normal 135mm hubs for about £120, they had AlexRims stuff for less than £150 too if you don’t want SS branding.

Got mine built up with pikes, flows on pro2s, saint cranks, xt brakes. No dropper, but weighs in at 26lb.

That’s gorgeous, I love purple bikes, should never had sold my purple Alpine!

Cheers. It was inspired by my old purple Prince Albert which I always regretted selling.