hi guys a friend of mine at work and my bro both would like to build monster cross bikes,but they both have no idea were or how to start build,so me being a church going x boy scout said i would help. were do we start please and what will we need ? these need to be built has cheap has poss please no bling on these bikes,going to be rode hard ,hope you can help thanks

Planet X Uncle John.
Avid cable discs
Tektro levers
Bar end shifters
MTB running gear

Frame and tire clearance are what you want to sort first. Don’t forget top tube length as you’ll be running drops with a longer reach. After that stick on what you want. I went for a Van Dessel WTF. Fun all the way.

Uncle John…will it take big enough tyres?

As above it’s about big tyres and a drop-bar friendly top tube. Salsa Fargo, Singular (Gryphon?) are a couple. I just went for a 29er 2 sizes too small, working OK for me.

OK guys

If you base it on a MTB frame a short stem will be necessary. In line seat post might help too. MTB chainsets and road front mechs can be made to work but not always easily, think about chainline…….Road sti don’t work with MTB front mechs.

Mines here

The mtbr monstercross thread is a good start. Some debate on there as to what is monstercross*. Is it a chunky crosser they are after or a drop bar mtb?

* I think the general feeling is its either a crosser or mtb(normally a 29er) with drop bars and at most 2.0 tyres.

Singular Gryphon makes a lot of sense as a frame, or the Salsa.

i agree with all comments on here so far… onone are the people for the stem.. you need something like a 70mm 35 degree jobbie and a pair of their midge bars would work well. echo the inline seatpost.

i run 2.10″ at the front and 2.00″ at the back (the wide front gives a bit of give over the carbon rigid forks).

i also run 1×9 with a dura ace bar end shifter, avid bb7 mtns with tektro levers.

the bike rocks… prefer it in many ways to my yeti asr5!

SORRY guys to be so dumb whats an inline seatpost please? any photos of you monsters?

this looks awesome

http://

Seat post where the clamp is directly in line with the post rather than offset to the rear.
BTW my 26″ MTB frame only takes a 700x42c tyre in the back

sorry guys it was a bike buy singlespeed shep i tryed to post the photo but it did not work 😳

built has cheap has poss please

I tried with this, but it wasn’t very monster. Regardless of what the photo implies, the brakes were easy to use. So on rough stuff I had powerful one finger braking. I had to adapt the hydro levers to work on the bars.
The short return also meant that the bar end shifters could be reached with one finger.
Gearing was road up front and MTB at the back.
It clearly needed more rubber, but the steel helped a bit
The jumps and berms at the Woburn play area where no problem.

Siren Cycles Krush end of…

IOM3 by alan cole, on Flickr

IMO2 by alan cole, on Flickr

lovely photos cynic-al

If I was starting again I would be on Retrobike looking for an oldish 26″ MTB frame with disc mounts. Older Mtb’s tended to have shorter top tubes and longer stems. Look for bridgeless chainstays too.

OK thanks for the help smokey jo

For pictures, maybe have a look through the flickr group ‘Monster Cross Bikes‘ for inspiration?

(… but hide your wallet).

😉

ok OCB thanks for the help nice 1

WHATS a bridgeless chain set please

Some (probably most) frames have ‘bridge’ between the chainstays and another, separate ‘bridge’ between the seatstays, it’s a smaller section of frame material either just behind the BB (or just below the seat clamp if ’tis on the seatstays), and runs between the stays, tying them together. Some frame design inherently doesn’t need the seatstay bridge (if it’s got a wishbone ‘Y’ shaped back end for example).

Frames that don’t have it / them are sometimes referred to as ‘bridgeless’.

Unless this is a curious marketing term someone has come up with, or a kinda nearly-there-but-not-quite-right description of a bridgeless frame (given it’s in the same part of the bike) I’d be prepared to say that there won’t be such an animal as a bridgeless chainset.

😉