Looks well proportioned given its size. Nice. Love the curved arch.

That looks lovely.

nice frame – but the forks…. are utterly minging

brown! what were you thinking! looks like some mad woman has dipped them in chocolate

Loverly frame.

I used to have a crush on your daughter!

Edit: oh it says johnny hall, not ball.

That is very lovely and as someone once said to me “Brown is for winners”

On second thoughts I’ve just re-looked at your pics and I think you shouldn’t have photographed it

next to that fence!

It does make me laugh that the *only* thing some people have to say is that they don’t like the colour of the forks.

Nothing about about the weld quality, or the headtube detail, or the build choice.

Fair enough, I guess. Everyone is entitled to their opinions – it does look better in person. I’m honestly not sure why people don’t like brown? It’s just a colour – I chose brown because I thought it’d work well with the titanium frame and the orange accents. It should have been a darker brown but that’s how it came out. I’m not complaining. I’m more concerned with how it rides.

We’ll see if it looks different with the decals.

It does make me laugh that the *only* thing some people have to say is that they don’t like the colour of the forks.

i love the frame and the detailing as i mentioned in my post, but the reason you’re getting negative feedback on the brown is because, basically, it’s bogging in the opinion of those who think it’s bogging.

more pics once decalled up then ?

You specced a taller headtube & then fitted a negative rise stem & risers?

Frame looks nice, good call on the Saint mech, but the brown’s minging & I’ve never seen a less shiny set of XTR cranks. Good work! 🙂

Lovely lovely bike….except them forks

flip the stem and get some flats. for me the only detail that pulls the eye away from a very beautiful profile.

You bringing it in for us to see properly Johnny?

I want to see those i9’s again but in a bike this time.

Do you reckon i need a step ladder to get on it?

where did you get the cranks reconditioned ? i know a guy in the states does finishes on cranks but don’t no if anyone does over here…

It’s the f*cking glee in a few posters in pointing out that they don’t like the forks.

One or two have said they don’t like the forks, fair enough. Don’t be a pr!ck and use words like “bogging” and “minging”. Though, to be honest, the more unfriendly language like that is used, the more I like them.

The cranks were reconditioned in the US by probably the same fella you are thinking about. He supplied and modded them as well.

I’ve always preferred the look of a flat/negative stem. That’s my opinion – I think it looks uglier when it’s the other way around. You are entitled to disagree but you don’t get to choose. The position mimics, more or less, my previous bike, which I also rode with a negative stem. I like the stem to look more or less flat.

The risers are very low. Moving to flats is a possibility but I’m happy with the position as it is.

I’ll swing the bike round when I get a chance, Mark. I have to wait until a parking place at my office becomes available. No way I’m riding the bike through town!

One or two have said they don’t like the forks, fair enough. Don’t be a pr!ck and use words like “bogging” and “minging”. Though, to be honest, the more unfriendly language like that is used, the more I like them.

But they are indeed minging, sorry 😉 Detracts from another wise beautiful bike, though maybe it’s like a beauty spot on a lovely lady eh?

You can’t ask for comments & feedback & then disagree with them when they’re offered.

The brown looks horrible – there, is that better? 🙂

First, who asked for feedback and comments? I just thought people might like to see what I have built. Nowhere did I ask for feedback *explicitly*. Of course, I always forget what a hive of arseholes this forum is. My mistake.

Second, of course I’m allowed to disagree. Don’t be ridiculous. People can disagree with me, I’m not allowed to disagree with them?

I’m just amused and annoyed in equal measure by the choice of words. It strikes me as gleeful – I can spend all this money and yet make an inappropriate colour choice? Let’s slag it off to make him feel stupid. Lovely.

Calm down!! The more you spend the more most people will tell you they hate it. Getting wound up wont help either it just adds fuel to the fire.
It s a nice bike and its a nice day, go ride then report back.
Shame its not muddy out it may cover the forks up…. Sorry im messing with you now!
😆

Really really nice – Darren does amazing work. I was talking to him when I was looking for builders for the Pegasus and I would have loved to do it but they’d have just been crazy expensive. I’m not sure about the brown, but it’s always nice to see something different – I think they’d probably look better in the flesh and not against the brown fence as well.

dont forget to post up a pic with the orange forks. It can look really good, niner did some custom tang rockshox and it all looked great.
just remember if you post it, you gotta take it around here. its not personal and its all a bit of fun really.

Why do your Stans crest runs have a sticker saying “arch” on them? Does look nice though,- apart from the brown.

First, who asked for feedback and comments? I just thought people might like to see what I have built.

What did you expect? Sure, you didn’t say “what do you think of it?”, but you achieve the same thing merely by posting the pics on a forum. You are effectively ‘saying’ “ta-da……..look what I’ve got”.

FWIW, I think it looks OK (not that you care or asked, of course). The frame is neat and the attention to detail looks good but I can’t help thinking that I’d somehow want more for £6k+ worth of bike – or perhaps two really good £3k bikes?? But that’s just me. I ride a Stumpjumper & an Inbred, so probably not best placed to make these judgements.

As for the forks – they do look pretty grim (in my opinion of course) in the photo’s. Perhaps they look better in the flesh, although the photo’s make them like like the colour was chosen from a wood stain brochure.
I think I’d have either gone for the same orange as the finishing detail bits, or grey colour-matched to the titanium with orange decals.

The NC-17 grips are great, I’ve got them on my Inbred with gold clamps.

Surely nobody has pointed out the obvious here – you’ve had ten months waiting for the frame and you’ve STILL not painted that fence…..

Ach, you’re all right of course. I’m quite happy to accept criticism (because I like the bike and the colour, I chose it after all), I just object to the ridiculous language. It’s like calling someone’s wife ugly. I kinda assumed you just don’t do that sort of thing. Obviously, I was wrong.

Interestingly, the bike is also on MTBR, and the Americans were much more polite.

I don’t paint fences, I’ve got better things to do with my time. To be fair, it looks better in person.

Once you get above a certain £ value, there is a big law of diminishing returns. The frame isn’t actually hugely expensive but once you start on the road of getting a custom ti frame, you don’t really want to hang cheap parts off it, do you?

I originally was going to get a GF Superfly but I’ve always wanted a ti bike, so decided to spend a bit extra. It all starts to add up pretty quickly.

Forks are expensive if they aren’t specced OEM. The wheels are pretty expensive (though nowhere near the cost of carbon rimmed numbers). The ti stem was ridiculous, but I figured that if you have a ti frame, it needs a ti stem. The seatpost wasn’t quite so much but still spenny.

2 x £3k bikes? I think if you bought 2 £3k bikes, you’d be thinking “why didn’t I buy one bike and gone to town?” Maybe. £3k gets you a lot of bike but it doesn’t get you anything astounding. Or maybe I’m being daft. I don’t know if there’s any real justification for spending so much money on a bike.

First, who asked for feedback and comments? I just thought people might like to see what I have built.

Welcome to the internet, you may not like it here.

Besides, why do you care what other people think about your bikes colour coordination?

If you look at the colour of the titanium, it’s not really a grey colour (I thought about going with grey/tungsten), it’s a bit browner (almost golden) than that, which is why I went with orange/brown.

Funny that grey (or black) is acceptable but brown is not. Do none of you wear brown?

Thanks for the “feedback”. I’ll bear it all in mind when I spend my inheritance 🙂

Welcome to the internet, you may not like it here.

I know, I know. I was responding to the fella that said I asked for it, when I clearly didn’t *explicitly* ask for any such thing. I understand it’s implicit though. “Look at me and my big wad”.

I shouldn’t be bothered I know but I guess some of the choice of wording was a bit rude to my mind.

Why did I think I had Crest rims? They are clearly Arches. I don’t know how I got that wrong. I think I might have originally wanted Crests but I’m teetering on the edge of too heavy for them, so I must have changed my mind. Forgive me, I’m old and spend too much time in front of a screen, the radiation must be withering my memory.

I saw those Tang XX Rebas. I quite like ’em. I’m not sure having bright orange forks is a great idea though? Maybe a bit too in your face?

(not that I can afford to respray the damn things anyway!)

Once you get above a certain £ value, there is a big law of diminishing returns. The frame isn’t actually hugely expensive but once you start on the road of getting a custom ti frame, you don’t really want to hang cheap parts off it, do you?

True – very true. I guess you can spank almost £1k on some half decent forks, these days, add £400-500 or so for some half decent wheels, £200 for a crankset etc…….

2 x £3k bikes? I think if you bought 2 £3k bikes, you’d be thinking “why didn’t I buy one bike and gone to town?” Maybe. £3k gets you a lot of bike but it doesn’t get you anything astounding. Or maybe I’m being daft. I don’t know if there’s any real justification for spending so much money on a bike

IF I was spending that much cash, I think I’d rather get a ‘decent’ full sus and a hardtail. £3k will get you something like a Stumpy FSR Evo, which is good enough for me.
Depends what you’ve already got, I guess.
Paying £1900 last year for a new Stumpy FSR Elite was hard enough (and that was with a decent discount at my LBS). Although, having the frame warranty replaced with the carbon version was a nice surprise. Just makes some of the bits now on it (stem, bars, seatpost, saddle) look a bit in need of an upgrade!!

A full sus and a hardtail would be nice. I’ve been there before though, I had a chameleon and a truth a few years ago. What I found was, and this might just have been me, one of the bike never really got ridden much.

Now, I have a family and I spend a lot of time running and road cycling, so having two MTBs would be unnecessary. I can see why that’d be cool though.

I already have a road bike, a triathlon bike and a fixie (set up ss) for commuting. One mtb is enough for my needs.

As I said, I almost got a decent FS – a GF Superfly – but I couldn’t justify spending £5k on an off-the-shelf bike. I wanted a bit more say in speccing the parts and I was desperate for a brown fork and it’s hard to get that level of bog ugliness if you don’t do it yourself.

I was desperate for a brown fork and it’s hard to get that level of bog ugliness if you don’t do it yourself.

Good to see the sense of humour returning recipher 😆 8)

Work is sh!t. I’d rather be riding.

I apologise for my grumpiness.

You’re still a shower of fannies though.

That’s more like it recifer! Enjoy every single pedal stroke on that beauty.

That’s lovely that is.

I like the clean lines and finish – the etched decals are stylish.

It’s what a custom build should be – unique – and it costs what it costs.
Surely a custom frame is the pinnacle of bike ownership – in order to do it properly you have to have ridden a lot of bikes, know how you like to ride, what will work, what material, how you’ll build it up.
It’s handmade by a craftsman for you and only you.

I’d take the comments on the fork colour as a reinforcement that you’ve made the right choice. It’s your choice.

Orange spokes are a nice touch.

Will be nice to see it with the finishing touches complete.

Count yourself lucky recipher, I posted an (admittedly not great because I only had my phone) shot of my first ever built bike right after it was done and haven’t even had a “it looks rubbish!” comment!

I will be taking some much better and more detailed images before I actually point it down a hill (it has only been out on the road so far), but I fear that since it is nothing special in the MTB world (OO Summer Season) it won’t attract the interest of the forum at large – certainly not compared to custom building a Ti bike and having the guts to spray the forks brown!

FWIW, I prefer them to white forks. Who has white forks?! They just look dreadful!

Nice bike, but 6 grands worth, i dont think so, you must be mad

Oh, there’s no doubt that it’s ridiculously overpriced. I won’t argue with you there. It is what it is though.

If you get any high end frame (off the shelf) and build it up yourself with top end components, you won’t see much change out of £5k.

Look at the aforementioned GF Superfly. Completely off the shelf, without a single “interesting” component choice – it’s all top of the line (and dull) Bontrager kit. £5000.

As I’ve said, I only spent the money because I got a £3000 windfall from the compo. You can’t take it with you!