Everyone else is showing off their ti custom, here’s my, er… Well, been putting this together on the cheap for ages now- it’s done, it works, only question is- what is it? The frame was basically the cheapest used carbon frame on ebay, no stickers or anything, it’s lovely ugly 12K weave, the most hideous of carbon finishes… Seller had no clue what it was. But it’s alright! Wee bit smaller than I’d choose if I wasn’t buying a frame for £80, but it rides nicely.
Team names are important
Built this for knocking around the pentlands and for the glentress 7, which is basically the one XC race I do every year (did it on the fatbike last year, this should be a little faster…). It’s spent most of its time so far bolted to a turbo though, poor thing. First XC bike I’ve had for a while
21.8lbs as you see it here. Other’n the no-name-frame it’s got a set of Reba RLs, DT240S hubs with BOR 366s that I built myself on the cheap, and my ancient KS dropper because even though it’s an XC bike I still want to dick about on it. For race day it’ll probably gain the lighter bars off the fatbike and maybe the drivetrain off my Remedy (the Saint shifter it has on it seems a little odd and it’s geared a little low), that and a couple of other wee polish changes should bring it to about 21lbs with the dropper, cage, mudguard etc. Not super light but it’ll do.
And all for… Ooh, about £750 I reckon, including market value for the spare parts i fitted. And got some bits from the wheels to sell still
(OK, serious answer- I have a pretty well wrecked right leg, so I found I need to have tons of float and a really light release for spds to be sensible. I pissed about with that for a while but in the end it just felt like such a compromise- I just didn’t like the feel much in the end. So I just sacked it off and went flats on everything, so used to it now that I forgot to mention it for this bike!)
I would also go with the chinese jobby guess.. I fink they are about £80 new 😀 (at least it’s easy to replace when it snaps in two while doing 25mph on the steeps 😯 ) Enjoy.