Per the Marino thread running I’ve been building this custom steel hardtail. Finally finished the build in my lunchtime today – ready to ride on Sunday (probably in the rain).

Final weight is somewhere between 28-29lbs as pictures with pedals – but I ran out of time to weigh it.

140mm Pike Ultimates / GX 11 speed / Descendant carbon cranks / Code R brakes / 180mm Oneup dropper / Erase Components hubs with DT Swiss XM rims / 2.6” Magic Mary and Forekaster (Forekaster has a Rimpact in it) / Brand X Carbon Bar / DMR Defy stem.

Hoping it’s going to be playful but not too harsh feeling. 65.5 degree headangle, 74 degree seat angle, 445mm reach, 390mm seat tube, 45mm bb drop, 425mm chainstays.

Lovely looking steed – Happy B’day and hope it rides like it looks!

Cheers! Technically my birthday was at the start of December but frame delivery delays and then spraying in the UK scuppered that! Belated birthday….

I’ve never understood why you’d want the top tube so low, have it lower than it needs to be for the dropper?

Bar that it looks fun

Wow that top tube is so low!
Great looking bike. Happy birthday to yourself.
Flagstones want a bit of cleaning.

Nice colour, Argos?

That’s only a 180mm dropper so I’ve got room for a 210mm I reckon. I picked basically the same length seat tube as my Bird Aether – I combined some of the geometry from that with some from the Vitus Sentier I had plus a few tweaks to come up with what I did. Plus I like a good bit of standover clearance when riding anything vaguely steep.

I probably should have taken pics with the dropper down!

Flagstones want a bit of cleaning.

It’s a good job the lawn isn’t in picture as it’s a right mess 🤣

Nice colour, Argos?

Bristol Bike Restorations. It’s royal blue candy over metalflake

Happy belated birthday…. Lovely bike, the colours ace!

Wow that’s great looking!!

I’ve never understood why you’d want the top tube so low, have it lower than it needs to be for the dropper?

It helps when getting back on on steep stuff that’s for sure.
On the contrary, why have it higher than needed on a hardtail where front triangle space is not an issue?

Hell’s teeth, that is a cracking looking bike! Love that colour. Happy belated birthday; it was definitely worth the wait.

Looks great. No idea about angles, I just ride what I like the look of. But that’s one heck of a good looking bike.

Looks fantastic you have be happy with that?

Glad you finally got it. There were times during that thread that I thought you’d all lost your money.

Looks good, I like a nice low standover on a bike and the colour is sparkly.

I’m curious to see what it weighs in at (although I’m never that bothered about the weight of my bikes anymore).

Tom kp

Silver Pike really suits that, nice job. Enjoy.

My, that a very good looking steed, and a classy, well thought out build. Enjoy getting it muddy – the numbers suggest that’s going to be a hoot to ride.

Looks fantastic you have be happy with that?

I love the look and feel of it – just hoping the geometry is what I hope it’ll be – and that I haven’t messed it up horribly 🙈

I’m curious to see what it weighs in at (although I’m never that bothered about the weight of my bikes anymore).

I’ll try and weigh it tomorrow and see what it comes in at. Hoping under 29lbs given the kit on it and that it’s a fairly small hardtail 🤞

Looks mega fun. Great paint job!

Front end looks ace

Very nice.

One thing I never expected with a low top tube is the lack of clattering it into my knees.

Hope it rides how you imagines it will 🙂

Looks great – especially the paint! You don’t need to worry about the geometry, it all adds up.

One thing I never expected with a low top tube is the lack of clattering it into my knees.

That’s a good thought – I bashed my knees up twice in bike crashes in 2018 and could do with not bashing them anymore than I have to.

Looks great – especially the paint! You don’t need to worry about the geometry, it all adds up.

Thanks for the encouragement – it feels like it should all stack up – just that bit of doubt. Lots of bikes these days have short headtubes and I specced mine a bit longer (125mm) so hopefully that should work out ok. I like a high handlebar – I’ve left plenty of steerer on to play with.

Beautiful Joe mate, worth every second of the wait.

The proportions look pretty good too, I know you were worried.

Beautiful Joe mate, worth every second of the wait.

The proportions look pretty good too, I know you were worried.

Thanks – I think it looks decent if nothing else! Just need to check I’ve got enough seatnpost insertion – I hadn’t considered dt hat but a mate masked about it. I think I have, but if not I’ve got a 210 dropper on my Aether which is quite a bit longer so could always swap that over if needed (would prefer not to).

Flipping awesome!

I have one question.
Allowing for the fact that I’ve never had brakes with banjo mounts, I may be talking complete rubbish, so apologies if I am.

If the calipers are the banjo type, is there not scope for improving the angle of the rear hose?
Or is there a reason for having it as it is? (difficult to tell, from the photo)

Happy belated birthday! Looks lush and well worth the wait. Get that 1st ride review up ASAP…

Rich

Nice colour.

I’m totally confused, when going down steep stuff your arse is over the back wheel nowhere near the top tube Shirley? The thing in the way is the rear wheel and saddle. Only time you’d need a top tube that low is on a dirt jump bike I’d have thought.

Back on topic the paint is bloody gorgeous

@belugabob

That seemed to be about the best I could do with the rear brake routing. The banjo pivots up and down but not side to side.

In an ideal world the internal routing would exit higher up the seat tube so it had a bit more distance to make the curve inboard to the brake caliper.

I’d actually suggested routing it through the downtube and exiting near the bb then routing along the underside of the chainstay externally but they obviously decided not to do that! Dropper routing was different to what I asked for too – as was the rear mech routing – but looks like it all works and it looks super clean how they’ve done it.

@joebristol – pivoting down was what I had in mind but, now you mention it, there is some side to side offset, from the banjo to the hose port in the frame.

See, I told you I was talking rubbish 😉

There’s about an inch side to side offset from the caliper exit to where the hose goes into the frame. Ideally the hose needs to exit on the outside edge of the caliper but hardly any brakes have that – I can only find older Shimano 2 pots (so that’s a no from me) and maybe TRP 4 pots.

“Lots of bikes these days have short headtubes and I specced mine a bit longer (125mm) so hopefully that should work out ok.”

I think headtubes are finally getting longer, as companies realise that stack needs to increase when reach does. I’m not that tall but have 40mm rise bars on both bikes – I have no idea how actual tall people get their grips high enough without a massive stack of spacers.

“ I’m totally confused, when going down steep stuff your arse is over the back wheel nowhere near the top tube ”

A low top tube is out of the way of your knees when cornering (or crashing) and also makes it a lot easier to get back on when things don’t go to plan on steep stuff.

“65.5 degree headangle, 74 degree seat angle, 445mm reach, 390mm seat tube, 45mm bb drop, 425mm chainstays.”

My Zero AM with the stock fork & headset is 65.4 deg HA, 74 deg SA, 436mm reach, 45mm BB drop, 420mm chainstays. So it’s basically the same geometry but about 20mm shorter wheelbase with the same front:rear centre balance. Definitely works geometry-wise!

I run a -2 deg headset now but that’s because I like v slack bikes and find it much easier to swap from my Levo to my hardtail with the added slackness.

@chiefgrooveguru

That’s the black one that’s had varying travel forks on and different angle slacksets right? Maybe you had a black Banshee Spitfire for a while as well?

That’s it – and yes, Spitfire too.

It was a test bed for a custom steel frame that I never got around to and now I’m rather attached to the Zero!

If they’d made the Zero in steel I’d probably have just bought one of those to be fair. I’ve got an Aether and had an Aeris 145 so I like Bird as a company. The new 29er hardtail that’s been teased looks like it’ll be ace but I’m firmly in the 650b camp given all the stuff I have in that wheel size.

Just can’t wait to get mine now, seeing how nice this has come together makes me want to go look at all the parts ready for it in garage haha.

@boxwithawindow – do you know when you’re is arriving? Is it ht or fs – I forget what you ordered?

It’s great now it’s arrived – the dropper routing was a bit of an arse and not what I suggested – but equally it won’t let any water into the frame that way. The rear brake / mech routing wasn’t what I suggested either – but it looks super clean all internal and it works.

Went out on my first ride today – it’s ace so far. It’s easier on my back than the last (alloy) hardtail – albeit I’ve also put a bigger back tyre on which will probably have had more of an effect than the change to steel. It seems to dull bumps a bit and it climbs nicely. Glad I resisted a trendier steep seat angle and went 74 degrees as it’s a nice length from saddle to bars.

Descends nicely and doesn’t feel either too short or too long when stood up. I need to try an trail centre to see how it gets round bends / pumps rollers etc. Then some steep off piste to see how it goes on that sort of thing too. Really impressed with the 2.6” Forekaster on the back – found way more traction in the mud than I expected it to. Magic Mary 2.6” also thoroughly impressive.

Only time you’d need a top tube that low is on a dirt jump bike I’d have thought.

I find it most useful when ‘throwing shapes’ on rough terrain so ones knees don’t get clattered as the bike moves underneath you, and when cornering using the stand upright-lean the bike technique.

Basically, the more dynamic on a bike you are, the more a high top tubes gets in the way.