After seeing how small my daughters Isla bike has started looking I thought I had better get around to finishing the Carrera Luna I bought for her.
I’m really pleased with how its turned out.
The original bike was bought for £20 from gumtree with the intention of throwing most of the parts in the bin.
I started collecting parts as and when I saw them and had parts in my spares collection. Total spent is around £130 minus my existing parts. I haven’t weighed it but its really quite light and could lose a bit more with better wheels. In honesty the original wheels are not as bad as I expected but the original tyres weighed a tonne. I was planning on changing the wheels but I doubt Ill bother.
My daughter chose the colours and I got it chemically dipped then sprayed it fluorescent yellow with a silver glitter lacquer on top.
I may look at increasing the forks to 80mm so I can run them a bit softer and still get some travel. At the moment to get them soft enough to move the pressure is so low they are not fully extended. I may also set the wheels up tubeless for a bit of puncture protection.
[url=https://flic.kr/p/26ZbJEi]IMG_5424[/url] by Andrew Downing, on Flickr
Full Spec
Frame: Carrera Luna 24″
Forks: Fox F120. Spaced down to 60mm.
Headset: Original Carrera
Wheels: Original Carrera (de-stickered)
Tyres: Schwalbe Rocket Ron
Handle Bars: Race Face Next SL Carbon
Stem: Race Face Turbine
Grips: Santacruz Palmdale
pedals: DMR V6
Crank: Suntour XCT JR 150mm (original rings thrown away)
Chainring: Raceface Narrow Wide 32t
Bottom bracket: Shimano Un71
Rear Mech: Shimano XTR 9speed
Rear Shifter: Shimano XT
Cassette: Shimano XT with bottom but one cog removed.
The cranks come in white or black in various sizes.
I got mine from an eBay shop and rang up before buying and the owner checked that the rings were removable and the bolt holes are a standard bcd. Some of the cheaper cranks I looked at had riveted rings that were made to look like hex bolts and wouldn’t of worked.
That’s a pretty shiny build. In a few weeks time I’m getting a delivery via my parents of a knackered Blast for my daughter so will be doing the same again. I take it the standard rear hub is 8-speed sized?
The standard rear hub has a 7 speed freehub which is not as long as an 8/9/10 speed freehub, hence the OP having to fit the cassette minus one the sprockets.
I would consider that after the brakes, shifter/drivetrain and tyres the next upgrade should be the wheels because the standard rims are rubbish.
The cranks come in white or black in various sizes.
It’s worth noting that SRAM do their NX crankset in 155mm arms, which is perfect for kids. It can be a little tricky to get hold of and it’s a bit more expensive (less so, if you take into account the 32t N/W chainring that they already come with), but it is a proper 1x crankset which uses a more modern GXP BB rather than a traditional square-taper (you may consider this good or bad depending on your opinion on such things!).