Monstercross… Let's see yours (and setup advice required)

Thanks ontor will have myself a look at them as they look ideal.

Firestarter – how did you find the swift set up for monster ride duties?

Wondering if I convert mine or get the singular gryphon. I have a cx as well but want something a bit burlier and comfier.

Cheers

Really.
I’ve ridden with you twice and both times you minced like the meat filling in a cottage pie.

I can mince with the best of them at times I’ll grant you, but having spent a lot of time with many of them recently, roadies in general are a different breed!

Can’t believe the question hasn’t been asked – whot tyres?

Not gonna give too much away just yet, but if I do it, you’d probably call it a Big Fat Moster Cross Bike, or something to that effect! 29er frames with lots of clearance are what I’ve been looking at, and you may look to WTB for their latest tyre offerings… 😉

My latest in a long line of things which might loosely be termed monstercross

ST surfer – as long as you can make a Swift work for you in terms of length then they do very well with drop bars. In fact the very first ever proto Swift was designed so that I could ride it with either drops or flats.

Dugast pron there.
Yum

What bars are on the gryphon Sam?

I’ve been meaning to build one for a while and I’ve just had the perfect excuse!
I want to build the girlfriend a nice MTB and the TT length should be perfect for me with drops :).
She gets flat bars for summer, then I claim it back for winter duties (with drops).

I got to the point this winter where the MTB got put away, I couldn’t be bothered with the cleaning and maintaining only to wear stuff out for the sake of a short mudbath ride. The Crossbike turned into the winter road bike this winter.

I think a monstercross setup would be perfect next winter, drops, fat tyres, Exposure Dynamo, mudguards, 1×10 or SS. Pothole eating, winter ready, simple setup, which can go offroad and keeps the best bike from getting wrecked.

Rik – they are Salsa Cowbells in the widest they do – a 50 I think. A nice ‘all rounder’ type bar, not as much control as say a Luxy off-road, but much nicer on gravel/road.

Not mine, but I liked it when I saw it –

Sam have you tried Jones loop bars on your bikes – what did you think?

Recently imported one of my bikes from Oz.

My 29ers have almost all had dropbars. It seems to make sense for them.

This one is more monstrous than most

The only problem is that to get the bars in the right position, you need a ridiculous amount of spacers.

Sam has it right on his Gryphon with the longer headtube. I should have bought one of those instead of the Swift and Peregrine.

And i was just about to buy a cx bike!

I now really want to build one of these. Just wondering what sort of frames people use for these, i would be trying to get all the parts off ebay/forums so nothing too exotic. also would you use road bike or mtb gear setups?

Thanks in advance

I may or may not already have a pair of WTB Scraper 27.5+ rims and Trailblazer 2.8″ tyres on order already

Where have you ordered those from? I need exactly that for a project I’m working on

One of the first prototype Gryphons.

Great fun and quite a capable bike.

2008_1102penmachno0026 by multispeedstu[/url], on Flickr

This thread is quite inspirational.

I have a couple of old frames in the garage and I had various plans to assemble some form of poor man’s Cx machine, but now I’m wondering if something a bit more monstrous might be in order… Hmmm.

Genesis Fortitude. Too long to enjoy with drops hence a stupidly short stem. Next size down with drops would be purrfect:

Mate’s Peugeot with my Marin Hamilton:

Is there some unwritten rule that says if you have one of these you have to fit shit Avid Cable brakes?

😕

Avid cable pulls are great, it’s not for all mountain riding you know.

Rik – they are Salsa Cowbells in the widest they do – a 50 I think

Must be 46cm, that’s the widest they do Sam..

JohnClimber – Member
Avid cable pulls are great, it’s not for all mountain riding you know.

I agree, there’s nothing wrong with the Avid cable brakes.

Some folk fit crap cables and then wonder why their brakes are no good though.

Is there some unwritten rule that says if you have one of these you have to fit shit Avid Cable brakes?

Not that long ago the only option for drops and discs was BB7s and TBF if you set them up with descent cables they’re not to be sniffed at.

They are to sniffed at, terrible things… 😆

just, if you’re going to spend all that money on those bendy folks, and then fit those brakes…

They are to sniffed at, terrible things

Terrible mechanic warning 😉
Apart from having to adjust the pads for wear they work really well when they’re set up right.

they work really well when they’re set up right.

and yet still blow goats compared to even mediocre hydro…

hey ho, none so blind that shall not see, I’ll leave you to it. 😀

Yes that’s right nick because i have no experience of any other brakes on any of my bikes.
One things for sure they piss all over any Avid hydro brake. Not that that’s difficult…

and yet still blow goats compared to even mediocre hydro.

Your brakes are filled with water? No wonder they are mediocre

singlespeedstu – Member
“They are to sniffed at, terrible things”

Terrible mechanic warning

That’s the conclusion I come to as well. My BB7s work as well as any of my hydraulics. It’s all about decent cable setup. How you translate the leverage from your handlebar to the calliper is irrelevant if you eliminate wasted movement.

650x50C. Maybe not monstercross but works as well as any large-tyred CX bike ime over the last year.

Did 740 miles on it over 4 1/2 days last Sept, mainly road with some pave, dirt tracks etc, camping along the way with some lighter road tyres on –

Must be 46cm, that’s the widest they do Sam..

IIRC they are 50 c-c across the ends. 46 is some bizarre c-c measurement across an expected hood position.

Just looking for a new bike and come back to looking at monster cross style bikes as they seem to be able to do everything I am after, currently have a Cube Cross Race Disc ’13 and really like the idea of a Salsa or Singular.

Which frameset would be best? I am 6’3″…