So my 7 year old Planet X  London Road finally cracked at the top tube/seat stay weld, i’ve been expecting it as it was one of the wizard sleeve seat tube versions. £150 F&F though and many thousand miles later, it owes me nothing.

It was my most used bike, so I had to replace it. What with though, Gravel bike with space for fatter tyres or rigid 29er MTB. I procrastinated for a month or two and finally went for a Cotic Cascade frame and the fancy (bloody expensive) Salsa carbon forks. I was going to buy the Sonder Pathfinder carbon forks but they dissapeared off their website. Cycle to work scheme though so the extra for the forks isn’t too bad over the year. Loads going on at the moment, that means my head really wasn’t into building this bike and I was rushing. Felt like everything was going wrong, when actually now I think about it it was all just small things i kept forgetting about!

Done* now though, hopefully get out on it this afternoon for a proper ride.

*Caveats:

Its been hot so the grass is shit, its never usually the best on this side of the house!

Temporary cranks, saddle needed raising, will probably put a dropper on it, but XT cranks and dropper are currently on another bike. Stem intentionally left long while I play around with position. Saddle will probably change to a plain black charge spoon as well.

Nice, I like that!

Although you seem to be missing some handlebars! 😁

Watching with interest as it’s a bike I’m interested in. My original tripster often struggles with what I try to ride on it around the edge of the white peak but I don’t want to get something so capable that I might as well take the 120HT.

What was the answer to the brake mount quandary?

What was the answer to the brake mount quandary?

Ah yeah, the 140 flat mount to post mount adaptor worked for 160mm rotor and post mount caliper. The Giant conduct brakes are a bitch to set up though. Work well after that but are a pain in the arse.

Although you seem to be missing some handlebars! 😁

😀 They’re just next to that little orange dot.

*Caveats:

Excuses, excuses.

That does look good.

Nice frame. It may jus be the pictures but not sure I get having a drop bar bike where most of the bars are higher than the saddle tbh, might as well ride a hardtail.

Saddle needed to be be raised a bit when I took the pics. Bars might get lowered as well, but need to play around with the position.

The bars (Funn G-Wide) have quite a long reach so if I can’t get position right I will be getting shorter ones. Had bars already though.

Looks mint – I’ve got that bar tape on my road bike.

Nice bike mister!

have quite a long reach so if I can’t get position right I will be getting shorter ones

Or a shorter lower stem?

At the moment I’m limited by Giant only stems as I’m running the conduct cable to hydraulic brakes system. Can’t really afford to change to full hydro at the moment. Got a 60mm stem on there now, but can only find shorter for 35mm bars. Maybe need to get one and shim it.

Looks mint – I’ve got that bar tape on my road bike.

Most expensive bar tape in the world. I’ve had it in the garage for about 2 years, and had to build a bike just to use it!!

Nice, apart from curly bars.

Nice, apart from curly bars.

Thats why I’ve camoflaged them!!

lovely – basicaly looks like a retro mtb with curly bars!

i’m so inspired i’ve ordered some rigid forks for my hardtail! mines a more modern 27+ beastie and will be jumped and slid through corners. live on teh south downs though – so no real gnar to worry about.

Nice! Bar/shifter angle looks weird but it might just be because of the stem.

very nice.
have those spendy forks on my ti fargo. so they are pretty robust.

Tiny cassette! My feeble legs couldn’t cope with that got an 11-51 on mine with a 36t chainring. Pathfinders on it too.

So, you’ve had it a little while now. How about a detailed update.

What size is it? How are you finding the forks with their longer than intended offset?

Interested also, how it compares to the London Rd (another Wizards sleeve edition owner here) and how are the conduct brakes going, I really like the idea 9and price of them) but I’m also pretty committed to the ‘gevenalle’ TRP Hylex on mine currently. I have an itch to build a better CX race bike for next season and the Coduct brakes plus STi of whatever flavour feels like it makes sense (IMO).

Tiny cassette! My feeble legs couldn’t cope with that got an 11-51 on mine with a 36t chainring. Pathfinders on it too.

Was all I had at the time, been swapped for an 11-42 and 38t chainring.

Did you try one, or something else, with a standard steel fork? The £600 premium for that fork is near-enough the same as for a SID Ultimate. Different purpose, granted, but seems excessive given the relative simplicity and presumed engineering and manufacturing effort required.

So yeah, had a few decent rides on it and adjusted bars and stuff, got a dropper coming, wasn’t going to put a dropper on but got one cheap so I’ll see how that goes. I’ve a couple if injuries at the moment, so rides have been limited the past week. Got some mudguards on the way as well now the weather is turning.

The bike is great though, it’s a medium btw, really comfy, really capable, and just feels great. Obviously not as fast on road as the London road was, but that had totally different tyres, this feels so much better off road though. I wondered how it would fare uphill compared to the LR but it’s great, again won’t beat it on road but that’s not what it’s for. I feel like I could ride this for ages though. Forks feel nice, can’t really compare them to anything though, but they don’t feel too long.

Giant conduct – so! They are a bit if a bugger to set up. I bought an SL version master cylinder, and some Shimano calipers, so that means a bit of a hybrid bleed kit is needed as the giant stuff is the same as tektro. Got it all working on the LR a while back and I think it’s a great system for the money, brakes work well and feel nicer than mechanical discs. Any calipers that use mineral oil would work with the master cyclinder. I know people swap them out when they buy a giant bike, but I think they work well.

I had to adjust both cables to fit this frame, and because this has a shorter stem and the cables exit the master cylinder towards the head tube there isn’t a lot of room. Routing down to the front caliper is a bit ugly, but it all works.

All in all, I’m loving the bike. Will probably adjust a few more bits in the future, haven’t trimmed the steerer yet. Hopefully by the weekend I’ll be able to ride again, so will get out on it again.

@bikesandboots – I didn’t try it first, took a risk, but knew that sizing would be good as I’d had a Cotic before. Got it on cycle2work and wouldn’t have spent that much on the fork if I’d been paying in one go. Was going to put the Sonder pathfinder on it, for £200 but it disappeared off there website just before I was gonna buy this….

I did think about getting the SID instead, but I wanted this to be a simple bike that didn’t start feeling too much like a mountain bike.

I hadn’t considered just getting the conduct master cylinder and some other brake, but that’s not a bad idea.

I might upgrade to blingy Hope ones in the future. Although by then I may as well just buy a full hydro set up….