I swear by my Endura MT500’s.

I’ve owned by current pair for the last 2 years I reckon and although they have torn a little underneath; they’ve held together really well.

When they finally give up the ghost, I’ll just buy another pair.

I’ve always used Trucker Co on Ebay as I’ve found the blacks ones hard to get in the UK.

They’re based in America, but the postage is always really quick.

I think they work out at £10.48 + £2.59 postage and I’ve never been charged any import duty.

I’d stick them on so they can be easily replaced / changed / updated etc.

No probs 🙂

I’d say a Potts, but I’m biased.

The finish is amazing and he is a really great guy to deal with.

Although he builds 29ers, he will make you a 26.

Everything is ordered now, so hopefully it should be built up before the month is out.

I went for an XTR race 40/28 chainset rather than the trail, but everything else is as my planned build.

I get some pics up once it’s done 🙂

Markie – Member
Theres an app for that!

A website too…

http://www.machars.net/bikecalc.htm

Cool….

38×11 @ 80rpm = 23.8mph
42×11 @ 80rpm = 26.3mph

Not a great deal in it.

Cheers guys 8)

awh – Member
If you’re buying the brakes at the same time Rose Bikes are always worth a look. My adaptors from Rose were ~£4 vs ~£7 UK price. P&P needs to be added though, was ~£5 for a complete front and rear brakeset.

Cool, I’ll have a look on the Rose site.

Cheers, just found a SHIMANO adapter SM-MA-R-P/S which looks about right 😀

JRA have to order the rims and hubs, so it will probably be a couple of weeks before the wheels are ready.

I’ll get some pics up once they’re arrived.

Wheels now ordered from JRA; Enve XC 29 clinchers with silver CK hubs and silver DT rev spokes.

I did think about having a splash of colour, but decided to keep it understated with the black and silver scheme.

JRA gave me discount on some Racing Ralph’s, so I’ve sorted the tyres out as well 🙂

I’m a big fan of the ESI grips.

The Swedish Chef – Member
You’d need the Enve tub not clincher rims, but ooh so nice.

Curious, did you not consider a one piece stem and bars from Potts, think that would have been extremely nice?

I did consider a one piece, but thought a separate bar and stem would give me more scope for making slight alterations in bar angle etc.

Not too sure about running tubs, but that is purely through my own lack of experience with them.

I like things pretty basic and simple, I still haven’t made the jump to tubeless yet 😀

The Swedish Chef – Member

TYRES – Still undecided????

Surely some Dugast tubs with a build list like that!

Hadn’t even considered them, thanks for that. I think they’re the tyres I saw on a Singular Ti.

Rik – Member
looks good to me – but do you think 38t big ring is enough? Its not going to weigh very much

Yeah, might have a rethink about that one.

davidtaylforth – Member
Titanium bar and stem? Surely an alu or carbon one would be better and cheaper?

Definately ‘cheaper’ but I suppose it depends on what criteria is being used to class a alu or carbon stem as being ‘better.’

I really wanted the finish and welds on the stem to match the frame.

This is looking likely to be the final build spec.

Feedback encouraged 😀

FRAME – Potts Titanium 29er

FORK – Potts Type 2 rigid (Black)

CHAINSET – XTR trail 38/26 170mm

DERAILLEURS – XTR

SHIFTERS – XTR

CHAIN – XTR

BOTTOM BRACKET – Chris King (Silver)

CASSETTE – XTR 11-36

WHEELS – Chris King Hubs (Silver) on Enve XC carbon rims

TYRES – Still undecided????

BRAKES – XTR

HANDLEBARS – Potts Titanium

STEM – Potts Titanium

GRIPS – ESI

SEATPOST – Eriksen Titanium

SADDLE – Fizik Gobi

HEADSET – Chris King Titanium

PEDALS – XTR spd

SEAT COLLAR – Thomson (Black)

Just putting some pictures back up…..

It might be worth getting the 30 day free trial on creditexpert.co.uk

I checked my record out just out of interest as it was free and I found that a lot of my details were recorded wrongly.

No updates at the mo, but I should have it built up by the end of the month.

I was waiting for the New Year sales to buy the components, but the prices seem higher now than in December.

tburger – Member
Congrats on the new bike! I’m expecting mine very soon, and I just stumbled across your thread hoping to see more pictures! I have a build thread started on mtbr in the 29er forum. I’d love to see how your build is progressing. Enjoy the bike!

I’ve been checking in on the mtbr thread. You’re pretty much the same height as me and your geometry is very similar to what Steve did for me.

Can’t wait to get it built up 8)

I have only had experience of a facelift T5 and it wasn’t a good one (as per my previous post)

If it’s a T5, I’d make sure that the steering rack and driveshafts are ok. Ours needed a new steering rack after only 800 miles. When I spoke to the dealer about it, they confirmed that their demo T5 also had a steering rack problem and they had another customers van in to have a new steering rack fitted after a very low mileage.

The steering rack problem shows when steering the van at low speeds were a clunk can be heard and felt through the steering wheel.

If it’s a Kombi, check that the side windows don’t leak as that also appears to be a bit of a problem. Our Kombi windows leaked badly from new.

However the 140ps model we had went really well and was just like driving a large car.

The new ones are not as well built as they have you believe though and whilst ours was better built than the Transit I drive in work; they’re not worlds apart and it certainly wasn’t as well built as the VW cars we’ve had. My wife’s current Polo for example is much higher quality than our facelift T5.

I ended up getting a refund from VW and I’ll be probably picking up a brand new Transit van in the next few weeks and pocketing the nearly £10k change. Our Transit in work which covers 6000 miles a month has been faultess.

I bought brand new VW Transporter Kombi earlier this year after saving up for nearly 2 years. It was our dream vehicle and we had wanted one for ages.

We finally got enough money saved up to be able to afford one and managed to get a really nice new T5 Kombi in metallic paint with alloy wheels and all colour coded from a VW main dealer. It looked fantastic and we thought all our Christmas’ had come at once.

It only lasted 800 miles though before it turned into a bit of a nightmare with numerous problems….

It had:

1) A clunk from the steering rack
2) Leaking Kombi side windows
3) Factory paintwork faults which required over £700 of paint to fix
4) A creaking dashboard
5) Poor radio reception which meant that I HAD to listen to Radio 2
6) An out of alignment drivers door

It definitely wasn’t the vehicle I thought it was going to be and after nearly 7 weeks of constant phone calls and e-mails; I finally got a refund from VW.

On the plus side, it had loads of room and drove just like a car; it’s a shame that the VW quality seems to have gone.

If it was me, I’d speak to the shop to see if they can change the stay.

It’s a brand new bike so I think it’s perfectly reasonable that you should expect it to be blemish free.

It would just annoy me, but then I am a bit OCD.

Having said all that, I would first go and look at a few other 2012 Enduro’s and see if it’s possibly something that they all have.

I’m sure I read somewhere that Thomson were bringing out some ti bars.

They’re stuff is usually good quality.

I’ve used a Norbar torque wrench for the last few years which adjusts between 1 and 20nm.

They might be seen as an unecessary expense at first, but after seeing a friend overtighten a bolt on a carbon component a few years ago; I’ve seen a torque wrench as an essential bit of kit.

I used to like Rentaghost, No 73 and the Goodies.

I was bought a Goodies DVD a while back and to be honest, it wasn’t as good as I remembered.

For what it’s worth, Ive found that the amount of layback on my post can cause me knee problems.

I swapped my layback Thomson to an inline on my singlespeed after getting a bit if knee trouble and it cured it.

wwaswas – Member
they do have 20 boxes with issues 1-6 in them for £86 which looks comparatively good value…

Maybe they’ve priced the box alone at £50 to encourage folks to buy the ‘issue 1-6’ boxed set.

I usually start from being able to put my heel (whilst wearing cycling shoes) flat on the pedal with my leg fully extended whilst the crank arms are in line with the seat tube and work from there.

Hope that makes sense

It is 100% recyclable 🙂

I enjoy reading the mag, but that’s madness!!

Cool, glad to be of help 😀

I thought that Giant MCM’s were nearer 2000 rather than 2004, but I might be wrong.

Have a look at the Retrobike website, someone there will know.

Edit – here you go 🙂

Great thread, thanks project.

I’m working nights Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and I’m also working New Years Eve and New Years Day.

Fortunately I have a very understanding wife and family.

I can’t complain too much though as I’m getting paid, my thanks go out to all the volunter groups that we work with over the Christmas period.

Here’s to a ‘Q’ one.

From Whatcar –

The company had been in discussions with Chinese car makers Pang Da and Youngman, although Saab’s previous parent company, General Motors (GM), threatened to cut access to vital technology and the supply of the 9-4X SUV if a deal was signed. GM has a joint-venture in China with a rival Chinese car maker.

I wonder what vital technology GM have that is so important, it would stop a sale.

I’d imagine that Pang Da and Youngman could already make a car that’s better than GM’s latest creations.

You’d like to think that GM would make sure that the Saab workers were safe, bearing in mind that it’s GM themselves that have stopped the sale.

I wouldn’t hold my breath though 🙁

You never know, it might be a little gold mine in another year.

This time next year Rodney….. 😀

Wonder if the proper (pre GM) Saabs will start to appreciate in value.

The worlds poorest banker.

The worlds weakest strongman.

They’re not getting better 😳 lol

Back in 78/79 they were making a turbo hatchback with around 145bhp; that’s pretty cool.

I think it’s a real shame about Saab and feel for the workers when it’s GM themselves that have put the brakes on the Chinese deal; purely so they didn’t pass on their technolgy.

Whatcar link

The worlds most honest politician.

The worlds quietest speakers.

The worlds darkest torch.

The worlds warmest fridge.

The worlds biggest mini.

Not very good ones though 🙁

I’ve just got a Potts titanium frame from USA, but I bought it as I wanted a frame made by that particular builder.

If I was just after a nice titanium frame, I would go to a Enigma; purely as you can literally turn up at their front door should there be any problems.

I had a friend send back a frame from a large USA frame builder a couple of years ago and it was gone for months.

The only other USA builder I would deal with would be Moots as I got very good customer service from them via Mosquito Cycles. I ordered a frame from Moots and they then changed the geometry specs on their website; the frame that arrived was too big. Moots however got a new frame to me within 3 weeks. Moots though are big ££££’s now and dearer than my Potts.