It’s got good reviews on MTBR, and with a Neo Moto up front I’ll at least have a chunky tyre at the important end; I don’t mind sliding the back a bit 😉 It’ll probs just be a case of trying tyres until I find the grippiest one which fits, and this seems a reasonable place to start.

And I’m going to be fitting offset bushings BearBack, good idea.

Cheers for the replies, I’ve ended up settling for a Pacenti/Panaracer Quasi-Moto 2.0 rear and a Neo-Moto 2.3 front. Worth a shot anyway :yes:

There do seem to be a fair amount of rather eyebrow raising drivers on the roads today. Following someone doing 23mph in a sixty earlier, in perfect conditions, for seemingly no reason whatsoever 🙁

Yep that works fine IIRC, mechs have the same ratios.

As above, as the actuation ratio is slightly different on 10 speed mechs compared to 9 speed. I’ve heard of some people having trouble with the above combo as well, though it can be got to work (it works as sram and shimano systems have different ratios, and this difference basically cancels out when you run the above 9/10 combination).

@jonny: YGM.

@chief: Probably, but it’s happening anyway. Think on the bright side, I’ll be able to sail over all kinds of roots and rocks with that bottom bracket 😉 And speaking slightly more sensibly, my 2.2 X-Kings measure up at 55mm in height, quite a lot more than the average. Cheers for that link by the way, very helpful.

I’m not usually a fan of the aesthetics of fat bikes, but I must admit to being rather taken by the good looks of that :yes:

@BearBack: Good point, I’m also building a set of tougher 26″ wheels which will have chunkier tyres for when the going gets technical, so as you say the 650b wheels will be for longer, less technical rides. I’m very naive when it comes to tyres if I’m honest though, I’m using 26″ 2.2 X-Kings at the mo and like them, but have only ever used basic wire tyres before them so have no real frame of reference. So if you wouldn’t mind giving me some advice, say I went for the above Maxxis Crossmark 2.1 on the rear, what would be your recommendation for the front? I’ll have a 650b fork so there are no restrictions.

That’s a good find, light too at 510g if I go for the 120tpi EXC version. Might well be the perfect tyre right there, cheers. Anyone have any experience with it who can comment on it’s traction, and ideally how it compares size wise to an X-King?

Yep sums it up pretty well 😉

@Chip: That is a good point, the trouble is that I really wanted some specific rims which I could only get in 650b, plus I made a bit of a balls up when first measuring up and thought there would be more room than there is.

Annoyingly I reckon that’ll be a bit wide, otherwise that would be the perfect tyre, good suggestion. I need a 2.1 version of that.

Thanks for the reply, it’s a Kona One20 Supreme, thing is that it isn’t a clearance issue with the seattube when at full compression (there’s still a bit of room there), rather with the little arch joining the top of the seatstays (sorry I didn’t explain very well in the first post). Obviously a similar thing but shimming the shock won’t work unfortunately. Good suggestions though, the racing ralph looks a bit lower profiled, could be the way to go.

Sorry to waste people’s time but I’ve ended up ordering a set of DT Swiss XMM 140s, pretty light at 1570g for the 650b version (that was the other thing, the Rev’s needed to have enough clearance to be able to squeeze a 650b wheel in) and with an ally steerer, so no leakage issues hopefully. Brand new for under £300 as well, if they turn up alright I’ll post a PSA, pretty chuffed.

Having said that, it’s interesting to know that you can adapt from 9mm up to 15mm, thanks for the info I’ll keep that in mind for my second set of wheels.

And cheers for the offer Northwind, very good of you.

Hmm thanks for the info, putting me off a bit this leaking up the steerer lark, I like light stuff but it needs to be reliable. Maybe I’ll stick to an old fashioned piece of ally 😉

Cheers for the advice and the confirmation, it’s all a bit off-putting when I didn’t know that nipple length affected spoke length and all that, ty. That’s what I’d heard about bladed spokes so hoped they’d be alright. I’ve ended up ordering from light-bicycle as they have those size (271, 272 and 274mm) in stock, thanks for the heads-up on cycleway though, I’ll bookmark ’em for future use. Now comes the scary building them part 😮

Cheers for the info Northwind you’ve made my mind up, sounds exactly what I want.

Ah good shout looks like I’m sorted then 🙂

Ty for the offer but I’ve got some CX-Rays sitting around that I want to use up with this wheelbuild, otherwise I’d be interested 🙂

Actually, I’ve just noticed the WTB i25 on CRC, that’s going pretty cheap and fits the criteria. If I get a code I’ll pick a pair of those up, thanks for the suggestions though people.

Those look good cheers, what kind of price can they be had for over here?

The dog walkers round here are generally pretty good, the most I’ve had is a terse “mind the dog” even though I was already doing so, but apart from that people always make an effort to keep their dog out of the way etc, and are (surprisingly) quite happy about doing so as well. Thinking about it I typically ride around 4-6pm ish, so I reckon people are more cheerful due to getting off work, things would probably be worse if I rode in the morning.

I can certainly tell the difference, I even notice between a 60t and a 120t, but anything with at least 60 will do 🙂

I podiumed twice in the same race….

My bike recently developed play in the rear wheel, I was a bit annoyed at the thought of it being the bearings as they’re reasonably new ceramic ones. After a bit of investigating it turned out to be that one of the end caps which thread on the end of the axle and actually sit in the frame drop outs had come loose, did it back up and play disappeared, the bearings were fine. I’m not familiar with Iodine wheels though, so not sure if they use a similar system?

I’ve got KCNC 160mm rotors as well, they can deliver enough punch to take me over the bars so they’re fine in that respect, and they’ve only warped very slightly after a lot of ues; far, far better than my old Avids. Possibly the only downside is they’re not particularly hard waring, so if you’re heavy on your brakes you’ll have to replace them more often than some others, but for XC/AM riding they’re great.

Cheers for the advice peoples, I think my plan of action then is to look out for a set of the rims (pending me doing a bit more research into their durability, that’s not encouraging news honourablegeorge 🙁 ) secondhand (they’re a bit too pricy new) and if they crop up I’ll have a check to see if the spokes are on the short/long side (I’m reluctant to check now as it was a right pain to get the tyres to hold air). If they are a bit long, would it be possible to put a washer under each nipple so as to circumvent the problem of the spokes bottoming out in the nipples?

The taping method sounds good, and I’ll look into getting a proper wheelbuilding guide.

I run 1×9 with a Blackspire Mono Veloce, and have never dropped a chain since putting it on. Slow wearing as well and not particularly expensive.

If you’re after ceramic bearings at reasonable prices, try Ebay user Zjwhsd. Typically £10 for 2 bearings plus £1.50 shipping, I’m running on them at the mo and they’re very smooth; they’re properly sealed as well, not all ceramic bearings are.

Whatever bearings you get, I would recommend picking the seals off (carefully) and packing with grease, as they tend to be a bit light on it straight from the factory.

Thanks very much, all sorted.

I’ve got a set of X King Racesports set up tubeless, and haven’t had any such problems with similar pressures, so I’d also hazard manufacturing defect. Bit of a pain though 🙁

I’ve got a Superleggera hub and the freehub is still going fine, probs a couple of years old now.

I’ve got Epicons, and know a couple of other people who have them too, and I can’t say a word against them. Good fork, the feel doesn’t seem any less sophisticated than say Fox Floats, and they’re reasonable light for a fork which does up to 140mm travel. Good customer service from their repairs and service department as well.

2010 Kona One20 uses it as well.

I’ve haven’t heard of offset bushings before, are they frame/rear suspension assembly specific or generic? As if I could fit a 200×57 with some offset bushings for a minimal change in the geometry that would be perfect. I’ll check about clearance issues tomorrow, I think it will be fine but I’ll make sure.

Nope I mean 190×57, as I’ve got a 190×50 at the moment and would rather not alter the geometry 🙂 The frame is a Kona One20.

The 7900s weigh 725g including BB according to Wiggle. They’d save me about 100g, so not bad if I can get them second hand for a reasonable price. How tough are they though? I wasn’t really looking at road sets because I assume they weren’t as durable, but I have no actual experience.

I’m not going for carbon as I don’t have the funds to replace or repair things if I get an unlucky rock strike etc. Also, the tougher ones such as the X0 recommended only saves me about 30g off of my Stylo OCT.

Budget is £150, so not much compared to the price of some of the superlights, though I’m happy to get secondhand.

I’ve got a reasonably light build, but I’ve checked the weight of my current Truativ Stylo OCT cranks and I’m not saving much weight by upgrading, probs not worth it what with how expensive new cranks are.

Cheers for the responses, I’d be running it as a single but I don’t mind if it’s not designed for that; it’s for XC/AM usage. Is the Cannondale Hollowgram reasonably easy to come by or quite rare?

I have a Kona One20 scandium frame, love it, it’s light, tough and most importantly fits me perfectly.

As a side note, while I haven’t seen any new scandium frames coming out, there are a couple of scandium rims set to be released soon.

Also, of course you can say a “scandium” frame is mostly aluminium, yet you wouldn’t say that a steel frame is mostly iron. Alloying makes a huge difference to the strengths and weaknesses of a metal, so I don’t see anything wrong with calling it a “scandium” frame, as it differentiates it from a standard aluminium alloy (which I think is justified, as “scandium” does have significant advantages over standard alloys).