Big, burly and 650b?

[Nat.]

Some of you may know that I had a new frame/bike in the works. So here are the beginnings of it:



Got it second hand from a bloke in tassie who hadn't ridden it. Theres one scratch on the thing, for $300 i think i did quite well. Has everything I wanted from an all mountain hardtail: Geared and SS compatible. 650b compatible. And the ability to run a lot of different set ups from xc racer (albeit heavy) to DH hardtail bike.

Having said that, i haven't ridden one before. Although the geo is a carbon copy of the santa cruz charmeleon. There is very little on the net about this frame too.. i found two in depth posts from owners on mtbr and that's it. So i plan on adding a bit of information about this bike.

Eccentric BB:


Nice welding and paint, and i got a seatpost clamp which i didn't think i'd get!


Not really sure how to build it up.. im stripping off a few parts from my current mtb. Probably don't have the money nor the need in my current quiver of bikes for 650b wheels, but its very tempting.

I may go back to single speed for a bit of a challenge.. gearing suggestions? I've run 32:15 in the past.. but i plan on doing a bit more xc on this thing. So 32:16 or 17 might be the go.
I've got plenty of 710mm bars lying around, but wider may suit this frame better.
Forks are undecided.. got a few available.

We'll see how this pans out!

[Lorday]

32:17 is pretty good as an all round gearing IMHO, but it depends on tracks. It's easy enough to change gearing.
What does the frame weigh out of interest?


Edit: Also - why 650b?

[Nat.]

I'm lazy as, so ill stick with whatever gear i'm given. Likely 32:17.

The frame weighs 2100g as a raw frame with no bits on it.

As for 650b. IMO, its the best wheel size for a AM bike. Not rediculously slow or hard to manouvre like a 29'' but you get better rolling than 26''. And because the wheels fit on 26'' bikes you don't have to ride a huge 29er. Although it will raise the bb height, this frame is 25mm lower at the bb than my current frame and it has an eccentric bb for an extra 5mm of low. I'll also run flat bars if i go 650b.

Got forks, front wheel, front brake coming at the end of this week.

[Lemontime]

What's that? You're gonna set it up with racks and mudguards galore and cover it in panniers and do self-supported cycle tours around the world?! That's so cool, Nat!

[Lorday]

2.1 ain't burly, my gt frame weighs more than that!

[Purt]

always loved chumbas.

ot, but where do you get those posters from?

[Nat.]

always loved chumbas.

ot, but where do you get those posters from?

Theres a bloke in sydney who does the market rounds and flogs off copies of roy lichtenstein paitings. I've always loved his stuff (lichtenstein, not the bloke). The copy is fairly accurate and looks good if you don't look really hard. If you get up close you can see that his sharpie was running out of ink and pencil marks.

If you're super super keen I can buy you one for the price of the thing + post. I paid $160 for mine.

[Nat.]

Well, today was my 18th birthday. And last night some friends gave me a whole pile of bits for this bike!

It's so painful looking at a bike that is only half built.. at least I made more of an effort with these pictures!

Some (semi) old school forks, 05 pikes in new condition! + the best brakes ever made.


And this pimp ass seat that's been sitting in the garage waiting for a bike to go on for ages!


More to come later this week!

[Nat.]

Ok, well.. bike build thread fail. The bike is complete without any suspense built up.







Final spec:

Frame - Chumba HX1 19''
Front shock/fork - 2005 Rockshock pike SL coil 94-140
Handlebars - Truvativ Holzfeller 710mm
Stem - Bontrager 50mm, 10 degree rise
Headset - Sunline V1
Grips - Odi Longneck
Saddle - Selle Italia TLD edition
Seatpost - Truvativ Team
Front brake - Avid Juicy 5 6''
Rear brake - Avid Juicy 5 6''
Cranks - Truvativ Stylo
Chainguide - E-13 LG1 w/ 40t bashy
Chain - Shimano XT
Pedals - Shimano DX
Rear derailleur - Shimano XT
Rear shifter - Shimano Deore
Cassette - Shimano Ultegra 12-25
Front hub - 20mm generic
Rear hub - Shimano XT
Front rim - Rhyno Lite
Rear rim - Mavic EX721
Tyres - (opposite to picture)
Front: Schwallbe Big Betty 2.4
Rear: Maxxis Ardent 2.4
Total weight - 14kg

By far not porn spec, but im really happy with everything on it and how its all come together.

So, how does it ride? I'll break it down for you..

Cockpit/drivetrain
I'm rocking an old school shimano xt derraileur, but theres a shadow one waiting to go on. The cassette is quite a close ratio one which is great for riding everywhere thats flat, but once theres a hill, either up or down it really does really limit me, with 32:12 being the highest gear it spins out at quite a low speed. And with 32:25 being the lowest gear it really does force you to get out of the saddle and push it, after a big ride I end up just crawling up into a ball and crying. I think a 34 or 36t chainring with a 32-11 cassette will be the way to go if I was to keep gears.. but more on that later.

Everything else is pretty standard.. the Stylos are great, a little flexy.. but thats to be expected at this end of the weight spectrum. E-13 chainguide is impossible to fault. After a bit of chopping and changing with the bar and stem, im settled on this set up.. I think for general trail riding - particularily on a hardtail 710mm bars are the way to go. The 50mm stem suits me, I'm a djer/bmxer first and foremost so after running a 70mm stem I swapped to a 50mm stem because i didn't like the inability to manual and disconnected steering feeling.

Brakes/wheels/tires
First up, Avid did a great diserivce to the cycling community when they removed the juicys from their lineup. They are by far the best brake ever made, great modulation and power and built like a brick shithouse. Having not run Elixr's personally but seeing a lot of sets on mates bikes give up the ghost and becoming very tempremental I think the juicys are a brake to keep for a while yet.. Or go shimano.

The back wheel has been ridden hard and passed on through several bikes for three years now. It looks like there is some play in the hub body so it may be retired soon. Considering the hard engagements, lack of matienence, copious amounts of fakieing on my dj bike and number of times its been emersed in water it's done fantastically. The rim has been trued once in that time.. and has copped the same amount of abuse, but i dare say thats the talent of my wheel builder and not mavic.

The front wheel is a front wheel, it rolls around.. my hub could be replaced by a 20mm piece of dowl and I think the peformance would be the same.

The tires have been interesting.. The picture shows ardent/big betty combination. Since then I've just swapped the tires around to how I first had them when I built the bike.

The big betty has a more agressive tred pattern than the ardent.. more aggressive than a minion even. However the Ardent has a bigger bag than the BB, even though they are both labeled as 2.4. The Ardent is lighter than the BB by 100g (however it is folding). When you approach the limit of grip the Ardent tends to let go without warning, whereas the BB has an incredibly linear grip threshold and you know exactly when it will let go - however both tires rarely slip out. When the Ardent was on the back the side knobs allowed it to clamber up small, parallel bumps, as opposed to the BB which would slide along and then eventually pick up and lift over.

Anyway, all this has led me to decide that the BB should go on the front and the Ardent is good on the back. But I am looking for something a bit faster on the back, because this set up is VERY slow.

Suspension
I don't know what's going on at Sram/rockshock because they have well and truly lost their shit. First discontinuing the juicy range and then the pike range and now theyve got all this confusion crossbranding of forks/drivetrains/brakes (How do X9 cranks compare to stylos? Even theyre marketing gurus dont know!). These forks are six years old now, but i scored a pair that were unridden. They've got the usual problem of the spring clinking on the inside of the staution, but ill pull them apart and fix that. Otherwise theyre incredibly plush and set up perfect for my weight (what a fluke!). Lockout is handy but travel adjust is handier. With a 10 sec twist of a knob the bike changes completely. Climbing with the forks at 140mm is a chore, but if you wind them down to 95 the bike rockets up the climbs and is considerably snappier. Keep them wound up however, and the bike eats the descents. The frame geometry is perfectly suited to the 140mm travel and is incredibly confidence inspiring going down hill.. especially with the wide rubber. Couldn't be happier.

Finally, the frame
I bought this bike on a bit of a whim, there were very few reviews on the frame when I bought it (hence this one). I knew it was meant to be a stiff, capable and versatile do it all hardtail. But it has surpased my expectations. People set these bikes up as 4x/dj bikes in smaller sizes and on the other end of the spectrum people have them as 650b, ss, xc racing machines.

There is no flex whatsoever, which is a bit brutal on the bumps but its nice to know 100% of your power is being transfered to the ground. The bike is VERY long.. at least it is for me. I'm pretty tall at 6'5'' and the 19'' frame is technically a size too small for me, but the top tube and chainstays are very long compared to other hardtails I've ridden. Even with the 50mm stem you really have to work to keep the front end off the ground when manualing. With the seat up, its pretty much impossible to hold a manual.

I guess if you were a different sort of a rider coming from xc race bikes or road bikes you would have a different perspective on the matter, but for me I've found the bike to be a tad longer than I would have liked. This does have upsides though, its ability to climb and descend are improved with the length.. and don't get me wrong, its not a slow bike to handle in the corners. It's just not as snappy as my bmx. The length will also allow me to run 650b wheels in the future. 650b (otherwise known as 27.5'') in my opinion are a good compromise with 26 and 29'' wheels, there a left of field wheel choice, and something a lot of people will critcise but it was part of the reason I bought the bike and its nice that theres room for 2.35'' wide 650b tires with mud clearance.

Riding with the seat up has been an experience. My bmx has an 11'' standover w/ a slammed seat. So plowing through rocks/stairs/other scary things has been quite daunting with the seat set for almost full leg extension. A dropper post is on the wish list.

Finally, the eccentric bb.. as with all eccentric bb this one is a steaming pile of shit. It has siezed inside the frame, which is the norm for bushnell type ebb if it is not cared for properly. I originally intended on setting up the bike single speed.. but because the bb is stuck and i cant be bothered gettting it out, so im running gears. The ebb will work and is a nice solution for people who dont want to mess with horizontal drop outs and gears. But I would have liked a dmr swopout or paragon slider as it allows the best of both worlds, beggers cant be choosers though.

Anyway, the bottom line is the bike is a shitload of fun and I would recommended it to anyone looking at an AM hardtail. It's an extremely versitile frame, I can 180 it, manual it (sort of), climb hills with it, dirt jump with it and huck it. I've ridden a few other trail hardtails and this is the best one yet.. I like it better than the Transition TransAM. I haven't been able to split the difference between this and a santa cruz charmeleon, the geometry is VERY similar. I'm hoping I run into someone with a Ragley on the trails so I can compare the two.. but until that day, i think ive got the best trail hardtail going

[Jing]

looks good and good write up