My Lynskey Pro 29 Lefty

Simonhi

Well considering that my last MTB was bought 11 years ago I thought it was high time I got a new one.

Having been used to a fairly light hard tail in my 99 GT Zaskar LE which I custom built using nice components, I thought I would buy another hard tail.

In keeping with the custom theme I decided to research the build and settled on building the new bike around the Lynskey Pro 29 Lefty frame, partly cos I was drunk one Sunday night and saw an XL frame and fork going for a song in the Lynskey Loft.

Anyways, enough waffle here it is ...

Frame: Lynskey Pro 29 Lefty (XL)
Forks: Cannondale Lefty 29'er Speed Carbon with DLR
Bars: Schmolke SLO 31.8mm 600mm Long
Stem: Cannondale XC3 SI Stem Steerer, 5 degree drop
Headset: Cannondale Headshok
Grips: ESI Foam
Bar Ends: Tune RH1 'Lenkerhornchen'

Brake Lever assy: Formula R1 with carbon lever, custom white with BK Composites carbon fixings
Calipers: Formula R1
Discs: Formula brakes
Pads: SSwissStop Bremsbeläge, only because they are green !!!

Hoses: Jagwire Hyflow white

Shifters: SRAM XX
Cables: Nokon white
Front Mech: SRAM XX Low mount bottom pull
Rear Mech: SRAM XX Medium cage


Seat: Fi'zik Custom White and Lime Green, carbon fibre / kevlar rails
Seat Post: Thompson Masterpiece, soom to be Schmolke TLO 350mm (hurry up Schmle !!!)
Seat Post Clamp: Carbon Ti 34.9mm Green Anodized

Cranks: SRAM XX
Chainring(s): SRAM XX 26/39
Chain: SRAM Hollowcore
Cassette: SRAM 11/36
Pedals: Nukeproof Proton Mag Ti "Flats", soon to be Crank Brothers Eggbeater 11 (when I'm brave enough)
Bottom Bracket: SRAM BB30 Ceramic

Wheels:
Rim: Stans Arch
Spokes: Industry Nine
Hub: Industry Nine 29'er Cross Country
Tube: Schwalbe SV19A
Tire: Schwalbe Furious Fred

Weight: 21lbs, will get proper measurement once the Schmolke seat post and CB pedals are fitted.

Pics:

cat_with_no_tail

Now THAT is a tasty piece of kit! 8)

Certainly one of the nicest bikes I've seen on here.

I'd say this and the MojoHD are my bikes of the year.

Beardface

Absolutely disgusting.. I think you should give it to me so that I can dispose of it for you..

I'm kidding of course, thats stunning, must go like sh!t off a shovel..

saltyman

8) very nice!

The Big Cheese

Absolutely stunning!!! 8)

getonyourbike

lovely bike 8) , whats the lefty like though?

Anonymous

what a stunning looking bike, i love that.

toby_winkler

I think I just did a small sex wee....

Awesome build, absolutely stunning.

Laurence25

:shock: Well this is the most stunning piece of kit i have ever seen! bike of the year hands down ! top effort ! have u taken her out yet ???

Anonymous

veryvery very very nice bike

BUT, -1 point for not running those rims and tyres tubeless.

Holyzeus

Absolutely gorgeous

Simonhi

Cheers for the top comments guys,

Not taken for a spin yet due to late finish at work. Tomorrow night I'll do my normal 20mile loop with a mate and give it a shakedown, up the woods Sat !!!

Only ridden a Lefty a couple of times and never a Ti frame but looking forward to it, it should fly up the hills.

Cheers again,

Si.

dizzington

Very nice bike, seems you have good photography skills too lol.

Get some pics of it out and about.

Simonhi

RichardSwt wrote:

veryvery very very nice bike

BUT, -1 point for not running those rims and tyres tubeless.

I will, I'm just letting the tyres seat nice a good which should make inflating with my track pump a possibility instead of having to rely on a compressor.

Simonhi

dizzington wrote:

Very nice bike, seems you have good photography skills too lol.

Get some pics of it out and about.

Cheers, it does help with a Nikon D700 and super fast 50mm 1.4 Sigma prime, sharpest lens I've ever had, cheap too.

I'll get some nice autumnal pics at the weekend should be a definite for this Saturday weather permitting.

I would like some with off camera flash but it's too much messing around, I just wanna ride it.

kona_matt

Oh my word, that is absolutely stunning! :shock: beautiful, not sure if there's much more to say

christurbo

I love the bike. What camera did you use?

Simonhi

christurbo wrote:

I love the bike. What camera did you use?

It's a Nikon D700 with a Sigma 50mm 1.4 prime lens, tack sharp.

All images shot under spot bulbs but using 1600 ISO, no noise, but most shots were using a aperture between 2 and 2.8 hence very shallow DOF.

I'm normally a landscape photographer so indoor stuff finds me a bit limited, give me a 21mm Zeiss Distagon and some Lee ND grads any day.

ride_whenever

Love the helix tubing, first time i saw it it was a proto out of the factory but in the mirrored finish, most bonkers beautiful thing i've ever seen.

Mark_K

Now that IS a cracking bit of kit 8) Fair play to you sir lovely build
I think we have a bike of the year winner

getonyourbike

Again, lovely bike. It actually kinda looks like a regular 26" because of the XL frame size, if only I could afford one of those frames and the rest, mind.

jay12

golly jeepers! that looks fantastic. another contener for bike of the year contest. theres liek 10 i have in mind already . but thats just amazing, it all fits in so well

RevellRider

That bike is so damn good looking it has made a tent in my pants

sherbert19

:shock: That has to be one of the most amazing bikes i have ever seen. Ever.

thecremeegg

That is stunning! I dont even like leftys but your bike somehow works!

LoUiS1985

that is absolute quality..........i've been looking at getting a 29er recently and that ticks ALL the boxes!

Do you mind if i ask how much it set you back...... :?:

and where did you get your wheels from??

redd

I can appreciate the tremendous patience & perserverance in hunting for the absolute matching parts to build such a fab machine as I have a similar built myself (albeit no where as sexy). I have only one question though, do you have a mate working in an anodising factory?

Xgreygoose

Hey Si
Awesome! Great work. Love the attention to detail that you have done with the bike.
Nice to see another Lefty bike I bet it was worth the wait.
BTW if you need a carbon cap for the lefty stem/steerer PM me

Happy trails

njee20

The green grips clash, the rest of the green bits look spot on, very nice looking bike.

You do need to convert to tubeless, my FFs go up absolutely fine with a track pump, although they're not exactly the tyre for this time of year, I change them if someone's sneezed on the trail!

Simonhi

getonyourbike wrote:

Again, lovely bike. It actually kinda looks like a regular 26" because of the XL frame size, if only I could afford one of those frames and the rest, mind.

Cheers, I thought that too, I did worry it would look like a clown bike with big wheels too close together but it kind of looks normal

I was also concerned that an XL frame would leave me with a short seat post, my last bike was a 19" frame and this is 20.5 but if I'm honest, with a 120mm stem I was still a bit sqaushed on the old one, this one fits like a glove, lucky really considering I bought it when I was drunk !!!

jay12 wrote:

golly jeepers! that looks fantastic. another contender for bike of the year contest. theres liek 10 i have in mind already . but thats just amazing, it all fits in so well

Thanks, I started buying components after I ordered the frame at the end of June, it has been a thorn in my girlfriends side with a huge box taking up room in the lounge !!!

RevellRider wrote:

That bike is so damn good looking it has made a tent in my pants

Thanks !!! It's even better to ride, very fast on the minimal grip Freds.

sherbert19 wrote:

:shock: That has to be one of the most amazing bikes i have ever seen. Ever.

Cheers. That's quite a compliment, there are some really stunning bikes on here, John (Grey Goose) has been an inspiration really, his components choice (and green theme) kind of set me off on the right track. He was also very helpful in steering me towards and Italian dude that sells the coloured Formula R1 brakes, anything other than white would not look right on this bike..

thecremeegg wrote:

That is stunning! I dont even like leftys but your bike somehow works!

You shoudl try a Lefty, forget about the fork and just ride it and you will struggle to notice any differnece other than the fact is just runs so smooth.

LoUiS1985 wrote:

that is absolute quality..........i've been looking at getting a 29er recently and that ticks ALL the boxes!

Do you mind if i ask how much it set you back...... :?:

and where did you get your wheels from??

Cheers, from the first 20mile ride I did last night I was smitted, still need to give it a good shakedown in the woods and on some sweet singletrack, which should be tomorrow, but first impressions are really good. Saying that it is tens years since I bought a new bike and things have progrssed quite a bit since then.

Genuinely don;t know that final figure, and I'm not gonna work it out either. You can have a tot up on the web and you probably won;t be too far from the final figure. I know that the rear Tune skewer (19g) was 52Euros :shock

redd wrote:

I can appreciate the tremendous patience & perserverance in hunting for the absolute matching parts to build such a fab machine as I have a similar built myself (albeit no where as sexy). I have only one question though, do you have a mate working in an anodising factory?

It was a lot of patience in the end, I9 sent the wrong (non-lefty hub), so I had to wait 13 week in all for the wheels. I though it was never gonna happen this last month.

I did think at one stage about just going for another set of wheels, but I'm glad I waited, I'm really pleased with them, though not the lightest they are certainly blingy enough to make up for the few grammes I would have saved by going with something else.

The only bits I had anodized were the green bolts on the brakes, usually they are red. I found through this fine forum the guy that does it and his name is Steve Barry stevebarry1978@hotmail.com, I just mailed him and went from there, very good to deal with, good communication etc...

Xgreygoose wrote:

Hey Si
Awesome! Great work. Love the attention to detail that you have done with the bike.
Nice to see another Lefty bike I bet it was worth the wait.
BTW if you need a carbon cap for the lefty stem/steerer PM me

Happy trails

Cheers John,

Coming from you that means alot :-) The lefty rocks, can't see myself using anything else unless I get a big hitter which I don't think will be anytime soon, I just don't ride those sorts of trails, becoming a wuss in my old age at 35.

The carbon cap would be great, I'll PM you, I was going to use the cannondale multi-tool in there but I have a much smaller, and lighter :-) one that fits in my pocket.

njee20 wrote:

The green grips clash, the rest of the green bits look spot on, very nice looking bike.

You do need to convert to tubeless, my FFs go up absolutely fine with a track pump, although they're not exactly the tyre for this time of year, I change them if someone's sneezed on the trail!

I promise the green grips don't clash, its just that you can't see the lime green strip on the centre of the seat, I'll get some more pictures up over the weekend.

I did think about white grips but then they would not be white for long and there would have been too much white on the bars.

Your'e not the first to tell me to covert to tubeless, I'm still undecided, I've got the tape on the rims and I've the vales and Stans latex at the ready but I'm gonna find a good winter tyre before I do the switch. I may change tyres quite a bit and it would be a royal PITA, plus I'm old school and not convinced just yet.

One final think I didn't metion in my first post is the massive thanks to my not so LBS (my LBS is a tit that damaged my last bike, which in turn made me buy this one).

Mark at Peter Hansford Cycles in Winchester is a star. He sourced the wheels making umpteen phone calls to chase up I9 and without his help it would still be a bundle of bits in a box in my lounge. He also organised all the SRAM XX stuff and bits that i'd forgotten. :oops:

John that works there built the bike for me, again, I have no clue about BB30 or hydraulic brakes so I did not trust myslef in bolting all thebits together and did not want to make a hash of it.

I cannot say enough good things about them, top guys, good communcation, passionate about bikes and well worth the 60mile round trip. I will never shop anywhere else.

Cheers,

Si.

njee20

I change tyres constantly, and it's really not an issue. Schwalbes always worked well and with the new Tubeless Ready bead for 2011 they should be perfect.

Mud X is an unbeatable all round winter tyre IMO, light tyres seem somewhat pointless in winter, although the Dirty Dan looks very similar.