Sunn Travis - Going forth into service...

bikaholic
bikaholic Posts: 350
edited November 2011 in Your mountain bikes
Custom built on a modest budget of £350 for a local young lady:


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Happy riding, local young lady! :D

Comments

  • holiver
    holiver Posts: 729
    I may need a replacement frame, and the Travis is cheap (£100) at CRC. How do you rate the build quality/weight etc?

    Thanks!
    2013 Kinesis Racelight T2
  • bikaholic
    bikaholic Posts: 350
    edited October 2011
    Here is the Excel spreadsheet detailing the bike build:

    th_sunn_travis_weight1.jpg
    Click the thumbnail to see it in full at my Photobucket account.


    For frame geometries, just hop over to Sunn's website.


    th_parts_01.jpg

    The 17.7inch Sunn Travis 2011 frame weighs exactly 1860g with no bottom bracket cable guide or bolts fitted.

    The welding is nice and uniform and appears excellent. The gloss pearl black paint finish with the green graphics is superb.

    I would say that the frame is on parr with the Specialized Hardrock/Rockhopper, the Kinesis MaxLight XC Pro and the newer Trek 6000 Series frames. Basically, heavy, but good quality and very durable entry level frames.

    Incidentally, a lightweight frame is 1500g or less.

    The only gripe that I have with the Sunn Travis frame, as I do with the majority of frames, is the location of the cablestops. Sometimes I think that all frame designers must live in bungalows with a garage adjacent to store all of their bikes as their placement of the cablestops (and hence, cable routing) have no regard for people who have to carry their bikes up many flights of stairs on their shoulders.

    In terms of cable routing desirability, I would rank frames in this order:

    1) Internal routing
    2) Along the topside of the top tube
    3) Along the underside of the top tube; Along the underside of the down tube.


    th_parts_10a.jpg

    Now, I like neat around-the-headtube cable routing (reduces cable rub - no protection patches needed), so I replaced the supplied bottom bracket cable guide with one that is stepped in height. This prevents the cables from rubbing against each other at the criss-cross point.
  • holiver
    holiver Posts: 729
    Great work! Thanks ever so much! I need a frame with a short head tube and headset stack due to my current frame cracking. Do you know what the smallest headset the frame could support is?

    Here's some detail on my issue: http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12808614

    Cheers!
    2013 Kinesis Racelight T2
  • bikaholic
    bikaholic Posts: 350
    Ok, just quickly scanned the linked thread for the steerer tube length of your forks: 173mm.

    The Sunn Travis frame takes a standard 1.1/8" Aheadset (ie not internal or integrated).

    Sunn Travis frame head tube lengths:

    Small (15.7inch) ---> 100mm
    Medium (17.7inch) ---> 115mm
    Large (19.7inch) ---> 125mm


    Assuming that you're opting for the Medium sized frame, and assuming that your current stem stack height is 40mm (as most are):

    173 - 115 - 40 = 18mm

    So, the ideal headset stack height that you'd be looking for is 21mm (assuming the fork steerer tube is actually 173mm - doublecheck with the old crown race removed).

    Alternatively, you can use a combination of a low stack height headset and a low stack height stem to compensate for the short steerer tube length.

    Based on the accuracy of product descriptions from online stores:

    Headset stack heights

    M Part Sport ---> 25.4mm
    Cane Creek S1 ---> 27.4mm
    FSA Hammer Threadless ---> 24.2mm
    Crank Brothers Iodine All Mountain C 2010 ---> 21mm
    M Part In-Line Low Profile Headset ---> 24mm
    Cane Creek S3 ---> 27.4mm
    Crank Brothers Cobalt XC SL 2010 ---> 21mm
    Crank Brothers Iodine All Mountain SL 2010 ---> 21mm
    Crank Brothers Opium DH SL 2010 ---> 21mm
    VP A69 ---> 28mm
    ...
    etc

    Stem stack heights

    FSA OS-99 ---> 35mm
    FSA OS-115 ---> 35mm
    FSA OS-140 ---> 35mm
    On-One Ultralight CNC ---> 35mm
    Planet X Ultralight CNC ---> 35mm
    Zephir CNC ---> 35mm
    ...
    etc
  • holiver
    holiver Posts: 729
    Wow, this is so helpful. Thanks so much again!

    I think I would need the large size, looking at the geometry against the other frames I've been considering. So, 125mm for the frame plus 21mm for a Crank Brothers headset (cheap at CRC too!) gives 146mm. That leaves only 27mm for the stem, which isn't really going to be enough I guess.
    2013 Kinesis Racelight T2
  • munceyboyjoe
    munceyboyjoe Posts: 7
    How has the local young lady fared on the Travis build? I've just pulled the trigger on a Travis frame to replace an old Commencal Combi that was too small, partly based on the information in this post. The frames are now down to a very reasonable £79 at CRC.
  • bikaholic
    bikaholic Posts: 350
    She's faring quite well, albeit slowly but surely at my initial assessment. I don't think she yet has either the confidence or the skills to really put the bike through it's paces, so the test of my workmanship will have to wait. The important thing is that the fun and enjoyment of riding a proper bike comes through.

    As for the bike itself, it had the front rotor retightened at the 2 week mark. I did instruct her to keep an eye out for anything coming loose in the first few weeks after handover - so I am glad that she took heed.

    Other than that, there have been no other issues.

    Glad to see that CRC have lowered the price on this great value-for-money frame.

    Keep us updated on how you get on.

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