Santa Cruz build / tweaking...

miss notax

Hello

I am now the proud owner of a battered but rather lovely Santa Cruz Juliana - with the intention of building this up as a lightweight bike for xc racing and general not too gnarly riding!

I am going to strip the frame and get it resprayed, replace the chainset, front and rear mechs. The forks are 120mm Rock Shox Reba with a remote lockout - they look pretty ancient mind - and the brakes are Avid Juicy 5's which feel pretty cr@p to be honest :? I'm happy with the wheels and the rest of it can be tweaked as and when.

So, i'm thinking that i'll replace the chainset and look at some new brakes to start off? Anyone know anything about the forks? Should I look at replacing the headset (FSA) at the point too? Bars, seat post etc are ancient Eastons - heavy but ok. I'll repace them as and when I have the money!

Does this sound like a cunning plan??!

Chunkers1980

You need to let us know what the fork are year model ect.

Headset will be fine as long as it's still relativly smooth for a while (mines been going over 5 years now)

Replace finishing kit as and when you want to spend the dosh - not need striaght off.

New brakes are a good idea - but so's everything if you've got the cash - I'd look at some formulas or Shimano for brakes.

miss notax

Hmmm, not sure of the year of the forks. Probably 2005 / 2006 I would think. Look battered but basically ok, although obviously set up for someone a lot heavier than me as I could barely make them move!

Agree on brakes - I am a huge fan of Formula K24 Oro's (I have them on the Orange and the Kona) but do find they need a lot of TLC. Was thinking of getting some second hand Hope Mono Mini's or similar which I have quite liked in the past.... (happy getting second hand brakes but will get new chainset etc!).

It's going to be quite a project I think!!

1mancity2

Have you got a budget for crankset and brakes? some good deals at merlin for complete groupsets.

Chunkers1980

I've not found that with my formula's.

Yeah - best off getting a new chainset as you'll have nice shiny rings and a new BB to start.

Will be quite tricky to service the fork if you don't know what they are as you'll need to kit and internals differ a lot. TFtuned would able to give them a service but that's about £80 if IIRC.

miss notax

Thanks guys

Off to have a look at Merlin......!

Chunkers1980

Yeah tis a good idea if youre set on new brakes, chainset and mechs - you'll get a chain, shifters and cassette too.

THe Deore is such good VFM and works suprisingly well (almost as good as kit costing 4 times as much, although there's a weight penalty), I just wouldn't have it on my bike.

1mancity2

Chunkers1980 wrote:

Yeah tis a good idea if youre set on new brakes, chainset and mechs - you'll get a chain, shifters and cassette too.

THe Deore is such good VFM and works suprisingly well (almost as good as kit costing 4 times as much, although there's a weight penalty), I just wouldn't have it on my bike.

Tart!

If you send the forks to TFtuned they should set them up for your riding style.

miss notax

Hmmmm, i'm after XT or XTR I think..... :oops:

The 'problem' is that my 5 is already quite light - so to justify this new bike it needs to be lighter still! Not that I need to justify it, but Notax did question quite why I need another bike :? !!

clamps81

You can get a full XT groupset from Germany for somewhere in the region of five hundred quid (depending on the exchange rate) or just the drivetrain components for a bit less. I used bike-components.de and everything turned up pretty quick.

miss notax

Cool, thanks for the recommendation