One-off Bionicon Reed

cat_with_no_tail

Slight change of plan. I decided to give the Edison a good new home, and treat myself to a whole new bike.

Just picked this baby up for an absolute steal direct from Bionicon UK in one of a kind colourway.

Will be delivered at the end of this month and then I'll have to suffer the agony of staring at it until end of June until my surgeon clears me to return to the bike. GHEY!

Got a couple of upgrades planned in the mean time though, which are included in the spec below.

Frame: Bionicon Reed 140 air
Forks: Bionicon Double Agent 80-160mm
Bars: Bionicon Barfly 700mm
Stem: Bionicon Twin-lock
Headset: Bionicon F.I.T
Grips: Superstar Excel Blue with Red lockrings

Brakes: SRAM X9 Matchmaker
Shifters: SRAM X9 Matchmaker
Front Mech: SRAM X9
Rear Mech: SRAM X9
Chain Device: Bionicon C-guide V.02

Seat: Ragley Cheeky
Seat Post: 2012 Reverb MMX
Seat Post Clamp: Superstar Balance bolt - Red

Cranks: SRAM X9
Chain: SRAM X9
Cassette: SRAM X9
Pedals: Superstar Ultra-mag CNC with Ti Axle Upgrade (260g) - Black with Red Pins

Wheelset:
Front Hub: Superstar Switch Evo -Red - 15mm
Rear Hub: Superstar Trizoid DH Hub - Red - 142x12mm fitting
Spokes: CX Ray
Nipples: SAPIM Sils - Red
Hubs - Arch EX
Front Tyre - Nobby Nic Tubeless Ready
Rear Tyre - Nobby Nic double defence HD snakeskin Tubeless ready
(both being run tubeless)

sanchez89

now that looks like a very nice bike. if its a one off then even better.

andyrm

That's such a lovely bike!! Bet you can't wait to get out on it!

ste_t

Lovely that. Is the seatclamp 34.9? Got a superstar superfly in orange fitted but never used that you can have a for a fiver. I had the light blue excel grips with orange lockrings and the lockrings are a much deeper colour than the clamps, I did ask about it but superstar said they are slightly different due to the materials.

jay12

the frame on the reed is a lot nicer than the edison! great colour too

ilovedirt

Nice, you know the one thing that puts me off Bionicons is how fugly they are. That one looks pretty nice The Alva that's in this month's Dirt looks pretty nice as well.

edited for appalling grammar....

cat_with_no_tail

I have to say, I am in agreement about the looks. I was always quite clear on the fact I thought the Edison was a bit of a munter, but it's just so good at what it does you can forgive it for being a hideous bushpig.

This Reed features pretty much everything I thought would improve the Edison. Just little things like 15mm forks and a Syntace X12 rear end. Bigger seat-tube for a Reverb. About the only thing it's missing now is a carbon version.

I can't wait to test it out properly and see how the 4-bar compares with the single pivot on the Edison. I am expecting it to be a bit more XC oriented (which is what I'm looking for), but of course at this stage, that's just a guess.

pastey_boy

i can vouch for the arch ex rims. just built a pair and given them a bit of abuse and they seem fine. i reckon this bike will look nice with lots of orange bits on it. ive also just inherited a full 3x10 X9 group with brakes and from a brief go on it i have to say it feels flawless.

ilovedirt

Awesome. Mind if I ask what it weighs? Looks like a proper trail machine!

cat_with_no_tail

I'll update it with a weight once it turns up. It's currently at Bionicon UKs HQ in Bristol.

I suspect it's around 29lbs in current form. Should be able to get that down to 28lbs without too much trouble I reckon.

ilovedirt

That's a pretty good weight for something with a dual crown fork!

Thewaylander

Let us know how it rides,

Alot on the bionicon owners are die hard, and with that travel adjuestment i can see why. alot people sayt hey ride great, but the only thing thats would stop me.. damn there ugly Still i bet its a nice bike, and you can't look at it while your hammering it down

ilovedirt

To be fair, the last time I had a fork with travel adjust, I never used it. Each to their own though.

cat_with_no_tail

I know what you eman about the travel adjust, I had some u-turn pikes and very rarely used the U-turn thing whilst moving.

I know this is going to sound like one of those "my bike is bestest coz ov..." but...

I find I use the travel adjust on the Edison a lot more than any other system because it's not just the travel that changes, it's the whole setup of the bike. And because the air from the fork is forced back into the slave chamber then you drop the travel, the compression rate stays the same too.

PLUS, because it's all done with the press of a bar-mounted button, it's far more intuitive to use on the fly than U-turn, Talas or even the Genius systems.

That's all my opinion of course.

DCR00

how do the Bionicon forks stand up to the equivalent RS or Fox forks ?

The Northern Monkey

to be honest, i've always thought the bionicons were a bit.... gopping.

But that is bloody lovely, well played sir.

ilovedirt

Yeah, I think if it was just a bar mounted button like on your Bionicon I might have used it more. The U-turn on my old Pike was just a pain to use though in the middle of a ride, just left it at 140mm. I don't really miss having any kind of travel adjust/lockout on my Lyrik either.

cat_with_no_tail

Has anyone tried the new XTR M988 wheels by any chance?

They can be had off Merlin for £450, are as light as a light thing, supposedly very strong, come in the configuration I want (15mm front, X12 rear) as standard. Oh, and they look awesome and have some tasty orange bits on them too.

I'm honestly struggling to see a reason why not.

lawman

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Has anyone tried the new XTR M988 wheels by any chance?

They can be had off Merlin for £450, are as light as a light thing, supposedly very strong, come in the configuration I want (15mm front, X12 rear) as standard. Oh, and they look awesome and have some tasty orange bits on them too.

I'm honestly struggling to see a reason why not.

They look great, but the fact they have cup and cone hubs puts me off massively. a mate had an set of last generation xtr hubs, he looks after his bikes to an almost degree, but even he had problems with them. Good price, but I wouldnt have them.

pastey_boy

them xtr's look an amazing deal, i myself have no problems with cup and cone bearings and the xtr bearings and bearing surfaces are almost jewel like. if properly adjusted and maintained they easily outlive their cartridge counterparts plus you can get loose ceramic balls very cheaply. shimano wheelsets are also very easy to use with tubeless tyre too.

jay12

lawman wrote:

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Has anyone tried the new XTR M988 wheels by any chance?

They can be had off Merlin for £450, are as light as a light thing, supposedly very strong, come in the configuration I want (15mm front, X12 rear) as standard. Oh, and they look awesome and have some tasty orange bits on them too.

I'm honestly struggling to see a reason why not.

They look great, but the fact they have cup and cone hubs puts me off massively. a mate had an set of last generation xtr hubs, he looks after his bikes to an almost degree, but even he had problems with them. Good price, but I wouldnt have them.

+1. i don't get why shimano still use the system with loose ball bearings. it's not that it doesn't work it's just that there's better hubs out there

sheepsteeth

that is a much nicer looking bike than the edison. and the edison is considerably better looking than my willow.

if i could be bothered i would replace my edison and willow with somthing good looking but i like them so will keep riding my gopping ugly mobiles!

cat_with_no_tail

Sheeps, looks aside, you remember how I told you how much it was going to cost me just to get the edison painted and upgraded to the Gen2 stuff?

This worked out cheaper than that.

sheepsteeth

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Sheeps, looks aside, you remember how I told you how much it was going to cost me just to get the edison painted and upgraded to the Gen2 stuff?

This worked out cheaper than that.

what an utter bargain then!! good work.

cat_with_no_tail

sideways.

cat_with_no_tail

I've had a change of plan.

Instead of Orange bits, I think I'm going to go for Red bits.

Red switch evo hubs with Black arch EX rims, red nipples (:roll:), and CX ray spokes.
Red ultra Mag pedals with black pins and Ti axle upgrade
Blue Excel grips with red lockrings
Red balance bolt

andyrm

That is going to look rather sweet I must say!!

Bad news on the courier extortion though - have you tried DPD? I seem to remember they were pretty good off the UK mainland, but it's a common one to ramp up any "non-mainland" charges as high as they can........

cat_with_no_tail

Yeh, the courier is well and truly in my shitbooks! Could have had it through Parcelforce 24hr cheaper. They promised 48hr delivery though, so they'd damned well better deliver today.

Tyres have arrived along with the tape and sealant etc.

Other than that, I'm still waiting for everything to arrive. CRC posted my Reverb yesterday so hopefully that and the bike will arrive today. Still waiting for Superstar to build my wheels and get all the other stuff posted too.

Waiting for stuff sucks!!!

pastey_boy

Cat With No Tail wrote:

Yeh, the courier is well and truly in my shitbooks! Could have had it through Parcelforce 24hr cheaper. They promised 48hr delivery though, so they'd damned well better deliver today.

Tyres have arrived along with the tape and sealant etc.

Other than that, I'm still waiting for everything to arrive. CRC posted my Reverb yesterday so hopefully that and the bike will arrive today. Still waiting for Superstar to build my wheels and get all the other stuff posted too.

Waiting for stuff sucks!!!

im waiting on a headset to complete my build, should have been here today but nothing as of yet. next dy delivery is becoming a thing of the past.

cat_with_no_tail

WOOOHOOOOOOOO!

The wife has just informed me a Large bike-shaped box (I think it might be a bike) and another, not-so-large, wheel-shaped box have landed on our doorstep.

Good times ahead tonight!

snotty badger

Come on, it must be built by now!