El guapo Build

DanG87

Hi
Building up my Titus el guapo and after some advice on componants.
Planning on building it up as a Light am bike to be used for trips away to the lakes, yorkshire moors and possibly alps in the summer.
Heres what i have in boxes already:

V3 el guapo frame
X fusion slant 160 taper 15mm forks
Hope headset ZS44/ EC49
Xt shifters, Xt 11-36 cassette
Race Face turbine stem, Sixc carbon bars
Xt trail wheelset
XT Brakeset, going to pair with ice tech rotors 180/160 suffice for a 75kg rider?

After some advice on tyres, been looking at schwalbes possible Nobby nics snakeskin TLR in 2.25 pacestar rear and 2.4 trailstar for the front but open to sugetions.

I'm also thinking of a getting an XT double chainset but not sure whether to go 38/26 or 38/24, this ones been bugging me the most. I think i'd prefer 26 granny for the smaller jump and maybe it's more usable in more places? Would 26 combined with 36 in the rear be enough to get a reasonably fit rider on this sort of bike up all the hills?

Also any suggestions for the rest of the components?
Thanks

The Rookie

Nice looking spec, for a fairly light AM bike.

In the UK you'll be fine on 180/160, I ride 160/160 with XT's and am a little heavier than you, for the Alps though it's heat that is more an issue than braking capacity as such, so may want to consider icetech to manage that.

Tyre wise the choice looks a good start point, maybe a bit wide for the Moors?

Not sure about the latest cranksets but doubles (with bash) used to use a heavier tougher axle, so check weights, if it's still the case consider a triple and swap the rings (the rings sell for good money!)

lawman

Looks a solid spec, for cranks xt double will be fine, not sure where the beginner thought the heavier axles came from. But afaik the axles are the same across the board with same level group sets. I'd pair it with an e13 Trs guide, gives abit more protection and chain security for not a lot of weight.

Tyres I'd go Hans Dampfs from bike-discount.de trail star/pace star combo is about £60 delivered and are a great set of tyres then you're pretty much set!!

rockmonkeysc

Not sure I would go for the X-Fusion forks. Good forks but I know TF & Mojo won't service X-Fusion and not sure if anyone else does or if you can get spare parts to do it yourself.

DanG87

Thanks, ive been looking at those Hans Dampfs on bike-discount.de not sure if they will be a bit draggy/weighty. Was considering maybe going for the trail star front with a 2.25 nobby nic rear, what you think?

Pretty sold on the xt double just cant make my mind up on the chainring combo.

I was a bit hesitant about the x fusion forks too, but upgrade bikes are the distributer and service centre so parts should be available. X fusions seem to get great reviews and the slant was less than half the price of a fox 34/36 and a fair bit cheaper than a lyrik, lighter than all those options too.

lawman

I wouldn't be too worried about them tbh, the harder pace star compound improved the rolling massively IMO. The nobby nic is still a decent tyre though, but I think the hans Dampf is a better all rounder. My pace star was bang on claimed weight too.

I ran 38/24 on my mojo HD and it was fine, but if you're reasonably fit the 26 will be adequate.

rockmonkeysc

DanG87 wrote:

X fusions seem to get great reviews and the slant was less than half the price of a fox 34/36 and a fair bit cheaper than a lyrik, lighter than all those options too.

Anything is half the price of Fox
Worth having a look at Marzocchi as well, I have seen some good discounts on 55's recently and the latest Marzocchi's are extremely good. The new 888 rc3 evo is by far the best fork I have ridden.
X-Fusion are also very good.

The Rookie

lawman wrote:

Looks a solid spec, for cranks xt double will be fine, not sure where the beginner thought the heavier axles came from. But afaik the axles are the same across the board with same level group sets.

MBUK group test on cranksets, the numbers stack up as well if you delete the weight of a Shimano plastic bash and add a big ring. That test was before Shimano introduced the newer 2x10 (to belatedly compete with XX) which can't actually mount a big ring due to the spider design, so they may well have the lighter axle.

example http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/categ ... t-12-45714