Lee's Nukeproof Mega!

CitizenLee

***Skip to page 6 for most recent photos***

Hi folks,

Its finally time to retire the trusty SX Trail and build something a bit newer and more AM focussed. I had originally pre-ordered a 2013 Enduro Evo at the start of the year (which would have meant I’ve gone Demo>SX Trail>Enduro) but after numerous delays and me eventually needing the cash for other stuff, I cancelled it and stuck with the SX Trail.

For one reason or another I’ve been getting the upgrade urge again lately – and I’ve wanted a Nukeproof Mega since they were first released, so when I spotted a 2012 frame and shock in great condition for a great price recently I had to have it!

So with a deal struck and parts ordered, this is the build I’m going for:

Spec update 21-08-14
Frame: 2012 Nukeproof Mega (medium)
Shock: 2013 Fox Float CTD Boost Valve Kashima (inc frame)
Forks: 2009 RockShock Lyrik Coil U-Turn *
Bars: Chromag Cutlass Carbon 730mm
Stem: Easton Haven 55mm w/Ti Bolts & Ti top cap
Headset: Nukeproof Warhead 1 1/18th (inc frame)
Grips: SDG Han Solo Lock-On
Bar Ends: ODI
Brake Lever: Shimano SLX M666 w/Ti bolts *
Calipers: Shimano SLX M666 w/Ti Bolts *
Rotors: Hope 180mm Floating w/Ti Bolts *
Hoses: Stock Shimano
Seat: Specialized Henge Comp *
Seat Post: RockShock Reverb *
Seat Post Clamp: Nukeproof
Shifter: Shimano Saint SL-M820 I-Spec RH 10sp
Cable: Stock Shimano
Rear Mech: Shimano Zee RD-M640-SS Shadow+ 10sp
Cranks: Shimano Saint FC-M810 *
Bash Guard: Custom Titanium
Chainring: RaceFace 32t Narrow Wide w/Ti Bolts
Chain: Shimano XT CN-HG95 10sp
Cassette: Shimano XT CS-M771 10sp 11-36t
Pedals: SuperStar Nano Tech Flat *
Bottom Bracket: Nukeproof
Wheels: 2013 Mavic Crossmax ST
Front Tyre: Schwalbe Hans Dampf Evo TrailStar 2.35"
Rear Tyre: Schwalbe Racing Ralph Evo SnakeSkin 2.25"
Tubes: Schwalbe SV/AV13 - 26 x 1.5 - 2.5"

Parts with * are coming from my SX Trail and the rest I got from CRC, Merlin, Bike-Discount.de etc

I will update the thread with pictures ASAP, although it will only be pictures of parts in boxes for now.

Just waiting on the wheels arriving from France and for the forks to be serviced & re-sprayed gloss black (got some new decals from Slik waiting). Both should be some time next week.

I will be very sad to see the end of the SX Trail but I really can’t wait to get this built up

Festerfeet

I always get exited when a build thread starts. It looks like it is going to be a cracker as well.

CitizenLee

Haha, cheers! Me too, love seeing what everyone comes up with when building from the ground up.

Here's the first sneak preview...

russyh

Looking forward to following this, Mega is still on my list for next build. But then so are 4 other frames. Meh

Keep us updated please

ej2320

Been waiting for this!

white91

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike, speccing it is the best bit

Kowalski675

white91 wrote:

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike,

Because it's cheaper.

declan1

Kowalski675 wrote:

white91 wrote:

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike,

Because it's cheaper.

Only if it has exactly the components you want. Most of the time you'll be upgrading all of the things you don't like and it'll cost you more in the end.

Also, as said above, speccing a bike is very nice - especially when you have a pile of lovely boxes like the photo above

CitizenLee

Haha, thanks folks! I'll try not to keep you all waiting too long between updates!

Fully agree about building vs buying complete. The latter is a great option for people who want to save a few £ initially or don't like to fettle, but for most it always costs more in the long run.

mike hunts alpine

Got to think about all the tools you'd need to buy and if you're a novice like me mistakes would be very very very expensive. If I had the skills and tools.... And time id defo build my own bike. Its one thing I want to have a go at somepoint. But as you're one of the lucky gits with tools, time and knowledge I'm pretty jealous. Looking forward to seeing the complete bike.

shindig

mike hunts alpine wrote:

Got to think about all the tools you'd need to buy and if you're a novice like me mistakes would be very very very expensive. If I had the skills and tools.... And time id defo build my own bike. Its one thing I want to have a go at somepoint. But as you're one of the lucky gits with tools, time and knowledge I'm pretty jealous. Looking forward to seeing the complete bike.

You got to start somewhere. Be as well bite the bullet. Nothing like learning by experience. And anything you need to know about you can find several videos on Youtube, including gheto tools to save you £££ on buying specialist tools.

All good fun. I have gradually built up my toolkit over the years. No LBS in my area. The only thing i don't do is build wheel and face Bottom brackets and headsets.

CitizenLee

Thanks Mike

You're right about the tools! Nothing worse than a shiny new part arriving only to find you don't have the proprietary (and usually expensive) tool to fit it! I've learned that the hard way!

Most of the building is relatively straight forward but I'll confess that indexing gears is my nemesis and I wouldn't even entertain the thought of bleeding anything hydraulic, so it's always a trip to the lbs to sort mech and brakes. Also, for all the bikes I've built I've never actually owned a torque wrench until I got the one pictured :oops:

Fully agree Shindig, most of my tools are non-bike specific that I've gathered over time. As I said above, there has been times where I've had to buy a specific tool but I grudge it and if I can I'll try and find an alternative (DIY headset press for example).

Kowalski675

declan1 wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

white91 wrote:

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike,

Because it's cheaper.

Only if it has exactly the components you want. Most of the time you'll be upgrading all of the things you don't like and it'll cost you more in the end.

So you sell the unused parts you take off, and it still works out cheaper. Like for like spec it will always be cheaper to buy ccomplete than build new from scratch.

As for tools, there's very little bike specific you need, and any specific essential tools (in the case of my bike that's just the sockets for BB and rear cassette) only cost a few quid. Ten quid for BB facing at my LBS.

lawman

Kowalski675 wrote:

declan1 wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

white91 wrote:

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike,

Because it's cheaper.

Only if it has exactly the components you want. Most of the time you'll be upgrading all of the things you don't like and it'll cost you more in the end.

So you sell the unused parts you take off, and it still works out cheaper. Like for like spec it will always be cheaper to buy ccomplete than build new from scratch.

Depends on the bike. For example I built my Mojo HD with a better spec than the SLX build for £100 less. Likewise my 456C had a better spec than the X9 version On One sell and cost roughly the same. Looking into a Carbon Bronson, the full builds are massively more expensive than a custom build. The SPX build with basic Fox evolution fork and shock, cheapish wheels, XT through out and a reverb is around £5500, for the same money I could go out and build one up with top of the range Pikes, Tune/Arch Ex wheels, CTD Adj. Kashima shock, reverb, X01, Xtr brakes, the lot for the same cash. So you can get a better bike with exactly the components you want, if not better than you want, for the same cash.

If you're buying under the £1k mark or one of the direct sale brands like canyon, buy complete. Anything over £1k and you're better off building yourself and getting the LBS to sort out the little bits and pieces.

Kowalski675

I'll add an "almost" before my "always" then, lol.

I'd build my own if it was gonna be as cheap or cheaper. As has already been said, you can choose your own spec, and you get the pleasure of building it yourself. I enjoy tinkering, modifying and building - all my motorbikes have been heavily modified or completely rebuilt, standard ones don't interest me, and I enjoyed rebuilding my Boardman onto the new frame. Plus I could do it in the front room in front of the telly - can't do that with my motorbikes, lol (well, not complete ones anyway...)

Dick Scruttock

Kowalski675 wrote:

declan1 wrote:

Kowalski675 wrote:

white91 wrote:

Why does anyone actually buy a prebuilt bike,

Because it's cheaper.

Only if it has exactly the components you want. Most of the time you'll be upgrading all of the things you don't like and it'll cost you more in the end.

So you sell the unused parts you take off, and it still works out cheaper. Like for like spec it will always be cheaper to buy ccomplete than build new from scratch.

As for tools, there's very little bike specific you need, and any specific essential tools (in the case of my bike that's just the sockets for BB and rear cassette) only cost a few quid. Ten quid for BB facing at my LBS.

I built my Bronson from scratch and like for like on a complete build I have saved a LOT of money and got a better spec of bike over buying complete. I also got the exact bike I wanted.

Mind you I can even build a full group set cheaper than most places are selling it for just through shopping around. We got XX1 with a ceramic bottom bracket and still saved money on the group set minus a bottom bracket!

Kowalski675

Rick Draper wrote:

I built my Bronson from scratch and like for like on a complete build I have saved a LOT of money and got a better spec of bike over buying complete.

The distinction here seems to be that we're talking about boutique brands, rather than mainstream (volume manufacturers obviously have huge buying power for purchasing components at rock bottom prices). For volume manufacturers I doubt you could build a comparable specced bike cheaper than you could buy it.

lawman

Many mainstream brands don't sell frame only at the cheaper price points though and many don't sell them at all. The beauty of any custom build is you can get exactly what you want, no need to swap bars, stems, grips, saddles, tyres etc and you get the benefit of being able to shop around for components for the best prices. I haven't bought a complete bike since 2005 as it's always worked out cheaper to custom build and get exactly what I want without having to change anything. It's more fun to do it yourself anyway, and I get more satisfaction that I built the bike and it's pretty unique

CitizenLee

Er... *ahem*

Bit of a dilemma with the Reverb.

It's bascically new and only done a handful of miles but looses air randomly. Had done since I got it, most likely due to loose valve core or badly fitted seal (common problems). Now do I send it back to Bike-Discount.de for repair / repacement @ SRAM, or do I just get the seal kit and sort it myself? I'd rather not spend £50 on it, but then I also don't want to wait weeks for the whole warranty process to happen.

oxocube1

A bit of respect for the OP please guys!

And Lee can't wait to see some pics. Sucks about the reverb, hopefully I don't get the same issue when I get around to buying one for mine! I see you have a similar red theme going on also. I was very tempted to get some Slik Graphics for my Lyriks too but it was £££s I just could not justify to spend...at least not yet anyway!
When It's fully built up let me know the weight if you don't mind? Mines coming in at 14.8kg which is a tad lighter than what i guessed it would be at the beginning.

CitizenLee

oxocube1 wrote:

A bit of respect for the OP please guys!

And Lee can't wait to see some pics. Sucks about the reverb, hopefully I don't get the same issue when I get around to buying one for mine! I see you have a similar red theme going on also. I was very tempted to get some Slik Graphics for my Lyriks too but it was £££s I just could not justify to spend...at least not yet anyway!
When It's fully built up let me know the weight if you don't mind? Mines coming in at 14.8kg which is a tad lighter than what i guessed it would be at the beginning.

Haha, thanks Oxo

Yeah, hopefully R/S have sorted the Reverb issues for the newest models!

The red theme is a continuation of the red themed SX Trail, bascially because I like the bars and pedals and didn't want to replace them yet. Otherwise I think I would have just got black everything for a stealthly look, or even yellow to recreate the Nukeproof look, haha!

Yep, will deffo post up a scale shot one it's all built up. 14.8kg is decent! I can't imagine mine being a particulary light build though, due to Saints, Reverb, floating rotors and coil Lyriks. We'll see

Just ordered these for the wheels as the previous owner de-stickered them.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MAVIC-CROSSMA ... 2c76121102

I normally de-stricker everything too (it's the first thing I will be doing to the frame) but I actually like the original Crossmax ST decals so will try them out.

Tonights task will be to remove all the bits I'm keeping from the SX Trail for inspection / cleaning / photographing for here

Did you get a shorter stem in the end by the way? I have a brand new Funn Funnduro 45mm in black if that's any interest to you?

russyh

Interestingly SRAM would not repair my reverb directly i had to send it back to the original supplier who then replaced it with a new one! I have bought another for another build and 4 months down the line i have a little bit of play. I bought mine from Hibike in Germany so have emailed them to see how they want it repaired. Hopefully i can send it back for repair/replacement in the UK....

I have to say i was pleasantly suprised with how quickly the repair/replacement turnaround was on my last reverb so i dont think (if you can deal with the UK) you will be without it for long.

CitizenLee

Thanks for the info Russ.

Bike-Discount (also in Germany) have asked me to return it to them unforunately, so I suspect HiBike may ask you to do the same.

The warranty is worldwide, but as you say SRAM will not deal direct with customers so warranty returns have to go back through the retailler.

Bike-Discount will at least refund the postage though.

Looking at the tools required to service them I may just bite the bullet and return it.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/Tech-Tuesd ... -2012.html

*AJ*

Nice build!

We've got quite a collection of Megas going on here haven't we!

russyh

What travel forks are you guys running on the front? I am really tempted, also keen to hear how it climbs (in the real world) Seem to be some big bargains around used mega frames at the moment.

CitizenLee

*AJ* wrote:

Nice build!

We've got quite a collection of Megas going on here haven't we!

Cheers bud, been keeping an eye on yours too! Verrr niiice. We'll have to start an owners club soon

Russyh wrote:

What travel forks are you guys running on the front? I am really tempted, also keen to hear how it climbs (in the real world) Seem to be some big bargains around used mega frames at the moment.

160mm Lyriks, although they're U-Turn so can be dialled down. If I didn't already have these I would have probably went for the air version.

Yeah, lots of Mega deals at the moment. For me it was between this one with the Float CTD, or one with a Bos Vip'r, although that was a fair bit more coin.

It will actually be my first ever air shock so keen to see how I get on with it.

*AJ*

Russyh wrote:

What travel forks are you guys running on the front? I am really tempted, also keen to hear how it climbs (in the real world) Seem to be some big bargains around used mega frames at the moment.

Currently running a 160mm Domain (cheap mans Lyrik coil)

Tempted to swap it for a 150mm Sektor Solo air though as the Domain is heavy and I prefer the feel of my air fork on my commuter.

oxocube1

Russyh wrote:

What travel forks are you guys running on the front? I am really tempted, also keen to hear how it climbs (in the real world) Seem to be some big bargains around used mega frames at the moment.

I'm running a 160mm Lyrik R Solo Air. I gave my Mega a good thrashing at Cwmcarn and FoD a couple of weeks ago for it's Maiden Voyage. That included big climbs and descents. Like I mentioned on my post, it climbs just like my 120mm Spesh XC Pro and descends like a FR bike. It's got a super steep seat angle (compared to the head angle) so it means your weight is pushed forward over the bars for climbing, and it also means it's very easy to get behind the saddle on steep terrain (which is where the slack head angle comes in). The only real downside for climbing is the weight compared to a smaller travel/XC bike. My Frame and all components on it, excluding wheels, weighs dead on 10kg. Then the wheels are a hefty 4.8kg but that could be cut down by getting lighter rims, rotors, tyres etc. You can't really be too concerned with weight on this type of bike and I'm happy with managing to keep it under 15kg.

CitizenLee wrote:

Did you get a shorter stem in the end by the way? I have a brand new Funn Funnduro 45mm in black if that's any interest to you?

Na i haven't managed to buy one yet. How much were you looking for the Funn stem? PM me if you want.

Kowalski675

lawman wrote:

It's more fun to do it yourself anyway, and I get more satisfaction that I built the bike and it's pretty unique

CAWT. Same principles as with my motorbikes - they're mine in a way that someone who's riding a showroom spec bike will never know, 'cos I've built 'em. Admittedly that does also make it more distressing when you throw them down the road... When I'm ready to move on from my Boardman I'll definitely look at building from scratch as an option, if it's economically viable for what I want.

CitizenLee

Ordered the following last minute parts:
Nukeproof Kevlar Chain Stay Protector – Frame came with a DIY inner tube job, but they’re far too ghetto for me
Nukeproof External Bottom Bracket - I decided to leave the SuperStar one in the SX, or sell with my spare Saints
Blackspire Einfachx Chainguide – Love how minimalist this thing is. Should save a few gs over the butchered Plasma guide that came with frame

CitizenLee

As above, the innertubes and Plasma guide are going...






Tempted to either paint the headtube badge black or polish it, and I'll probably remove the rest of the decals too