Newbie building an xc bike

Jeffchiz

Hi all, my name is sam and ive been working at rutland cycles for around 9 years since i was 15, however ive never been in to cycling really which seems to suprise most people ha

However lately ive been wanting to build up a fairly light xc bike (if i was going to build a bike this is what id want), i built up a dmr sidekick when i was younger but as soon as i bought a car i sold it and never owned a bike since.

We're currently selling a lot of parts off cheap (75% off rrp) to staff, I came across a hope pro2 evo wheel set selling for £85 thought id be crazy not to snap their hands off for it, i bought that at the start of the week and been collecting parts since so far i have the following:

Hope pro2 evo wheel set on ztr arch rims £85





I then came across a box of parts which werent on stock so i grabbed a set of easton monkey lite xc carbon bars for £25



And these rockshox xc28 forks were sat in warranty, they are brand new and it looks like the customer has messed the lower caliper bolt hole thread, i bought these for £25 and took them to the workshop and had the hole re-tapped for me ill need to buy the lockout handle bar lever for them though again another great saving from £100



I also found a set of avid xx brakes and elixir 5 brakes in the box, i can have the elixir brakes for £20 each but they come with no mounts (as they are post mount) or rotors, my rockshox are already post mount so i only need a rear mount, but if i rummage through the boxes of parts in the workshop then im sure i can find the bits i need, I haven't had a price on the xx brakes but im sure they will probably be out of my price range, well more than id want to spend.

And lastly there is a chris king patriot headset up for a bargain price of £30! Id love hope tech 3 brakes and headset in blue but at these prices id be stupid to buy hope.

Everything else on the bike should be hope parts (bb,stem, skewers, seat clamp etc) and shimano xt groupset

ilovedirt

Those are some crazy prices! I'm jealous.

Also, how do you get a job in a bike shop without being into bikes?!

Jeffchiz

ilovedirt wrote:

Those are some crazy prices! I'm jealous.

Also, how do you get a job in a bike shop without being into bikes?!

I started in the hire department (we are on the shore of rutland water, a resevior), so all you need to know is how to size someone up, talk through brakes and gears and show them the map lol obviously i have a fair amount of knoweldge but cycling bored me a little and if i wanted to take a bike out then i could just take a £3k hire bike out for free so there was never any need for me to own a bike

Since i left uni, i moved away from the shops and down to the warehouses (we have a fairly big website amazon/ebay store) to work in the dispatch office, as soon as i know if ive passed my degree then ill be moving on so its a perfect time to get some bargains before i leave

ilovedirt

Fair play, yeah rutland water isn't exactly the most inspiring place to go ride a bike - in fact I'd go as far to say that it's probably one of the most boring places you could possibly pick to ride a bike! You should try some proper mtbing, take a trip to wales, or the peaks or something.

felix.london

haha..excellent! 'Newbie' with a load of biking knowledge...that's gotta be a rare one!

But they are some seriously good deals you've got. What frames are you looking at?

The Rookie

Looks like a nice project!

Err got any more of those wheelsets?

Jeffchiz

The Rookie wrote:

Looks like a nice project!

Err got any more of those wheelsets?

haha nah sorry, there was a crest rim with a front hope pro2 evo blue hub but my mate has bought that for £35

Jeffchiz

felix.london wrote:

haha..excellent! 'Newbie' with a load of biking knowledge...that's gotta be a rare one!

But they are some seriously good deals you've got. What frames are you looking at?

could do with a bit of help there.. i was looking at some carbon giant xtc frames but unless a good deal comes up i probably wont get one, i like thin steel frames so im swaying towards a charge duster as there is a seller on ebay selling large frames for £150 delivered, its lime green with blue stickers... i think it'll clash so much with the forks that it might look good... lol plus the blue on the frame and forks could go well with the blue hope parts

Jeffchiz

ilovedirt wrote:

Fair play, yeah rutland water isn't exactly the most inspiring place to go ride a bike - in fact I'd go as far to say that it's probably one of the most boring places you could possibly pick to ride a bike! You should try some proper mtbing, take a trip to wales, or the peaks or something.

it is more orientated towards families but i do appreciate living here it is a lovely place to live, we also own a shop in fineshade/wakerley woods so there are more interesting/technical routes there where people can hire/take their own bikes

ill see if i can get some mates together and go for a biking holiday later on in the year

Jeffchiz

I reserved the Chris King Patriot headdset today for £32.50 and the Elixir 5 brakes (seem to be the 2012 model) for £40 good news is that they do come with the rear mount and all the fixing bolts so its just the 160mm rotors that i need to get, ill purchase these next week along with a wtb rocket v saddle for £12.50 that i also found in the 'not in stock' box

The Rookie

Hmmm I think I'd pass on the Elixirs......

njee20

The Rookie wrote:

Err got any more of those wheelsets?

Whilst they are stunning value (and I'd be buying them all up to stick on eBay), they're not light, not your thing ;-)

Gibbo3771

£85 for that wheel set...I bought mine last year at around £350...lol

Jeffchiz

For £40 im having the elixirs! lol i will eventually get hope tech 3 x2's but id rather buy them after ive got a working bike otherwise it'll be longer until i can get it built up in to a useable bike i worked out the price diffrerence and imo id be stupid to spend x amount on the hopes at this stage

i suppose i could look out for some higher end shinamo brakes, but the only reason i want the elixirs is because they are dirt cheap then save for the hopes, i dont see any point in getting a brake thats half way between the two cost wise if im planning on hopes in the future anyway

The Rookie

I'd have got some Deores for £65, much better brake, also personally I'd stick with Shimano brakes, I recently got some Elixirs from on-one in their sale for £15.....sold on eBay for a small profit!

Jeffchiz

Paid for my Chris King headset today as well as my saddle and the controversial brakes!










Ive also ordered my Shinano Zee groupset (chainset, bb, cassettee, chain, r/mech, shifter), guy on ebay selling the lot for £263, managed to source them for £180 odd on the internet buying them separately, but i got a buyer at work today to source me the parts for around £150 but the supplier gave me an extra discount for being staff so got it all for around £130 bargain! will update when they come in

Jeffchiz

2 bits of good news my Shimano Zee groupset turned up today but i cant bring it all home yet, still needs to be booked on to the system and secondly i found a couple sets of avid rotors at work, one sold set, one set of floating rotors so quite obviously the solid ones are for my 5's and the floating ones are for the xx's, but my boss kindly gave me the floating rotors so got them for free and also found the fitting kit which included all the rotor bolts and the caliper mount bolts so everything i need for the brakes the £40 i paid for them is getting better value by the day!

Jeffchiz

bigmitch41

Looking good, was only looking at the Shimano Zee kit yesterday as want to go 1x10, intested to know what you think of it once the build takes shape.

dirkpitt74

GReat thread - keep us posted on how it goes.

njee20

They're not floating rotors, just two piece. Not keen on the blue/red, and the Patriot headset is a horrible clash, but for the £3.60 it's cost you so far it looks great!

felix.london

very nice. Future fork (and brake) upgrade and you're ripe for the hardcore hardtail thread! Good stuff.

Hairylegs66

Enjoying this thread, I do like a build story! Some real bargain bits here too. Any news on the frame choice?

Jeffchiz

Hi all! I'm back! ive pretty much bought everything now, i went mad on payday and finally paid for all my gearing as well as some more thomson bargains and bought my frame along with hope skewers, tyres and tubes, just a set of pedals to get and wait for my frame to turn up! (charge duster)
Masterpiece post

Elite x4 stem


29.8 collar (hope this fits)

Skewers

Jeffchiz

ZEE gearing




Odd bits and bobs

buddy_club

And so it continues! Can't wait to see this built.

njee20

Thomson, no "p", you've even posted photos!

Jeffchiz

njee20 wrote:

Thomson, no "p", you've even posted photos!

ha i do apologise

Jeffchiz

buddy_club wrote:

And so it continues! Can't wait to see this built.

cheers neither can i! the frame was dispatched today so it might be with me tomorrow but more than likely thursday

Jeffchiz

Frame turned up!




Took it to the workshop to get the headset pressed in

I've got an issue tho.. the steer tube is too short




However i lightly bolted it together, fitted the tyres and tubes and put them on the frame with the hope skewers and put my bars and saddle on

Jeffchiz

Ive got a new set of the same forks on order only costing me £56 brand new with my discount, but unfortunately they only come in black i was loving the colour scheme, also the ones ive ordered seem to come with v brake mounts and dont have a remote lockout and they are in 26" form, it seems these orange forks were specially made for cube in 29" form, without the v brake mounts and with the remote lockout