My First 29er
Comments
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That and the extra cost. And if something goes wrong it's not always so easy to deal with. I'm alright with buying from Europe and I'll buy from elsewhere if it's actually something I need but for something that's only to change the colour of the valves it's not worth it to me.0
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Oh dear the changes have started. Got myself a Deity Cinch Seatclamp, mostly because it was purple and I don't need the QR for most of my riding. Also heard from Silverfish they're replacing my other Sixc bars so the others I own have now gone on this. Rims also turned up earlier so I'll get those built up later.
Just in the middle of removing some of the decals from them. They're way heavier than I thought they were going to be at 463g each. I had been seeing weights of around 420/430g but maybe that was for the older, weaker rim. Either way it's still not too bad and they're no heavier than the Arch's I was going to get.
Hoping the changes will make the total weight sub 25lbs but maybe not when the rims are heavier than I was expecting.0 -
And if something goes wrong it's not always so easy to deal with
They're tubeless valves... :?
R2bike.de do various colours, I've got some green ones. No idea if they do purple. They'll shaft you for postage too.0 -
I was more thinking problems with the seller etc. I know there's not much to go wrong with a valve. No purple valves at R2bike, cheers for the suggestion though.0
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Well it took longer than expected but I finished the wheels last night. Rear was a real pain to build, spoke tensions kept going everywhere despite me doing them up the same number of turns. Had to take 4 attempts at it to get it right. Front went together alright though.
They're about 170g lighter than the old ones. Not bad for just a rim change. I also changed the rear spokes for black ones but they're still plain gauge. Will easily go sub 2kg with double butted spokes and some lighter hubs but that's for another day. I didn't like the decals on the rims so removed most of them. They were super easy to remove too so who knows how long the remaining ones will last. Just got to finish setting the front up tubeless again and then I'll put it all back together.0 -
And she's finished, again.
Amazingly it turned out lighter than I thought it would at 24.8 lbs. Not bad considering the total spent is still under £400. For some reason the chain ring never wants to show up as being the same colour as the other purple bits but it is. Looks much better now with the black bars and purple seat clamp. Just need to get rid of the red rotor, valves and the bar plugs. The ESI plugs broke while I was removing them from the other bars so I'm stuck with these Lizard Skins for now.
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I have the Cube LTD 29er 2014 in the same colour as your frame, I've had a black bike before so wanted something different!
Mine is completely standard and has been for the near year I've owned it but time to change it a bit! What stem did you end up going with? Still the 100mm? I've been tempted to shorten mine a little to maybe 80mm
I've often thought about a single chainring setup.... Did you use a cassette expander at all?0 -
I've stuck with the 100mm Stylo T30. It suits what the bike is intended for. The bike didn't feel too short with the shorter stem, in fact it was still longer than my Mega when sitting. It just feels right with a long stem though.
No range expander. Just a 32t ring and 11-36 cassette. Don't think the frame clearance allows for any more than a 32t. Single ring isn't for everyone but a front mech will never be going near my MTB's again.0 -
I'm trying to lose a bit of weight at the moment and that is one way I was looking at removing it.
The other way is I have a set of alex rims on there at the moment and been eyeing up some Mavic Switch Ultras and run tubeless along with ditching the horrible nobbly nic tyres my problem is I've already spent too much on bike stuff this month lol
I kinda wish I'd gone the route of building myself although saying that it does have the Reba RL fork so not all bad....0 -
Single ring can save quite a bit of weight for not much money so long as you feel the range is enough for you.
If I was you I would weigh your wheels to see how much you could save getting new ones. Check CRC for the WTB rims, they might still be at £25 each if you're lucky. Then about £30 for some Sapim Race spokes plus whatever hubs you want. I've never been very impressed by most Mavic rims, Superstar hubs or Superstar builds so the Superstar's obviously wouldn't be my choice.
It's worth weighing all the finishing kit, some of that can be hiding a fair bit of weight.0 -
Yea I was thinking of replacing the stem and bars as the bars are flat so want to play around a bit there anyway, pedals are currently superstar nano techs I also have clipless but found they were killing my confidence on unknown ground.
Do you think I'd get away with using the hubs already on there? They're shimano SLX hubs weighing 247g for front and 440g for rear they've been through some abuse and not given up yet more in case I don't have much luck making my alex rims go tubeless.
I did london to brighton off road in september and apart from the last killer hill I didn't drop down off my biggest chainring.0 -
Flat bars are a pretty good choice for this bike. I'd be using them if I didn't already have the Sixc's. Definitely check the saddle, I've seen them weigh over 400g but a decent one is less than 250g for around £30-40. My SDG Circuit was £60 and under 220g. There are others well under 200g for not too much money as well.
You'd be able to use your hubs yes but you will likely need new spokes. They're certainly not light though.0 -
Well only reason for using current hubs is like I said I've spent too much this month so need to watch money and a full wheel build will cost a bit! If I can't get the alex rims to work tubeless I might just have to stick to tubed for now which would be annoying as the new tyres will just be adding more weight lol.0
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I've never found non tubeless rims to work well. It might be a better idea just to buy some lighter tubes until you can afford new wheels. Some tubes are lighter than tubeless. Tubeless ready tyres shouldn't add any weight unless of course the tyre itself is heavier. There's no need for heavy UST tyres.0
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Well at the moment I have the older Nobbly Nic and quite frankly I hate them, everything seems to puncture them and the sidewalls are so thin they deform a lot under cornering so wanting something more grippy and more solid have been looking along the lines of hans dampfs which I think are around 200g heavier each than my current tyres.0
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What version of the Nobby Nic do you have? If you think the tread pattern is ok then it might be worth getting a tougher version. Hans Dampf's are very heavy and slow tyres for this bike. I like faster, less grippy tyres on a bike like this though so my opinion is probably totally wrong for you in this case. 400g of tyre is a lot of weight to add though. That's nearly a lbs.
Having a look at the original specs the two obvious places to save weight are the wheels and drivetrain. You're obviously considering single ring already which can save a lot of weight and from what you've said the range should be enough. You should really get a new cassette and chain when you get a new chain ring which is also a good place to save some weight. The standard Deore is a big chunk of steel. An XT cassette saves a chunk of weight over the Deore for only about £10 when buying new. That should easily change you over a lbs of weight.
The brakes might have a little weight to be saved and it's a good excuse to get some nicer brakes. Even M615 Deore's should be a decent improvement and cost less than £80 for the pair. The Deore's aren't even that much heavier than XTR Trail's and they feel pretty much the same. Lightweight rotors save weight too but there aren't many options for Centrelock. There are adaptors available to fit 6 bolt rotors (I'm using one for the rear hub) but they obviously add extra weight.
Other than that there is no obvious weight to be saved. It would just be a case of saving little bits here and there. Time to get out the scales and start weighing everything if you're really wanting to loose weight.0 -
It's just the plain Nobby Nic I know it's a lot of weight to add but fed up with punctures expecially as the last one resulted in me coming off and dislocating my shoulder!
Thank you for all the advise I'll definitely look into some of those and see if I can afford to cut weight from them first before the wheels.
It's good to hear someone using the LTD 29er frame and having good results doesn't make me so hesitant over spending money on tweaking things
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Well predictably there has been a few more changes. First off I've changed the saddle to the SDG Circuit from the Mega. Much more comfortable, especially over longer rides. It's also a little lighter.
Also changed the wheels again. This time I've replaced the rear hub with a Pro II Evo 40t and also some Sapim Race spokes. Found out the nipples I was using were alloy so that meant the weight savings weren't what they could have been since I replaced them with brass nipples. There was only a 10g difference between the plain gauge and alloy nipples against the double butted with brass nipples. The hub also wasn't too bad at 390g. Sounds a lot but when you consider you can get these hubs for under £10 pretty easily it's really not that bad. So the weight savings from that were only 90g which I was a little disappointed with however I then weighed the Centrelock adaptor. That weighed 56g so minus the 12g for rotor bolts and that's another 44g saving. 134g weight saving is a little better plus the 25g saving for the saddle. That should be another 0.35 lbs off the total weight.
I'll be looking to change the front hub and spokes some time in the future for the matching Hope but not just yet.
So far I've been lucky with all of the purple bits and they've been the same Halo shade. Unfortunately the Hope is ever so slightly different but hardly noticeable thankfully.0 -
Here we go all nicely fitted a weighed.
Weight seems right given that the grips are heavier from the last weighing and it isn't spotless either.0 -
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Nothings changed with the bike but here's a short video anyway.
http://www.pinkbike.com/video/405327/
Still loving the bike and getting better every ride with riding with the seat up. Still want a dropper though :roll:0 -
Well I did my first race on this bike and my first ride in almost 2 years a few weeks ago. Got a last minute entry to the Glentress 7 in a team of 3. Was totally unprepared for it and the rigid forks beat me up pretty bad. Despite that I still had a great time. For anyone who wants to see some highlights the video is here: http://www.pinkbike.com/video/409660/.
So doing that race convinced me I would quite like some suspension forks as an option. Been searching around for the last few weeks for something cheap second hand but had no luck. I had a little spare money this month so thought why not and bought some brand new Reba's. I was going to get Sid's but the difference in price between the Reba's and Sid's paid for the new headset, spokes, hub and tyre. Hub and spokes arrived today so I got them built up on the existing rim. Just the usual Pro II Evo (in purple of course) and Sapim Race spokes. Just waiting on the fork and tyre from Germany now. The wheel is just over 120g lighter than the old one at 874g making an 1880g wheelset. Still not the lightest but I have enough confidence in them that they aren't just going to fold over on me.
I'm hoping with the lighter wheel and lighter tyre the bike will stay under 25lbs with the Reba's but we shall see how that turns out.0 -
Well the Reba's have arrived. Obviously with them being tapered I had to get a new headset lower. Unfortunately that means raising the front end a bit because it's a 44mm headtube. Hopefully the bars will be low enough. The bars can go lower anyway but not without the shifter taking out the top tube in a crash. Guess I'll just have to live with that.
The forks are almost exactly 500g heavier than the rigid but that includes the Maxle so a little weight lost there. That minus the almost 200g saving from the tyre and 120g saving from the wheel means it should hopefully just stay under 25lbs. If it does go over it shouldn't be by much.
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Well here it is all finished. Looks not half bad even if I do say so myself. Looking forward to going and trying it out now. Will probably be messing about with the air in the fork and the tyre for a while. Not used to sub 600g tyres on a 26er, let alone a 29er so will probably need more pressure than I usually use to stop it squirming. Also need to get used to the feeling of suspension on a hardtail again, feels a bit weird only the front moving up and down.
Anyway, here's the finished pictures:
And the weight? Well that's not too bad either. Still sub 25lbs:
I'm happy with that.
Not really got any more plans for the future. I'll probably get the new Maxle Stealth for the forks when it's available. I'd like some of the new XTR brakes but that's a lot of money. Considering an Acros Bloc Lock headset but they appear to add a lot of stack to the headset which would mean either flat bars or a 17 degree stem or something. Haven't seen any flat bars that I like the look of. They're all too narrow or too heavy. If they made flat Sixc's I'd be all over them but they don't. Of course vanity is stopping it too because I'd loose the purple headset spacers :roll: . I wonder how much it'd cost to get a headset anodised... Also waiting for the new 11 speed XT kit. Will get that at some point for the Mega meaning the 10 speed XT mech can go on this.
I suppose I could list the updated spec too:
Frame: 21" Cube LTD 2014
Forks: 2015 Rockshox Reba RL 100mm
Bars: Raceface Sixc 785mm
Stem: Truvativ Stylo T30 100mm
Headset: Cane Creek/Hope
Grips: ESI Chunky
Bottle Cage: Lezyne
Front Brake: Shimano Deore M596
Front disc: Ashima Airotor 160mm
Rear Brake: Shimano Deore M610
Rear Disc: Ashima Airotor 140mm
Shifter: Shimano XTR 10 Speed
Cables: Shimano XTR/SP41
Rear Mech: Shimano Zee
Seat: SDG Circuit Mountain Ti
Seat Post: Nukeproof
Seat Post Clamp: Deity Cinch
Cranks: Shimano Deore
Chainring: Superstar Narrow Wide 32t
Chain: KMC X10 93
Cassette: Shimano XT 11-36
Pedals: Shimano XT Trail
Bottom Bracket: Shimano XTR
Front Wheel:
Rim: WTB Frequency i19
Hub: Hope Pro II Evo
Tube: Tubeless
Tyre: Maxxis Ikon 2.2 TR 3C
Back Wheel:
Rim: WTB Frequency i19
Hub: Hope Pro II Evo
Tube: Tubeless
Tyre: Maxxis Crossmark 2.1 TR
Weight: 24.9 lbs0 -
Absolutely loving the bike with the Reba's. It flies absolutely everywhere. Been really useful having this kind of bike too because I've been doing a lot of riding with slower and younger riders lately for various reasons. Also just made a couple more small changes. First off is the new Stealth Maxle. It really does disappear and is about half the weight of the normal Maxle. I really don't need anything quick release on this bike and it makes the front hub area look so much cleaner.
I've also just got the bits to go 11 speed on the Mega so that's freed up the XT mech for this. Little bit lighter than the Zee and looks a lot nicer I think. Also makes much more sense having an XT mech rather than a Zee on a bike like this.
Other than that, got another Lezyne bottle cage so I could have a small frame mounted pump. If anyones looking for a small pump I can really recommend the Lezyne High Pressure. Mine's only the small but I've already had to use it a few times in the last few weeks and it's brilliant. Never struggled to pump tyres up to the right pressure and didn't take too long either.
So those few changes have lowered the weight slightly again by about 0.2 lbs:
Also been playing with the setup slightly. Lowered the bars slightly, added a few more PSI to the fork and also a few more to the front tyre. Running the fork really stiff now. Even a friend who used to race XC thinks they're too stiff now. I like the stiff forks though, enough to take the sting out of the trail but keeps the angles of the bike consistent.
For anyone who's interested, the wheels are still holding up no problem. Everybody already knows what the hubs are like but I've been really impressed by the rims. Despite me building them I've never had to touch either the front or rear after the initial build and even with some pretty dodgy riding they've stayed just as true as I built them.
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Ok, it's about time this was updated. A number of bits have been changed, and then changed again. First was the brakes. Got a nice shiny set of XTR Trails at Christmas time but when the Patrol came along, they were given to that. Kept the Saint caliper on the Patrol though so that left a spare XTR caliper. Added another XTR lever to that and at least the front brake has stayed as an XTR. Back to the Deore on the rear though. Will no doubt be changed out for an XTR again at some point. I finally got a dropper a few weeks back. Merlin were selling them for not a bad price and I figure I will probably get the updated version when this one inevitably breaks. Lastly I changed the cranks over from the old Mega to this. The SLX's are 2g lighter than the Deore but look a hell of a lot better. Over the winter I tried out the Maxxis Beaver on the front. Very impressed with that tyre although I do wish they did a lighter version in the 2.25 size. Back to the Ikon now that weather has started pissing down again :roll:
And finally, the most important change. By total accident I discovered the Industry Nine Valves while browsing for some spokes for the Patrol the other day. Finally the clashing red valves have been replaced with some shiny purple ones.
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