Newbie builds - carbon everywhere!

L33LEG

Retro Guru
Fairly new to the forum. Earlier this year I wanted to get back into biking after ten years away from it due to spending all my time with cars. Had a plan of getting a cheap frame and making it a nice bike to ride about on, browsing eBay one week and bought a specialized carbon frame and since then I've been hooked with bikes again! Every day since then I've been searching for bike parts, I'm slowly getting back into knowing what is what and its a pleasant surprise knowing that what was good back then are still the things to have now. Been buying and selling a few frames and parts and I've ended up with a few fully built up ones that I love and suit me perfectly.

Firstly is the specialized. The most modern bike I've ever had (first time learning about disc brakes for example). I've had this built up for 6 months now and have been using it for half my journeys to work and other rides, makes me wish I got back into bikes a lot earlier.

Quick spec of the bike is 17'' carbon stumpjumper frame, xtr brakes, fox forks, xtr shifters and rear mech, xt front mech, fsa carbon cranks, carbon fsa bars and ends, carbon s-works post with carbon and ti saddle, mavic 819 rims with hope pro2 hubs, carbon spacers and bottle holders. Apart from the ridiculously loud rear hub it's perfect, only thing I want for it is some skinnier tyres on as I only use it on the roads and the current tyres are slowing me down.

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Just like my previous car hobby, I build one up and get straight onto another. So browsing the bay again I pick up a Giant MCM carbon frame. Wanted a frame with v brakes and wanted to use parts that I've always wanted, an old skool build that I have wanted since I was a kid really.

The frame arrived and I decided to use my recently bought SID race carbon/titanium forks

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I'm usually very boring with colours and stick with black or white but I surprisingly liked the blue and yellow on it already so I carried on buying more bits.

I have always wanted some spinergys, was always put off by the bad reviews but I thought I'd finally give them a go.

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Fitted them to the bike along with xtr v brakes and ritchey post, bars and stem. Was going to go carbon but they're very lightweight and I love the look of them, suit the age of the build more as well

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Finally got all the parts together. Xtr cranks, xtr read mech (already had xtr front mech on), full carbon saddle (not the comfiest but it's light!), xtr brake levers, xtr shifters, xt chain and cassette, wellgo pedals

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After fitting all new cables its fully built and set up

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Overall I'm happy with it, love the look but it's a lot heavier than I was hoping for weighing just under 24lbs :(

The tyres weigh a lot so I've got some racing ralphs coming tomorrow which will hopefully knock a bit off, also bought an xtr cassette which I want to fit. The wellgo pedals were one of the lightest flat pedals to get but I'm wanting the titanium spindles to shave another 100g off. Not really wanting to change the bars and post to carbon but I'll see, after a bit of messing I hope to get it down to 20lbs. I've no use for a triple crankset but it's always good to have and rigid forks would knock the weight right down but in happy with the SIDs.

Sorry for the essay, any opinions good or bad welcome. Love the forum so far and the classifieds is great!
 
loveing the giant;got a thing for spinnergys from when cippolini
rode for cannondale'cant say much more as im green with envy
just great looking bikes carbon giants from bitd
 
Thanks for the comment. When I first got the frame I wasn't sure I liked it but as every part went on I liked it more and more! Everything seems to work well with everything :)

Next project is going to be a full suspension but I'm not sure which yet.
 
L33LEG":1bdvue71 said:
Thanks for the comment. When I first got the frame I wasn't sure I liked it but as every part went on I liked it more and more! Everything seems to work well with everything :)

Next project is going to be a full suspension but I'm not sure which yet.
full sus ?can help you there rock springs one owner me 2000 year model
I could swop for I don't know say a giant carbon :D
been in a shop when the first tcr came out in carbon with the once stickers on
they all just look so right in carbon as opposed to painted.
off on ebay now :cool:
 
This bike isn't going anywhere just yet sorry ha.

Have fun on eBay, please buy things to stop me doing so!
 
looks good .... but you know what I'm gonna say ..... frame is too big - there should be 3x the amount of seat post showing,.
 
02gf74":27h5ppby said:
looks good .... but you know what I'm gonna say ..... frame is too big - there should be 3x the amount of seat post showing,.

I haven't ridden it yet, seat will be raised a few more inch but not too much. It's stickered as a 19.5 but a medium, I was told it was a 17.5 when I bought it and it looks like it is, looks way too small for a 19.5 and if that was the case I'm a short ass and no way could I ride it ha.
 
The wheels are my favourite part, probably one of those things that I'd never sell. Forgot to mention that it's got carbon and ti skewers which for such a small detail look amazing. Think a carbon seat clamp is the next thing on the buy list :) Wouldn't mind a load of ti bolts as well but they're a lot of money for not much gain.
 
A few smaller details have been to the giant.

Fitted some racing ralph tyres, ritchey bar ends to match the rest of the stuff (decided not to use the grips as I never ride a bike holding there), raised the seat to my height to please 02gf74 lol :) have also got an xtr cassette to fit so I can loose a bit more weight. Have also got some lighter pedals with ti spindles coming tomorrow. An also tempted to cut down the steerer a bit.

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I've nearly finished my other build as well :)

When I was 14/15 I bought my third bike. DBR 4.2 alloy frame with LX/XT gear. Judy T2 forks and within a year I added a pair of black 517 rims, DMR pedals, new stem and seat. Loved it and rode it every single day for years! Eventually it ended up going down to Spain with my parents and spent nearly ten years there collecting sand and looking very sorry for itself, wheels and gears were also changed at some point.

Anyway this summer I brought it back home with me and stripped it down to a bare frame. Everything was knackered, bb was ready to fall to bits, all cables were seized, everything was a mess.

So the plan was to make it as it was but upgraded. Didnt want to use expensive parts as this will be used as a bike I can lock up in town and will also be going down to Spain with me every year.

Got a pair of mavic wheels, rear isn't a 517 sadly but it'll do, hope hub on the back. Full xt components (gears, crankset, mechs and brakes), found some slightly newer and longer travel judy T2 forks which are exactly what I wanted. Kept my old stem, bars and bar ends so it feels like how it used to. Just fitted a carbon post and italia seat. Need to fit some new pedals, might buy some new black v8s. Fitted a new headset but might get an fsa one as I prefer them. Other than that and setting up the rear brake it's ready. Not mint by a long way but should do me well for another 15 years :)

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Slowly building up a collection now ha, can't believe I didn't get back into biking years ago :(

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