'09 Kent Eriksen

haggis

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So here's the bike that i sold almost everything retro that i owned for, my Kent Eriksen Ti hardtail. I really missed my old Cove Hummer and i'm not sure if i'm fully into this full sus thing with my Kona Dawg and had always wanted a boutique custom Ti frame so i got in touch with a few builders, Steve Potts, IF, Seven, Sycip and of course Kent Eriksen and then went and flogged everything i had to you guys. Cheers by the way to everyone that bought my stuff and made this possible :D It was a dead heat between Mr Potts and Mr Eriksen and in the end i went for Kent.
I had a few ideas as to how i wanted this bike to turn out i.e. 140mm travel all day hardtail, BB30 specific, disc only. I wasn't too bothered about weight as long as it wasn't a tank but i was still surprised how light it was when it came out the box.
Along with the general characteristics of the frame and how i wanted it to ride i had a few details i wanted to go over with Kent so obviously there were a few phone calls to the states where we went over these. I wanted a fwd facing seat tube slot and was told that the rear facing slot was a much stronger and better design. Then i asked for full length outer gear cable guides. No problem. Then i asked for a headtube gusset and was told no way as this created too many stress risers around the headtube. I wanted a bridge between the seat stays and chainstays down where the disc mount sits as this can cause flex under braking and seeing as though i wanted a 185mm rotor on the back it seemed like a good idea.
Now the BB30, Kent did mention that it might creak a bit but he has a BB30 frame in the shop for running around on and he said it was fine but due to the tolerances involved in the machining process of the BB he insisted on installing it himself. Fine by me.
I had intended on using an adjustable height seatpost as my friend has the KSi900 and it works real nice but ended up getting the Kent Eriksen Sweetpost instead to compliment the frame after someone on here suggested it, you were right Crell there was only one seatpost.
For the wheels i was going to use my Hope/717's but managed to knacker the front hub by breaking one of the holes on the flange. So at present i am waiting on Mavic 20mm hub adaptors for a pair of CrossMax wheels i had on my Kilauea which i intend to use until i can afford a new set of wheels. The rest of the kit on the bike is as follows. Revelation Dual Air with push loc, Avid Elixir CR Carbon brakes 203 and 185mm rotors, XT mechs and levers, XTR Ti cassette, FSA Afterburner cranks, King Headset, RF Deus stem and WTB Rocket V Ti railed saddle and Crank Brothers 2Ti egg beaters.
One picture shows the seattube decal which the balloon in my LBS clamped whilst installing the headset and managed to completely scuff. Went bush at them for that so a new set of decals is winging it to me already. This is the build at present more complete outdoor pics to follow. Enjoy.
 

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Looks amazing, I bet your happy with the sacrifices you've made owning that :D

Welds are perfect, that's what you pay for with high end Ti frames but it's a good choice over all the carbon/full sus jiggery pokery going on.

Lastly, do you regret selling any of the retro stuff? Thinking of doing the same myself but worried that I'll regret doing it!
 
Indeed

Loving the attention to detail i.e little curved brace on the seat/chainstay join at the disk mount
 
lovely frame Haggis, you can see the similarities between that and the MOOTS frames he used to build. :cool:
 
I do regret losing my Stars and Bars Hot but only a wee bit ;) As for how i decided between Steve and Kent.....well I obviously did a bit of research as to who would build the better bike and i thought that they were both about the same but then Kent won the best titanium bike builder at the NAHBS so that sealed it.
 
I think if I was going to sell everything for something new it would have to be an IF. Seen a Ti version in the flesh and it was stunning.

I can only dream lol
 
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