I started this build with no plan in mind other than a desire to build something modern, something I would use more frequently and without fear, as I don't want to break any of my retro bikes, and as a reward/carrot to get me out riding after knee and double hernia surgery. I bought a shed load of parts, most of which did not make the cut. Those that did are fitted to what turned out to be a fairly Brit biased build with mainly SRAM and a few other bits (this is the least Shimano I have on a bike).
Not sure if this is the done thing, but pulled the spec sheet from the retro section and updated as needed:
Frame: Pipedream Scion 853
Fork: Rock Shox Reba RLT
Protection: Lizard skin chain stay cover and various carbon patches, including down tube.
Headset: Hope
Headset spacers: Hope
Stem: Use
Handlebar: Use Atom
Grips: Hope
Brakes: Hope XC race
Brake Levers: Hope XC race
Rotors: Gold hope floating
Shifters: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Front Derailleur: Sram X9
Rear Derailleur: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Derailleur Cables: Shimano XTR
Cassette: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Chain: Sram PC991 Crosstep
Cranks: E-Thirteen XC
Crank Bolts: E-Thirteen XC
Chainrings: E-Thirteen XC
Chainring bolts: E-Thirteen XC
Bottom Bracket: E-Thirteen XC
Pedals: Crank Bros Egg Beater 3
Hub Skewers: Hope multi-colour combo to suit build on the rear, Maxle front
Rims: Mavic XC717 disc
Hubs: Hope Pro 2 in blue
Nipples: ?
Spokes: ?
Tyres: Schwalbe Rocket Ron
Tubes: Specialised
Saddle: Use Carbon Pro
Seatpost: Use Sumo
Seatpost Binder: Thomson
Weight: No clue.
First ride clearly indicated I had the seat post too high, but nothing much else was wrong.
Shifting - clean and crisp - my first experience with SRAM gearing and I am impressed, though it feels as though the shifters should be dual like my set of XTR M970s. It would seem to easy to do it too. The cables were a real pain to fit though, why oh why SRAM, why?
Brakes - felt great, and I learned to bleed brakes (again, an art I had long since forgotten).
Wheels - need a slight true, but that aside, worked and look great. Another new skill learned on the build, stripping and rebuilding the hope hubs and freehub. Wow, that hope hub is loud!!
Forks. Not put them through their paces properly yet but seem very nice and plush. Changed the remote lockout to one that you can also adjust to create compression adjust. Seems as though it works in the opposite way that it should, but it works nonetheless.
Cranks, I bought these before the build started to go the way of the Brit, as at the time I could not stretch to XTR (which was the plan originally). They seemed to offer a compromise of light weight and a good price, plus they are a bit quirky in terms of the spindle, which is like nothing else I've seen but seems to work. They look great too.
Parts I'm not happy with. I say unhappy, if I could change anything it would just be the front mech, the rest is fine really.
Maxle - it doesn't match the rear skewer and that bugs me, but to get over that I managed to make a rear hope skewer from the three colours of hope parts I have mounted, to make it look deliberately not the same.
Front mech - it's an X9 and doesn't match the rest of the kit.
Seat post skewer - I'm not unhappy, it's a great post, but should probably be a hope one. I don't think they look that good and the bolts break easily from what I've read.
Decals - the frame was nos but had been built up to a degree and so had a few minor marks and a bit of decal peel here and there. The 853 decal has bubbles in it too, which is annoying but my therapist says I'm dealing with it well in the circumstances.
That's it really, I'm really happy with it, and look forward (well do I)to getting it muddy and putting it through it's paces. Oh, now there is something I could add to the list of Brit parts, Pace forks.....
I also took the opportunity to buy some proper tools, such as a headset press (so nice to use), park tools wire cutters (it really is worth getting a good set of wire cutters), brake bleed kit and more.
Here's a few additional pics:
The original plan was to build something that I would care less about and use and abuse. I'm sure I will, but it turned out to be a really lovely looking build, so not looking forward to spoiling it.
Not sure if this is the done thing, but pulled the spec sheet from the retro section and updated as needed:
Frame: Pipedream Scion 853
Fork: Rock Shox Reba RLT
Protection: Lizard skin chain stay cover and various carbon patches, including down tube.
Headset: Hope
Headset spacers: Hope
Stem: Use
Handlebar: Use Atom
Grips: Hope
Brakes: Hope XC race
Brake Levers: Hope XC race
Rotors: Gold hope floating
Shifters: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Front Derailleur: Sram X9
Rear Derailleur: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Derailleur Cables: Shimano XTR
Cassette: Sram XO (anniversary edition)
Chain: Sram PC991 Crosstep
Cranks: E-Thirteen XC
Crank Bolts: E-Thirteen XC
Chainrings: E-Thirteen XC
Chainring bolts: E-Thirteen XC
Bottom Bracket: E-Thirteen XC
Pedals: Crank Bros Egg Beater 3
Hub Skewers: Hope multi-colour combo to suit build on the rear, Maxle front
Rims: Mavic XC717 disc
Hubs: Hope Pro 2 in blue
Nipples: ?
Spokes: ?
Tyres: Schwalbe Rocket Ron
Tubes: Specialised
Saddle: Use Carbon Pro
Seatpost: Use Sumo
Seatpost Binder: Thomson
Weight: No clue.
First ride clearly indicated I had the seat post too high, but nothing much else was wrong.
Shifting - clean and crisp - my first experience with SRAM gearing and I am impressed, though it feels as though the shifters should be dual like my set of XTR M970s. It would seem to easy to do it too. The cables were a real pain to fit though, why oh why SRAM, why?
Brakes - felt great, and I learned to bleed brakes (again, an art I had long since forgotten).
Wheels - need a slight true, but that aside, worked and look great. Another new skill learned on the build, stripping and rebuilding the hope hubs and freehub. Wow, that hope hub is loud!!
Forks. Not put them through their paces properly yet but seem very nice and plush. Changed the remote lockout to one that you can also adjust to create compression adjust. Seems as though it works in the opposite way that it should, but it works nonetheless.
Cranks, I bought these before the build started to go the way of the Brit, as at the time I could not stretch to XTR (which was the plan originally). They seemed to offer a compromise of light weight and a good price, plus they are a bit quirky in terms of the spindle, which is like nothing else I've seen but seems to work. They look great too.
Parts I'm not happy with. I say unhappy, if I could change anything it would just be the front mech, the rest is fine really.
Maxle - it doesn't match the rear skewer and that bugs me, but to get over that I managed to make a rear hope skewer from the three colours of hope parts I have mounted, to make it look deliberately not the same.
Front mech - it's an X9 and doesn't match the rest of the kit.
Seat post skewer - I'm not unhappy, it's a great post, but should probably be a hope one. I don't think they look that good and the bolts break easily from what I've read.
Decals - the frame was nos but had been built up to a degree and so had a few minor marks and a bit of decal peel here and there. The 853 decal has bubbles in it too, which is annoying but my therapist says I'm dealing with it well in the circumstances.
That's it really, I'm really happy with it, and look forward (well do I)to getting it muddy and putting it through it's paces. Oh, now there is something I could add to the list of Brit parts, Pace forks.....
I also took the opportunity to buy some proper tools, such as a headset press (so nice to use), park tools wire cutters (it really is worth getting a good set of wire cutters), brake bleed kit and more.
Here's a few additional pics:
The original plan was to build something that I would care less about and use and abuse. I'm sure I will, but it turned out to be a really lovely looking build, so not looking forward to spoiling it.
