Giant XTC and a few others...

[EarlofBarnet]

Been a while since I updated the thread. It's been a great summer on the bike. I joined a local cycle club and have spent most of the summer on road doing some longer rides and sportives.



However I have been out on the mountain bike, albeit (in retrospect) not as often as I should have. I did enter a local mountain bike race last weekend and gave the Giant a good blast out.



I've been having a few problems with the gears on the Giant, basically meaning I could get half the gears on the back lined up and the other half not. I fitted some new Deore shifters (to replace the Alivio ones I had) but the problem persisted. I think I've narrowed it down to the cassette not sitting flush on the freehub on my DT swiss hub. So I've popped my WTB wheels on for now to see if it helps. If not a new cassette will follow.

The current fleet:

 

[mattiamerca]

Re: Giant XTC & 1998 Kona Lava Dome (then an FSR) & Turner XCE

The new addition is a 2002 Turner XCE, picked up from the forum. This bike is stunning, I'm really impressed with it. I've changed the gear cables and will give the brakes a bleed and then it'll be out on the trail. I've not owned a bike of this quality before, so I'm in awe of it!

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damn beautiful bike!!!!
an amazing frame with a stunning fork!!!
great!

 

[EarlofBarnet]

First ride out on the Giant since the wheel and shifter change. It's definitely helped, pretty sure it was the freehub on the DT wheels.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Well, I did say to myself it was time to buy something more modern (bigger wheels, 10sp). However whilst browsing eBay I saw a 2000 (I think) Stumpjumper and bought it. Something to tinker with and fill a void in between the bikes I already have, a void that didn't exist. Haha.

Advert pic:



It arrived safely a couple of days ago, well packaged and as described. Bit of a shock for eBay!

So far I've removed the spoke protector from the rear wheel and serviced the forks. Spec looks near original, with the Thompson stem and the rear v-brake looking to have been changed. Maybe the tyres too. Once I'm happy it's all set-up and working I'll strip it down and give everything a good clean.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Re:

Well it's been five months since the last update!

Strange for me, but I've had the same three bikes now for six months or so: Kuota Korsa road bike; Giant XTC road bike; and a Boardman CX Team cyclo-cross bike.

I've made some small changes to all three recently, will get some updated pictures up in the next couple of days.

Giant XTC:
The gear problem was still not wholly eliminated. So I recently bought some XT M770 front and rear mechs and an SLX cassette. The cassette alone was 100g lighter than the SRAM cassette I was using. I also changed the seatpost to a lighter Race Face Evolve one and the same with the handlebars. I've also got a Specialized Phenom saddle fitted.

Kuota Korsa:
The original Kuota brakes have been replaced with some Shimano 105 (5800) dual pivot brakes. These were a little heavier than the Kuota brakes, but perform A LOT better. I'm waiting on delivery of some Superstar Elite 24 wheels too, which will drop the wheel weight by around 300g from the Mavic Aksiums. I've got a place in the Fred Whitton Challenge in May, so have been covered a lot of miles on the road bike since the new year.

Boardman CX Team:
This bike has done me really well over winter. I've swapped the original wheels out for some Mavic Aksium disc wheels, which lost a bit of weight from the originals. I also changed the front mech from the Microshift one to a SRAM Apex to match the rest of the groupset. The bike has done around 800 miles now and is on its second set of PF30 bearings.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Kuota Korsa
A few weeks ago now, but I rode the Fred Whitton Challenge on the Kuota. One of the greatest days out that I've had on the bike. I'll definitely be applying for a place next year.





Giant XTC:
I'd not rode the Giant (or a mountain bike) since September, bit have had it out twice in the last week.

Whinlatter:


Dent:


The Boardman CX Team has been sold and replaced by a Giant Defy One Disc. The TRP brakes on the Giant are a massive improvement over the Avid BB5 brakes that were on the Boardman. I also prefer the Shimano (105) groupset over the SRAM Apex groupset that the Boardman had fitted

I've just bought a Giant Anthem too off eBay. It's a 2010 26" wheeled model with Fox forks and rear shock. Quite looking forward to seeing how this compares on my local loops with the XTC.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Re:

The Anthem arrived on Wednesday and I've stripped it down, checked everything, then cleaned it all up and rebuilt. It looks great. It's a small, rather than a medium like the XTC, but seems to fit well.

 

[kipperthedog]

Re:

Your Anthem is a little more trail ready than my '05 NRS-3 (younger too obviuosly)....so I will be interested to see what you think.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Re:

I had a great ride out on the Anthem yesterday on some dusty trails. I took a KOM on Strava too.

 

[EarlofBarnet]

Re:







After briefly owning a Giant Anthem last autumn, thought I'd buy an Anthem frame and swap the parts across from my Giant XTC. It weighs in at 27.22lbs, which doesn't seem too bad.