Fatal Swan
Senior Retro Guru
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I guess this a watch-this-space kind of post for a project I'm in the middle of...
So rationalising my overall bike use over the winter period, I've decided that nowadays I tend to ride:
a) mostly on-road and in summer;
b) occasionally on-road in winter;
c) very occasionally on the turbo in the winter
d) occasionally on light paths, in summer;
e) not very much on real off-road trails anymore
And it's led me to some soul searching about what is the right number of bikes to do that set of jobs. a) has been sorted for a while (Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=408685). For b) and d) I'd been using a lightweight hardtail for a few years but have been missing the drop bars and STIs, so that's gone and I've now got a Planet X gravel bike that'll do the job nicely (winter slicks for road, CX tyres for summer, here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=423762), and it will go on the turbo too so that covers c).
Which leaves e) and I haven't really figured out whether I've stopped riding off-road due to a lack of interest, lack of opportunity, lack of a suitable bike, or possibly just not recognising the kind of bikes and kit that people ride offroad on nowadays! However with the hardtail gone I have no MTB and that does seem a bit of a shame - I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to hang up my knobbly tyres just yet.
Since I've got some good parts left over from dismantling the hardtail, I've been considering building another, but it'll end up too similar either to the one I got rid of, or to the gravel bike. But I've never had a full suspension bike before, so I decided to take on a project. Knowing me, I won't ride it unless it's still light and nimble, plus I don't currently tend to drive out to somewhere specifically to ride off-road, so I'm mostly going to be riding on a mixture of road and other surfaces to get anywhere significantly off-road. So it will be in the mould of what I used to recognise and an XC race bike until all the different MTB disciplines emerged and I lost track... But whatever, I've had half an eye on dipping under 10kg/22lb for the build.
So the main ingredients have fallen into place:
A carbon S Works Stumpjumper FSR with Fox Float CTD Kashima
DT Swiss XRC100 carbon fork (or I also have a 100mm Sid XX that I could donate to it...)
26" Roval Controle SL E5 wheelset
XTR M970/98x groupset
I'm not quite finished with it yet with a few of the remaining parts to source, but I'm starting to get confident of dipping under 10kg complete (including pedals)...
So rationalising my overall bike use over the winter period, I've decided that nowadays I tend to ride:
a) mostly on-road and in summer;
b) occasionally on-road in winter;
c) very occasionally on the turbo in the winter
d) occasionally on light paths, in summer;
e) not very much on real off-road trails anymore
And it's led me to some soul searching about what is the right number of bikes to do that set of jobs. a) has been sorted for a while (Canyon Ultimate CF SLX, here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=408685). For b) and d) I'd been using a lightweight hardtail for a few years but have been missing the drop bars and STIs, so that's gone and I've now got a Planet X gravel bike that'll do the job nicely (winter slicks for road, CX tyres for summer, here: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=423762), and it will go on the turbo too so that covers c).
Which leaves e) and I haven't really figured out whether I've stopped riding off-road due to a lack of interest, lack of opportunity, lack of a suitable bike, or possibly just not recognising the kind of bikes and kit that people ride offroad on nowadays! However with the hardtail gone I have no MTB and that does seem a bit of a shame - I'm not sure if I'm quite ready to hang up my knobbly tyres just yet.
Since I've got some good parts left over from dismantling the hardtail, I've been considering building another, but it'll end up too similar either to the one I got rid of, or to the gravel bike. But I've never had a full suspension bike before, so I decided to take on a project. Knowing me, I won't ride it unless it's still light and nimble, plus I don't currently tend to drive out to somewhere specifically to ride off-road, so I'm mostly going to be riding on a mixture of road and other surfaces to get anywhere significantly off-road. So it will be in the mould of what I used to recognise and an XC race bike until all the different MTB disciplines emerged and I lost track... But whatever, I've had half an eye on dipping under 10kg/22lb for the build.
So the main ingredients have fallen into place:
A carbon S Works Stumpjumper FSR with Fox Float CTD Kashima
DT Swiss XRC100 carbon fork (or I also have a 100mm Sid XX that I could donate to it...)
26" Roval Controle SL E5 wheelset
XTR M970/98x groupset
I'm not quite finished with it yet with a few of the remaining parts to source, but I'm starting to get confident of dipping under 10kg complete (including pedals)...
The photos I have of it as it was when I got hold of it weren't great so I'll do some mid-build in the next day or two!
