Building an All-Mountain Bike? Here are my results from my parts selection criteria:

So in part 1 of my All Mountain build up I talked about my parts selection criteria and what I was looking for in the parts that I'd be selecting to mount on my new ride. Here are the results from my research and the build up that I put together. So far the ride is great and I am so stoked on the bike that has formed from all the parts that I was collecting in my Dakine bike box.

Check out my All Mountain ride:From all this:


To this:


Step #1-The Frame=What is holding my safety in its hands:

Well like I had said from the beginning I wasn't looking for a scaled down DH frame, nor did I want a full blown XC rig with a little more travel. I wanted a frame that was lightly built, but with not over built either. The angles on some bikes tend to really lean in one direction or the other, but there are machines that do fall into the happy medium. I also wanted enough travel that I wouldn't feel like I was getting beat up. Enter the Devinci Hectik:


In Devinci's own words: "Whether you're climbing the toughest trails, pinning epic single track, or railing down technical steeps, with this bike, you'll take on anything.....and you'll have a blast doing it." Those words were pretty much all I needed to read in order to give the Hectik a second look. Upon that second look I noticed that the frame was sporting 165mm of rear travel, a 66 degree head angle (nice and slack), but the 74.5 degree seat angle had me thinking for a moment. Well I guess I plan to pedal this rig, that angle was ok-just too used to shuttle only rigs lately. The medium sized frame that I went with has a 17 inch seat tube and a 22.8 inch top tube with more than ample stand over height. Things are looking good for parts selection too as the Hectik has "standard parts will fit" written all over it. A 1 1/8" head set, regular 135 x 10 mm q/r rear wheel and was front derailleur capable, so yep parts just got easier to source.

Step #2-The Suspension=What's soaking up my errors:

Since the frame is made to travel through 165 mm of bump eating motion, I figured it was good to find an equivalently capable fork. I wanted to go with a fork and rear shock from the same company and air was the spring of choice this time around. I pretty much narrowed that decision down to Fox Racing Shox immediately with their DHX air series shocks and either the Float or TALAS series forks.




On account that I want to pedal this bike uphill and on the flats, I really feel that being able to lower my front end ride height is a benefit. So the choice was pretty easy here too-Fox 36 TALAS RC2 with its 3 ride heights of 160, 130 and 100mm that are easily chosen with a 90 degree flick of the travel switch. I have ran the TALAS forks in the past when they featured infinite ride adjustment and really I ran it full low or full high and rarely if ever in between. With high and low speed compression and rebound damping adjustments I was worried that I'd get lost in the mix as I am pretty much a set it and forget it guy at times. I tried a few buddies TALAS set ups and found my friend Andrew's to be the most to my liking and have set it up with matching knob placements as my beginning points to test from. Another beauty feature that I am really liking is how more companies are making their forks simpler in terms of wheel removal-there may not be a QR on here but one 5mm allen key gets the wheel out.


Out back the DHX air 5.0 seemed to make the most sense in this pedal friendly set up. Rebound, Bottom out, Pro Pedal, Boost Valve and Air Spring pressure are all easily fine tuned on this rear shock. Setting the sag is so easy as you add or decrease air in the main chamber. Rebound is a no brainer as you know what you like your ride to feel like after it makes contact with an object. The Pro Pedal is something that I will play with through out the test as some days will most likely be little death marches in places like Forbidden Plateau with the Courtenay crew or shuttle laps of the Den on Vedder with the locals. Should be good times all the time!

Step #3-The Drive Train=What will make it go forward:

In the mix of parts that drive your bike forward there are two big "S" companies that are leading the charge in propelling your two wheeler. Since avoiding them both is next to impossible, how about choosing one and then finding great parts that are compatible from other smaller companies and making a very capable set up?

Since the advent of SRAM's X.0 shifters, shifting has taken a leap forward for what we expect our shifters to feel like and be capable of. And due to never hearing anything negative about them (except the mortgage you take out to buy them), it seemed like the safe bet. If you are going to run the fancy X.0 shifters, it only makes sense to go with the matching X.0 rear derailleur in a medium cage as these aren't road bikes we're riding here. SRAM's front derailleur offerings are limited, but they do work and that's what I needed most.


Ok so the shifters and derailleurs are dialed in but they have no chain to move around or a crankset, rings or cassette for said chain to move up and down on. For cranks the options are very vast, lots of great companies are making great cranks for XC and DH, but who is marketing a crankset for "All Mountain"? The options are growing, but who better to go with for an "All Mountain" build up than Canada's own Race Face and their Atlas cranks? The boys and girls at Race Face understand the rigors of riding in all conditions and have made their bottom bracket bearings with that in mind. The 3 ring Atlas crank arms are light and burly enough for DH, (Well I have seen more than one set of these puppies on pro DH sleds, so I know they are tough enough for my weak wattage output.) and yet 3 rings allows me to granny it up hills and then grab another ring to get back up to speed.



For a cassette out back, there aren't too many that look better or work as well for that matter than a SRAM 990 with an 11-32 spread. This allows me to put my head down and keep spinning on the ups, but nothing will be lost if I can get it pointed down later on. Now that I have cranks, chain rings, cassette, derailleurs and shifters its time to link them all together with a chain. Chains are often the unsung hero of a bike, cause really with out one your day can go really bad really fast. I have become a fan of chains that have quick links as pushing a pin out gets old quick every time I want to work on my bike or clean the chain properly. I've seen pretty much every chain out there break at least twice, so finding an indestructible chain that wasn't for BMX wasn't going to happen. My chain choice was actually based on looks and reputation and the winner was the Connex 910 Champagne by Wippermann for its sleek finish and for being another solid chain manufacturer. We'll see how it holds up this season. Stock cables work really well but I wanted to try Avid's after market Flak Jacket cables for shifting duties.

Step #4-The Wheels, Tires and Brakes=Makin' em skid and turn!:

Sweet custom wheels are nice to do up and I love to pick all my own bits, but lately I've had really great luck with pre-built wheelsets. In the last year and a half I've watched my 300 pound boss case jumps, get sideways in the steeps and generally abuse the hell out of his Bontrager wheelset and I myself ran a set of King Earls last winter and they have moved on to a new owner even and are still going strong. The Bontrager wheel line up is pretty varied and they seem to have something for all applications. The new Rhythm Elite caught my eye with their own words stating:

-top of the line "all day" performance
-28mm rim width with Swiss made hubs=reliable performance
-tubeless rim strip and valve core
-claimed weight of 1916g

This seemed to be what I was looking for in an "All Mountain" wheel set-light enough to pedal around, beefy enough to not be scared of failure and tubeless ready. I'll take em!


As for tires, just like most of you I have favorites and ones that I always like to run on my bikes. But I figured, "Ok Tyler, step out of your comfort zone and try a completely new tire style and see what its like". So I figured that going with a Bontrager tire that was UST ready was a good idea. Since I'd ridden the the Big Earl tires last year, it would be a whole new tire this time around. After a quick search I decided to go with the Jones ACX TR in a 2.35 version. These would be some of the thinner side wall tires I'd run in a while. Bontrager sells their own "Super Juice" tire sealant for UST set ups, so I grabbed a bottle of that too-might as well have the whole shabang from Bontrager from the start.


There are a lot of disk brake manufacturers out there right now and a lot of them make great brakes. I stated that I wanted a 2 piston set up that was more XC then DH in design. The Hayes El Camino Trail brakes seemed to fit the bill just fine with their dual pistons, 7" rotors and a marketing plan that said that they were "Trail" brakes. Well here is where things get interesting-Hayes has dropped the whole El Camino line up this spring in favor of their new Stroker offerings. While I have mounted the Trails and am riding them, I am on the hunt for a new set of brakes that I will be able to tell you about that hasn't been pulled off from the production lines. The new Stroker platform looks good though and I have heard a few rumblings of joy from the riders that are on them-maybe I'll get my paws on a set of those now?

Hayes El Camino

Trails never

hit full production

Step #5-Points of Contact=Headset, Stem, Bar, Grips, Seat post, seat, and pedals are all things that connect me the rider to my bike.:

My Hectik frame actually came with a sealed Cane Creek Aheadset so that step was covered from the get go and really cut down on any research I would have done to come up with a likely candidate. I had mentioned that I wanted to run a short stem and riser combo on this bike to give it a less slugish feel in the cockpit and to make it a little more fun on the descents. Well my buddy Luc had this sweet ass bar and stem that were taking up space in his garage of bike wonders and I really wanted to give something new a try, so we worked out a deal. The art of the barter lives on! I was now the proud owner of a 10th Anniversary Edition FUNN Rippa stem and Full On Bar. The 45mm stem and 28" wide bars look great and I intend to leave the bars at full width for a while to see how they feel as I have cut pretty much every bar I've ever owned and I want to see what the wide bar hype is about. Having little hands, but not weee hands, I like a thin grip. I have been running ODI lock on Ruffians for a long time and pretty much they were the no brainer for this build up too.


Seats seem to be a dime a dozen and there is one for every body shape and style of riding imaginable. Ok so I don't need a DH saddle, nor do I want a carbon, no padding 3 gram option either. I decided the local bike shop would have something that would fit the bill for a seat that should be comfortable to sit on for long periods of time and also good pedaling movement without restricting motion. The Fizik Vitesse is a favorite among roadies and they ride lots, so hmm maybe it'll work for me on this bike. Oh and it's fury so that's just kinda cool on its own, plus I wanted Ti rails and they are on this little critter. We'll see how long the fur lasts.


Seat posts seem to come in 2 varieties for all disciplines of biking-$20 versions and $120 versions. That's a little bit of an exaggeration, but really if you want a "good" post, you really seem to have to be ready to drop some coin for it or deal with the $20 post you picked up that you are hoping lasts the weekend. I have a drawer full of $20 options, so it was time to find out why the more expensive options out here might be worth it. After seeing one of the Pinkbike test bikes with the new Race Face Evolve XC post and tinkering with the clamping system I figured it was a safe bet. I chose to go the route of the Deus option for weight savings and the overall finish was top notch. Speaking of notches, there are cutting markers on the post to let you know how much you are removing and what the weight of the post would be at each marker-nice feature.


Now that my hands and butt were taken care of I needed a set of pedals to go along with my favorite shoes from 5.10. Magnesium has long been a favorite material for me in pedals because its just so much lighter and strong enough for my applications. Well during my search for a sick set of Mag pedals I came across something totally different-enter the Atom Lab Air Corps pedals. At 520 grams and easily the thinest platform pedal I've come across that still looks like it'll rip up your shins, the new Air Corps are sweet. The dual DU bushing instead of traditional bearings should prove to take a beating. The 12mm 4140 chromoly axle should also take what ever I throw at it. Looking forward to seeing how the DUs fair in all the mud out here.


The only extra piece that I've added to this build is a Crud Catcher down tube fender. I've got some slack for it, but with all the rain this season its just nice to stay a little cleaner. And hell if it works for Steve Peat, I'm sure its gonna do fine for me.


Here's the whole break down of the build up:

Frame size	Medium Devinci Hectik 17" •6.5" of travel
Rear Shock	Fox DHX 5.0 Air • 8.5”x2.5” stroke
Fork	2007 Fox 36 TALAS RC2 •20 mm Axle •Adjustable High/Low speed compression •Adjustable Rebound
Headset	Cane Creek Aheadset-sealed bearings
Crankarms	Race Face Atlas, 170 mm in Black
Chainrings	Race Face 22/32/44
Bottom Bracket	Race Face X Type 68/73mm
Pedals	Atom Lab Air Corps
Chain	Connex 910 Champagne
Cassette	SRAM PG-990 11-32T 9 speed
Front Derailleur	SRAM X.Gen
Rear Derailleur	SRAM X.0
Shifter Cable/Housing	Avid Flak Jacket
Shifter Pods	SRAM X.0
Handlebar	Funn 10th Anniversary Full On Bar
Stem	Funn 10th Anniversary Rippa Stem
Grips	ODI Ruffian Lock Ons
Brakes	Hayes El Camino Trails with 7" rotors
Front Wheel	Bontrager Rhythm Elite 20mm TA
Rear Wheel	Bontrager Rhythm Elite 135X10mm with quick release
Tires	Bontrager Jones ACX TR 2.35
Tubes	Bontrager Super Juice Tire Sealant for UST Tires
Saddle	Fizik Vitesse
Seatpost	Race Face Deus (31.6)

Well I tried to do it all with out any carbon parts, but I guess the X.0 bits are in the mix. But still at 32 pounds and 5 onces, this 6.5" travel bike is light. This has been a really fun bike to build up and I already have a few weeks of riding time on it and it really is living up to its All Mountain build. Lots of shuttles have gone down, but it has seen some grinders and nice XC action too. Looking forward to telling you how all the parts faired in a few months. Now that spring is finally here, it's time that we all got out and rode our two wheelers.

Happy Trails,

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