Pinkbike gets in shape - XC bike review
and freeride skills over the past couple years. We have almost forgotten
where most of us started - with cross-country mountain bikes that we put
more miles on in one ride than we've probably pedaled all season on DH courses.
Yes, maybe our riding has "evolved" in a way. We can sure laugh at the nastiest
terrain out there and do big hucks and ride the skinniest, wettest stunts
around. But after a couple seasons of this, I've felt something is missing
and have wanted to expand my riding.
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So I looked back to where I started and decided to get a cross-country
bike and start hitting the trails again. You know, the ones you just keep
pedaling and pedaling on and don't hike-a-bike up the hills. Where you
feel so bagged at the end of a day that you can barely get the beer into your
mouth (ok, that's never happened.) I guess it's a bit masochistic, but it's
where this love for mountain biking started for many of us out there, and
somehow I've missed it.
These days, cross-country bikes have really evolved into amazing pieces
of technology with all these different theories of suspension technology
and materials. It sure makes the ride a lot nicer in some ways and I bet
the average pro-level XC race is notably faster than the races were a few
years back due to this onslaught (and to be honest, much of this tech has
filtered down from our efforts on the more extreme biking side.) But there's
something to be said for just getting out and riding and feeling every bump
on the trail rather than letting the suspension do all the work. So I decided
my bike would be a hardtail.
This hardtail would also not just be any hardtail, but a steel one.
Aluminum is great for race bikes because of its great stiffness to weight
ratio, and for the same reason it works well on full suspension bikes, but
steel is where it started and is still optimal for a few reasons. First of
which, it's more durable, which is what I want for sure. I'm lazy and I don't
want to have to worry as much about materials failure on my frame and steel
just plain has a longer fatigue life than aluminum. It's also very reasonable
in weight these days with all the technological advancement in alloys. And
there's the intangible "feel" of a little more springiness and inherent shock
absorption than aluminum. So steel it is.
When I was looking around to see what was available, I was scared of
some of the prices - an Independent Fabricationbike might be damn nice, but for US$1200 I'll just have to pass on
it. These are bikes that are intended for the same audience looking for
titanium bikes - real aficionados with loads of disposable income who care
about every aspect of the bike from the ride right down to the individual
welds (and often the name on the frame.) There's generally nothing wrong
with this, but it is a luxury out of my reach. At the same time, I remembered
seeing a website of a small frame builder out of Calgary called
moved to Victoria, BC, but Paul Daniel is still building a small batch
of custom frames. I contacted him and found out the prices are significantly
lower than the boutique builder names despite the same commitment to detail.
I decided to make the jump and order a custom built steel frame from
Peyto. I have to admit this is a fun process. You describe your riding style
(hack who normally relies on lots of suspension, in my case), take all sorts
of measurements, and kind of talk about what you want out of a bike. You
get back some advice, decide if it's what you want, and send in a deposit
once it's all agreed upon. It all feels very personal and somehow special
since it's all for you and not just some stock frame that's supposed to
fit 33.33% of the market. Of course it is more expensive than many mass-produced
frames, but you're getting a theoretically perfect fit for your riding and
getting it hand built by someone who cares about that specific frame.
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After the deposit is sent, Paul from Peyto orders the tubeset for you
(Columbus Zona in my case - a little more durable than the super lightweight
Foco, but a good balance) and puts it all together. A few weeks later the
bike is all ready and you get to check it out. I actually went to pick the
bike up at the official Peyto headquarters (Paul's garage, currently) in
Victoria, BC. I'll describe the whole operation there in a separate article,
but it was nice to go in and see a nice, small-scale frame building operation.
I was excited to see the frame waiting for me and couldn't wait to get it
home and build it up.
align="left" border=0> The build process was one thing I wanted to try something new in. I was
pretty used to either buying packaged bikes or going down to the local
bike shop and asking them to order a bunch of things for me. But we're
an Internet site and have some obligation to point out the options available
to people. Of course if you have a good local shop with good service, you
should support it, but some of us don't have that and we look to the net.
I went on several online bike shops' sites and decided to order a build
kit from Jenson USA because of their
price and ability to custom-tailor build kits. I was surprised at the level
of service this online shop offers as well. I dealt with Ernie there and
received prompt, knowledgeable, and friendly replies to all my inquiries.
Online bike shopping is certainly not as impersonal as I thought it would
be. They gave me a great price on a package with an awesome array of parts.
If your local bike shop can't deliver the parts you want, you should have
no qualms about going online to search these days.
In addition I picked up last year's
durable XC fork and Hope supplied
a pair of their excellent Mini disc brakes for the stopping duties. I'll
review these beauties in another article as well.
| Fork | 2001 Marzocchi Z2 Atom Race 80mm |
| Brakes | Hope Mini discs - 185mm front, 165mm rear rotors |
| Drivetrain | Shimano XT everything (cranks, derailleurs, shifters, cassette, HG chain) |
| Wheelset | Mavic X3.1 tubeless rims laced to Shimano XT disc hubs with black Wheelsmith butted spokes |
| Pedals | Crank Brothers Eggbeaters |
| Tires | Kenda Kharisma UST 2.1" |
| Seatpost | Thomson |
| Saddle | Selle Italia Flite Trans Am |
| Stem | Thomson 100mm 5 degree |
| Headset | Cane Creek S-2 |
| Handlebars | Easton EA70 flat bar |
Right off the bat I think I made a bit of a mistake with the flat bar.
It has really put a lot of stress on my hands when riding, so I think I
will pick up a riser bar soon. Otherwise I have been pretty happy with everything
on the brief rides I've taken it on. The bike sure hasn't been the problem
nearly as much as the rider!
Putting this all together has been pretty fun, I have to admit. It might
be a bit of work to call and coordinate everything (not that it's more
than most of you do when building a bike though), but to have a shiny new
bike to pound on in the end is a great feeling. It's one of those rare
opportunities where you get to see concrete results from your efforts.
Over the summer I will be providing an interim update to this bike review
noting how it's all holding up, and a final long-term wrap-up with the full
story of what the bike is like. Look out for those future articles as well
as some other stories and reviews from pinkbike over the summer.
