AM Wife is going to cut my balls off- start of a new build essay

[Mywifesirrational]

She never specified an upper limit on price so I didn't bother mentioning how much it was going to be. Needed something nice after spending a few years teaching first year uni students... they are F^$ING stupid, going back to teaching masters students or tafe with more mature aged students.

Anyways up for some criticism on the build, other than the price, surely it's the perfect build!? :behindsofa:

After spending a year on a Banshee Rune, the new nomad was released, always hated the old ones looks, swoopy tubes had kept me away. After enjoying the Rune immensely and needing to upgrade to a larger frame, the nomads geometry is VERY close to the Runes. So if the nomad is out of your price range, have a really close look at the Rune, awesome bike. Liked the CCDBA so much I'm going to put one on the Nomad, almost tempted to put a coil on it.

Everything I need has been ordered just waiting on things to arrive. Having taken 3 months off work, this is proving a tedious experience as not working 12 hour days means the time is going slowly. The frame is due in shortly as far as I am aware, the LBS I am buying from has been pretty lax in replying to emails and questions, they say they'll reply in a short email or over the phone then never get back to you... I wanted to buy a range of things from forks, wheels, drive train... it's all been ordered online now. I would have been willing to pay more jut to have all the shit picked up at once... oh well their loss, business must to so good service can lack. I have not experienced this from any large online retailer, they have always gotten back with questions, often not promptly, but they do reply. I would have bought and had a frame by now (at greater cost) if Santa Cruz didn't have regional distribution rights bullshit occurring, import duties and cost of freight forwarding make it too expensive. Why is AU so fkn slow? got friends in NZ, US and Hong Kong already on new Nomads. Should have just flown to NZ for a weekend and picked one up.

Forks was a hard decision, have a Lyrik - it is a most excellent fork, but won't fit large profile 27.5 tyres... bought a Pike, the pricks at RS will release a 27.5 lyrik next month probably. The new Marzocchi and Fox options were intriguing, but the fox will be over priced (never rated their forks anyways) and the Marzocchi a little heavy in comparison (but probably well worth the weight). Hopefully that pike is up to some abuse.

Brakes, Formula RO's, ignoring the price, nothing better for looks, weight, power and reliability. Have got several sets on all my bikes, awesome brake. One finger endo's at 100+kg, XT's can't do that, not sure why people rave about them unless they're <70kg?

Zelvy Carbon wheels have be payed for and ordered. $1500 with CK hubs, 2 year warranty, life time crash replacement, AU company, Greg has been excellent with communication... made the decision very easy. The one month wait due to the hub choice... probably wont have the frame for another 6 weeks anyway. Never owned CK hubs before, Hope have been more than reliable, light and well priced, but a $250 difference to upgrade to CK I figured was worth a go, I wonder if the CK ratchet 72 pawls is going to be noticeable. Hopefully their noisy, hopes are great on bike tracks.

Drivetrain, Love XT with the Oneup 42t, but what the hell, haven't used XTR for many years, it was always noticeably better in years gone by. Never torn a derailleur off the 20 years of MTB so I am not concerned about losing an expensive mech. Only thing that annoys me about the rear conversion with the oneup is losing the 17t... didn't realise how much I used that cog until it was gone, othewise the oneup shifts awesome, highly recommend.

Took a few months of ordering and waiting for the right prices on stuff from;

Chain reaction
Wiggle
Merlin
Evans
Artscyclery
Bike-discount
Pushies (Al's great to deal with)
LBS (frame only)
Zelvy directly

Best deals (price includes delivery) - Pike $798; Carbon Havoc bars $104; Chris king Headset $150; schwalbe tyres $57 each; Formula RO's set $380.

Frame - Nomad Mk3 XL black.
Rear shock - Cane Creek Double Barrel Air VX can
Front shock/fork - Pike RCT3 160mm
Handlebars - Easton Havoc carbon 750mm
Stem - Easton Havoc 50mm
Headset - Chris King inset3 Red
Grips - ODI clamps with Oury grips
Saddle - SDG Ti flight
Seatpost - Kind Shock LEV 150mm - carbon shimmed 30.9 to 31.6
Front brake - Formula RO - 203mm Hope rotor
Rear brake - Formula RO - 180mm Hope rotor
Cranks - Race Face Next SL 175mm 30t NW ring
Chainguide - Pfft...
Chain - KMC
Pedals - XT trail
Front derailleur -none will fit.
Rear derailleur - Currently XT Shadow plus, eyeing off XTR 2015
Rear shifter - Currently XT, eyeing off XTR 2015
Cassette - XT 11-36 with a Oneup components 42t, eyeing off XTR 2015
Front hub - Chris King 15mm Red
Rear hub - Chris King 142mm Red
Front rim - Zelvy Carbon Enduro
Rear rim - Zelvy Carbon Enduro
Spokes - DT swiss comp
Nipples - erect
Tyres - Magic Mary / Rock Razor snake skin tubeless
Tubes - Haven't used these for 3 years.
Total weight - Hopefully lightish

Pics of some of the bits.

 

[moorey]

That's prettier than your wife... :behindsofa:

 

[tasty.dirt74]

subscribed

 

[Nerdbox]

Noice! How'd you manage that price on the bars? Want.

 

[stoo]

Fuck me old bean, that's gonna be a fine jigger!
Black though?

 

[slowmick]

Will the nomad geometry solve your previous body position problem when climbing? seem to remember you had a thread about updating your rune...

 

[mitchy_]

no pink and cyan nomad? disappointing.

very keen to see, the new nomad is very high on the want list.

 

[Gripo]

Mmm sounds great but where do you plan to ride that new V3 Nomad here in Oz....unless you are planning to spend every other weekend across the ditch in NZ.

Picky, nah it's your bike....but honestly you could save yourself $250 and just go with Hope hubs with your Zelvy wheel build.

CK aren't as loud, they just buzz and aren't adaptible across axle sizes the last time I had them....which was a few years ago....I don't rate CK stuff anymore, overpriced bling...

 

[ChopSticks]

God! I can't wait to see this build!!!!!!

I'm drooling all over this Next SL cranks!!!

black and red theme never gets old!!!
gonna be EPIC once finished !!

edit: any plans to frameskin that crank? I'd hate to see shoe rub on it! PM me!
I'll send you a set of RF crank boots !!! (assuming the cranks didnt come with any?)

 

[Mywifesirrational]

Well she's not a shocker, more of a renovators delight, she put some work in, then again I'm no model... glass houses and all that.

Definitely a black frame, the blue is not for me, my frames are always either black or polished, I like subdued bikes. Not strange to me but the LBS had six orders, all in black.

Evanscycles a while back had carbon havocs for 45% off for about a week, also bought some carbon havens at same price, way to narrow at 711mm so I put them on the Mrs Turner.

Yeah I struggled with the rune a little, should have bought an XL, although I am not sure that would have completely solved my climbing issues. I thinks the Nomad will be better as the chain stays are 0.2 of an inch longer, seat tube angle is 0.7 of a degree steeper, the nomads seat tube height is 1 inch higher (comapring L rune to XL nomad here) - I no longer will rune a pile past it's don't go past length, Banshee don't have reach on website, but the Nomads may be a tiny bit longer (if comparing both XL frames). Strangely on those same climbs I could get on a mates Nomad mk2 and clear them, so I know the nomad climbs well and the MTBR forums are saying the new model climbs better than old... not sure if that's new bike hype from people or a reality? So the geometry differences are small but should make steep technical climbs more doable. Admittedly I was asking a lot of the Rune considering how capable it was when heading down.

I haven't rated CK in the past when compared to hope, but I figured 250 when I have already thrown substantial amount of money at this so what the hell - kind of relates to the bling thread... Although I voted ride quality over blingbling I am hoping I actually notice the faster freewheel engagement, although the proprietary tool is $150 to service the rear! :rant: Going to spend 2 out of three weekends at Youies, Like I normally do, I just don't get bored there, they keep making / altering tracks and jumps, I am on first name basis with the general store in little river with all the post ride munchies plus a range of broke bones in efforts to clear every jump and obstacle there.

They came with some black booties, colors are available. Artscyclery <$500 delivered with BB, ring and proprietary tool, I couldn't do the local or CRC price. The decal on the cranks seems to act as a frameskin according to peeps on MTBR - I might add something? Definitely going to tube and tape them for any shuttle days, I freakn hate the crank holders on trailers, all they do is damage cranks.

 

[Dougy]

That's a great price on the Magic Mary. Cost me $80 here in Japan

 

[teK--]

Awesome build looking forward to moar photos!!!


The havoc are awesome bars very stiff but soak up trail buzz I ended up wanting wider and the renthal fatbar took a few rides to get used to the extra shock to wrists.

Keen to hear what u think of the magic mary. It has become quite a popular combo with razor rear. I want to see if it's worth extra 300g over a hans Dampf since it looks like u are building a ride that can also go up hills.

 

[Quintin]

only criticism is the schwalbe tyres - depending on the model then yes they are light and have good grip but they have terrible sidewall strength and they squash and flex a lot. with carbon rims i would be inclined to run something a little more substantial or you run the risk of damaging the rims unless you plan to run high pressure. this isnt a problem with Zelvys, but more a problem with carbon - any direct impact and you can forget about it.

 

[GDonehue]

only criticism is the schwalbe tyres - depending on the model then yes they are light and have good grip but they have terrible sidewall strength and they squash and flex a lot. with carbon rims i would be inclined to run something a little more substantial or you run the risk of damaging the rims unless you plan to run high pressure. this isnt a problem with Zelvys, but more a problem with carbon - any direct impact and you can forget about it.

I have run a selection of Schwalbe (nobby nic, hans damps, muddy Mary) on my haven carbon for close to two years now with no issues at all. I am 100 kg fully loaded and have broken more bike parts than I can remember, so I am certainly not protecting things - and the Schwalbes have been great...

 

[Mywifesirrational]

That's a great price on the Magic Mary. Cost me $80 here in Japan

http://www.bike-discount.de/

31-33 euro depending what model/size you want or $48au, delivery is $29au but as long as you buy a few it becomes a very good price.

So a single tyre delivered is $77, but if you buy 4 taking delivery into account it becomes $55 a tyre, suddenly they become affordable. I Usually buy 4+ and split the deliver costs with mates.

only criticism is the schwalbe tyres - depending on the model then yes they are light and have good grip but they have terrible sidewall strength and they squash and flex a lot. with carbon rims i would be inclined to run something a little more substantial or you run the risk of damaging the rims unless you plan to run high pressure. this isnt a problem with Zelvys, but more a problem with carbon - any direct impact and you can forget about it.

I have run a selection of Schwalbe (nobby nic, hans damps, muddy Mary) on my haven carbon for close to two years now with no issues at all. I am 100 kg fully loaded and have broken more bike parts than I can remember, so I am certainly not protecting things - and the Schwalbes have been great...

Yeah I have run schwalbes for 2 years now at over 100kg, never had a problem, not a single flat, torn sidewall, only one burp but only had 20psi in it so I figure that's user error. I tend to be kind to wheels / rims as I am pretty smooth so I am confident I won't be smashing the rims. Murphys law dictates it will probably happen first ride.

Strange tyres, people either love them and are problem free or the opposite. I have run them on both en521's and Flow Ex's, they are a large volume tyre and so feel noticeably more planted (less squirmy? if thats a word) on wider rims, the Zelvys are 4.5mm wider than the flows so I am expecting them to sit even better.

Awesome build looking forward to moar photos!!!

The havoc are awesome bars very stiff but soak up trail buzz I ended up wanting wider and the renthal fatbar took a few rides to get used to the extra shock to wrists.

Keen to hear what u think of the magic mary. It has become quite a popular combo with razor rear. I want to see if it's worth extra 300g over a hans Dampf since it looks like u are building a ride that can also go up hills.

More stuff arriving this week, I 'll take some photos

Wouldn't mind a wider bar, but I tend to ride my AM bikes on a lot of XC and bike tracks and when sitting and spinning the width seems to aggravate my wrists. Not a problem at all when in the attack position when doing some real riding.

Been riding the magic mary and razor on both the AM bike and DH bike for the last 5 months and frankly, it's the best tyre combo I have ever used, not exaggerating, first ride was a real eye opener... order some more and pulled the minions off the DH that night.

I like the hans dampf, spent 15 months on one, very good all round tyre - light, durable and large volume. The problem I had with it was aggressive cornering, it wasn't up to it, great for general riding, but if you were going hard it got out of shape really fast. The magic mary is vastly superior when going hard, it corners so well, much better than either the minion or high roller. Rock razor is the best all round rear I have used, rolls so well but corners awesome. The only time it's an issue is fast straight line braking in the lose, it tends not to bite enough - I'd probably not use it at Buller in the summer on the DH bike. Also steep lose climbs it stuggles a little, although not as much as I expected. But for

Weights not an issue as I am using both snake skin Mary and Hans for AM, only 30-40g not 300g unless your swapping front snakeskin to supergrav difference between the two tyres.

Hans
26x2.35 765g
27.5x2.35 795g

Mary
26x2.35 795g
27.5x2.35 835g

 

[teK--]

Been riding the magic mary and razor on both the AM bike and DH bike for the last 5 months and frankly, it's the best tyre combo I have ever used, not exaggerating, first ride was a real eye opener... order some more and pulled the minions off the DH that night.

I like the hans dampf, spent 15 months on one, very good all round tyre - light, durable and large volume. The problem I had with it was aggressive cornering, it wasn't up to it, great for general riding, but if you were going hard it got out of shape really fast. The magic mary is vastly superior when going hard, it corners so well, much better than either the minion or high roller. Rock razor is the best all round rear I have used, rolls so well but corners awesome. The only time it's an issue is fast straight line braking in the lose, it tends not to bite enough - I'd probably not use it at Buller in the summer on the DH bike. Also steep lose climbs it stuggles a little, although not as much as I expected. But for

Weights not an issue as I am using both snake skin Mary and Hans for AM, only 30-40g not 300g unless your swapping front snakeskin to supergrav difference between the two tyres.

Hans
26x2.35 765g
27.5x2.35 795g

Mary
26x2.35 795g
27.5x2.35 835g

Thanks for the clarification I must have been comparing the SS to the SG! For only 40g that is justifiable I will have to look at hooking myself up with a muddy mary

Anyone want to buy a brand new hans dampf 27.5x2.35 evo snakeskin trailstar?

 

[Puddleduck]

Heaps noice! Looking forward to more pics.

 

[peachy]

i look forward to thiss - where do you get the RO's for that cheap?

 

[Mywifesirrational]

i look forward to thiss - where do you get the RO's for that cheap?

I got them from CRC I think, but bike-discount.de currently has them for 364au a set with rotors and adaptors.

http://www.bike-discount.de/en/buy/formula-ro-disc-brake-set-180mm-black-210579

 

[peachy]

Cheers mate.
Also what do you lecture in? I'm gonig back to do my Masters at RMIT this year, who knows, maybe you'll be my lecturer.