Hey gents,
I finally got my hands on my dream frame - a Chromag Samurai. She's been used but I'm going to give 'er a fresh powder coat and then do my best to throw together a decent build with my very limited budget. I have already scored some absolutely steals off of PinkBike, but I'm struggling a bit with figuring out a few of the more vital parts like wheels and fork.
For wheels, I have access to some industry deals through my line of work, but I'm really not sure what manufacturer to go with. The stock Stan's Flow EX prebuilts are probably the best deal, but I am not sure how their house brand hubs are. I may be able to get my hands on some Pro2 hubs but I'm not 100% sure, and I could also potentially get some Sun Ringle wheels or some of the red nippled XTs from a year or so ago for $200. Opinions? I'm comfortable building up my own wheels, but I'm just not sure what I can find on a budget.
As for the fork, I really don't like the CTD setup on the newer Fox forks so I have confined myself to Marzocchi, Rockshox and Xfusion. I'm thinking about an Xfusion Slant RC2 and think that's the top of my list, but the Marzocchi 44 is pretty intriguing as well if I can get my hands on one of the RC3 Ti's. The only reason I mention Rockshox is because I can get a Revelation from 2012 for $200 in really good shape. Opinions on those?
Thanks for the help, I'm stoked to get this bike built but have never operated on a budget this tight before so my options are a bit different than what I'd typically be looking at.
Cheers.
I finally got my hands on my dream frame - a Chromag Samurai. She's been used but I'm going to give 'er a fresh powder coat and then do my best to throw together a decent build with my very limited budget. I have already scored some absolutely steals off of PinkBike, but I'm struggling a bit with figuring out a few of the more vital parts like wheels and fork.
For wheels, I have access to some industry deals through my line of work, but I'm really not sure what manufacturer to go with. The stock Stan's Flow EX prebuilts are probably the best deal, but I am not sure how their house brand hubs are. I may be able to get my hands on some Pro2 hubs but I'm not 100% sure, and I could also potentially get some Sun Ringle wheels or some of the red nippled XTs from a year or so ago for $200. Opinions? I'm comfortable building up my own wheels, but I'm just not sure what I can find on a budget.
As for the fork, I really don't like the CTD setup on the newer Fox forks so I have confined myself to Marzocchi, Rockshox and Xfusion. I'm thinking about an Xfusion Slant RC2 and think that's the top of my list, but the Marzocchi 44 is pretty intriguing as well if I can get my hands on one of the RC3 Ti's. The only reason I mention Rockshox is because I can get a Revelation from 2012 for $200 in really good shape. Opinions on those?
Thanks for the help, I'm stoked to get this bike built but have never operated on a budget this tight before so my options are a bit different than what I'd typically be looking at.
Cheers.