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Building my next ride

robdamanii

OMG! <3 Tom Brady!
May 2, 2005
10,677
0
Out of my mind, back in a moment.
Ok, I've specced it out as the following:

06 King Kikapu
Mavic wheels and hubs (trade in at shop)
SRAM X9 or XO shifters and an X0 rear derailleur
(From my hardtail, I'll swap the brakes, bars, and fork from the King.)
Fox Talas R fork off my Trek
Juicy 7's off my Trek and add carbon levers
Monkey Lite bars off my Trek
Saddle off my trek.
Possibly some carbon fibre seatpost?

Now, I'm also looking at an FSA Mega Exo BB and carbon crank setup. Problem is, if I'm going to spend a load of money on a set of cranks, I'd almost want a chainring guard on it as well to protect the investment. Would it be feasible to run two rings for XC use (maybe a 32 or so tooth ring and something like a 38?) and a bash guard or should I look into something like the Salsa chainring guard?

Thanks builders, I appreciate it.
 

BussaFrame

Monkey
Apr 19, 2005
197
0
I know that there are people you run a 36-22 front ring set-up when using a DRS system. I actually ran that gear ratio for a while on my prophet, then went back to a traditional 44-32-22 on it. I found that the 44 tooth ring on the front allowed me to descend faster, due to the ability to pedal at higher speeds.

What is your goal with the bash? To save the rings, cause it won't help with the crank arms. I'm going to assume that the cost of replacing a 44 tooth ring would be much lower than replacing one of those crank arms. I wouldn't worry about the bash too much for XC riding, but thats just my .02.
 

mogulskr

Monkey
Aug 28, 2002
642
1
NH
I run a 36/22 with and e13 DRS. I really don't miss the big ring as I do mostly trail riding and never really have a long decent.
 

ito

Mr. Schwinn Effing Armstrong
Oct 3, 2003
1,709
0
Avoiding the nine to five
You can run a 38 or 40t with a 26 or 28t small ring and an outer guard. With a 30t rear cassette granny that should be more than enough to get up any hills. You'll have to special order the small ring, but I know someone makes them. As for a guard...Evil/E-13 looks nice.

Carbon post....depends on if you are running a lot of seat post or not. I would say no and go with a Thompson (Elite?). Light weight, strong, etc.

If you want a CF post though go with a Bontrager Race X Lite. Not stupidly light, made by Trek and put under an insane amount of load during product testing. I won't quote numbers as I don't remember them, but basically they would hit it so hard that it would flex about half an inch and they could do this several 10,000 times without it breaking. It also has the best seat head that I've tried. I run one on my road bike, but have a Thomspon on my MTB as I run a lot of exposed seat post.

Double ring setup is cool and makes for a nice chain line.

The Ito
 

robdamanii

OMG! <3 Tom Brady!
May 2, 2005
10,677
0
Out of my mind, back in a moment.
Actually, how will an ISIS BB compare to one of the new outboard BBs? I could get an ISIS and older FSA isis carbon crankset for about half the price of the new ones.

Any thoughts on a good front derailleur? Something light, stong, responsive?
 

MtnbikeMike

Turbo Monkey
Mar 6, 2004
2,637
1
The 909
If it's half price, I'd go with an ISIS setup.


As far as a Ft. der. goes, I'd say LX or XT as there isn't a huge difference between front derailleurs.
 

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
0
Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
Are you tearing up front chain rings now hitting stuff? If not I wouldn't worry about it. If you do ding one they are easy enough to bend back and it allows you to keep 3 chain rings.

The outboard bearings are a better setup all the way around. Unless you are on some sort of anti shimano kick, the XT cranks offer great value and the weight is not that much more than what you are looking to get.

Carbon levers... unless the shape is better for you and the price is right I'm not sure about the value in that upgrade.

As for the seatpost, if you aren't too sure about the carbon post, a thomson is a nobrainer.

An LX front derailleur will be just fine for a very long time.

Which mavic wheelset are you looking at?
 

Joe Pozer

Mullet Head
Aug 22, 2001
673
0
Redwood City
DRB said:
Carbon levers... unless the shape is better for you and the price is right I'm not sure about the value in that upgrade.
But they look so pimp ;) The carbon levers do feel better on the Juicy 7s...although that's probably a personal preference.
 

Joe Pozer

Mullet Head
Aug 22, 2001
673
0
Redwood City
robdamanii said:
Actually, how will an ISIS BB compare to one of the new outboard BBs? I could get an ISIS and older FSA isis carbon crankset for about half the price of the new ones.

Any thoughts on a good front derailleur? Something light, stong, responsive?
Like DRB mentioned, the new XT cranks are an excellent value. Acadian has them on his bike and he really likes the way it performs.

For a front derailleur, have you looked at the SRAM x-gen? They are not too expensive....
 

robdamanii

OMG! <3 Tom Brady!
May 2, 2005
10,677
0
Out of my mind, back in a moment.
DRB said:
Are you tearing up front chain rings now hitting stuff? If not I wouldn't worry about it. If you do ding one they are easy enough to bend back and it allows you to keep 3 chain rings.

The outboard bearings are a better setup all the way around. Unless you are on some sort of anti shimano kick, the XT cranks offer great value and the weight is not that much more than what you are looking to get.

Carbon levers... unless the shape is better for you and the price is right I'm not sure about the value in that upgrade.

As for the seatpost, if you aren't too sure about the carbon post, a thomson is a nobrainer.

An LX front derailleur will be just fine for a very long time.

Which mavic wheelset are you looking at?
Not really an issue against shimano, but I'm not sure that their BB will fit the 68mm Kona BB. If I can get a MegaEXO setup from FSA for it for a decent price, I'd go that route I think.

Thompson post, check.

No advantage in going with anything better then an LX front? What about changing the shifters to sram X9 or X0s? That would most likely give a better feel anyway (and the Sram rear derailleursseem to be stronger anyway).

As for wheels, they're the new ones out from mavic...supposedly only 200 bucks a pair? Can't remember the name of them.
 

robdamanii

OMG! <3 Tom Brady!
May 2, 2005
10,677
0
Out of my mind, back in a moment.
Joe Pozer said:
Like DRB mentioned, the new XT cranks are an excellent value. Acadian has them on his bike and he really likes the way it performs.

For a front derailleur, have you looked at the SRAM x-gen? They are not too expensive....
I think they clamp too high to be used with a FS rig. I could be wrong though.
 

DRB

unemployed bum
Oct 24, 2002
15,242
0
Watchin' you. Writing it all down.
robdamanii said:
Not really an issue against shimano, but I'm not sure that their BB will fit the 68mm Kona BB. If I can get a MegaEXO setup from FSA for it for a decent price, I'd go that route I think.
The XT bb will fit fine. It comes with these spacers that will get it to the right chain line without issue. If you can get the FSA cheap then cool. But if not, I'd save the coin on the crank and put them into the next wheelset up you can afford. Wheels make or break a bike.

robdamanii said:
No advantage in going with anything better then an LX front?
If you look at the XT and LX, they are virtually the same. I have never had a single problem with an LX front derailleur. The only reason my current bike doesn't have one is that it didn't come with the kit. If I was piecing it, I be rocking another LX derailleur.

robdamanii said:
What about changing the shifters to sram X9 or X0s? That would most likely give a better feel anyway (and the Sram rear derailleursseem to be stronger anyway).
I have limited time on SRAM shifting so I can't much comment. The only thing I will say is find a bike with X9 and see if the positioning works for you, if it does I'm not sure I jump to the X0.

robdamanii said:
As for wheels, they're the new ones out from mavic...supposedly only 200 bucks a pair? Can't remember the name of them.
Not sure which set but most of the Mavic wheels in the lower price ranges are heavy. As I said it might be worthwhile to reconsider spending less elsewhere and putting it into some really kick a$$ wheels. Or if you can drop some more cash into the build this is where it should go.
 

AustinM

Chimp
Feb 22, 2005
39
0
i know the mavic 517 rims (721 now i think?) build up nicely, and quite cheaply, good weight too.
 

JRogers

talks too much
Mar 19, 2002
3,785
1
Claremont, CA
So are you going to run a bashguard? I think I'd agree with DRB on this one. Riding normal trails I rarely end up hitting my rings on anything with enough force to damage anything. I ride a VT for trails and use a regular 22-32-42 setup. I could not imagine riding the bike without a big ring. It would be a real pain.

As for wheels, I almost always recommend the same stuff- reliable hubs (Hadley, Hope, Shimano, DT-Swiss) built by an experienced mechanic on good rims (usually Mavic). If you look around a bit, you can find some deals. I used mtbr and this site and run a Mavic Crossroc UST front and an 819/Hadley rear. It has been basically flawless- no problems, very littel truing needed, only one flat (running Conti tubeless tires). Mavic prebuilt sets are good too but I think that at the lower price points, handbuilt are better. I sure as hell wouldn't mind having a set of Crossmax XL or SLs though.