A couple of weeks ago I got my hands on some half decent freebie MTB kit, a frame and some components, between these an old jump bike and a commuter I had enough spares to build a good Mtb for very little money. In total I spent £70 on Ebay on some 2010 Rockshox Tora SLs and a black front wheel. I get a very similar feeling from building a bike as I do from riding one, I do it because I enjoy it, that's it, just a man, a shed, his tools and time. First up was to strip the poor quality internal headset, clean and re-grease, this was pretty painless but I don't hold out much hope for the headset, the seals were very poor and once it starts groaning again it will be replaced. Next up remove the old square taper bottom bracket (BB), as is usually the case this was a pig. Got the non drive side cup out, easy, but the the drive side was solid, after soaking in GT85 and swinging from multiple spanners I was about to give up, then as luck would have it I remembered I had a car wheel removal tool with a long extendable handle and a quarter inch drive head on it, it fitted my BB tool perfectly. With this mutant BB tool attached I whipped out the drive side with minimal effort thanks to the extra leverage, I now had just a frame, a blank canvas to do as I pleased. Unbelievably the Toras I had bought were cut to exactly the right length for my frame, and had a star nut installed. All that was left was to fit the crown race for my headset and slot the forks in the frame, one 5mm spacer, an On One stem and topcap, BOSCH! Forks were fitted. With the forks in situ I fitted an old set of Easton EA70 Monkey bars, then started stripping bits off the old commuter, I needed the rear wheel, rear mech, chain and cassette. These were cleaned and then fitted again with minimal hassle, I couldn't believe how easy it was all coming together, and then it started. The disc rotor on the back wheel of my commuter was held on with 3mm dome head allen bolts, these were rusty and promptly rounded off. All was not lost though as I had a centre puncher, this is essentially a bit of steel which is hardened and pointy at one end. Put the point on the bolt head, give it a firm couple of whacks with a hammer then with the indentation in the bolt head made, angle the centre puncher so you can hammer the bolt round till it undoes. It's brilliant and I have yet to come across a rounded bolt I have not been able to remove this way. The bolts were replaced with more reliable Torx bolts, with the old tektro rotors off I stuck on the rather random 170mm shimano rotors I had somehow ended up with on the jump bike, then fitted my old HFX nines to it. It's pretty hard to find a 170mm international standard adaptor, so using some old v brake block cone washers I fitted the callipers in a similar fashion to the Avid tri align mounting system, the extra washers gave a perfect fit for the rotors. The same was done to the front, the Toras are post mount so it was just a case of fitting the cone washers between the end of the post mount and the caliper, job done. Onto the gears, on went the Sram x7 rear mech and Xgen front mech, these were combined with x7 rear and x5 front shifters, with the barrel adjusters slightly wound out and the high rear and low front limit screws adjusted I hooked it all up with a new set of cables. I always have the barrel adjusters 3 or 4 turns out so when you do the cable pinch bolts up, if the cable is too tight you can slacken it, too loose and you still have room to add more tension, with this done I changed the rear into the low gear adjusted the limit screw then the front to the high gear and did the same, gears were now running smooth. Lovely. On to the finishing touches, on went a set of Panaracer fire xc pro 2.1 folding tyres, the red really complements the bike, a set of slightly tatty Odi's an On One twelfty seat post and WTB saddle finished the build. I had earned my lunch with which I sat down and enjoyed what I had achieved. After, I called Stacey to try for size, the seat post wouldn't go down enough, this was whipped out, cut down and refitted, the fit was now spot on. I really do get a great feeling from fettling bikes and enjoy the atmosphere of being in the shed with all the specialist tools and making something that not just any old soul could do. It was a strangely easy build, I usually find that I think I have everything then find some parts are not compatible, the wrong size or just plain wrong, but not this time. I have a few more projects in the pipe line which I shall keep you informed of but until then see the link below to enjoy the fruits of my labour.
http://s1193.photobucket.com/albums/aa346/paulkingk/Carrera%20Vulcan%20disc%20spec/
Not bad for £70.
Reatin rides on.
