The frame, Cotic's Soul, running a Fox 120 front fork. A Shimano XT groupset and Shimano XT disc breaks with ice tech discs. Stans ZTR crest wheels with Hope hubs and for tyres Schwalbe 'Nobby Nics' on the front and 'Rocket Rons' on the rear, tubeless. All the components where from Hope, bottom bracket, headset, stem and seat post. On paper this should be a super light zippy hardtail.
2 visits to Gideons house putting the bike together and with a bit of tweaking and making it our own, we had the bike built and ready to ride.
Gideon and I stood back and admired the look of the bike. Compared it with his hartail. My bike felt light, looked fast standing still and it was ready.
Few laps round the block and a few tweaks to the gears, breaks and fork and it was running beautifully.
Me being me I was now eager to get out and see what the bike was made of.
We planned a 12 o clock meet at the 'Look Out' for a few hours ride snd bit of fun. Fun it was zipping down single track through the forest. I absolutely loved it and with practice and a bit of confidence in the bank I see future rides being awesome.
I took a few falls, didn't make a few hills due to technique but becoming one with the bike will take time.
I stacked it at about 0.5mph!!! And it hurt!! Oh and disc brakes are awesome. I remember back in the day squeezing the living daylights out of the breaks to stop.... Disc breaks are 1 finger and be gentle!!! Otherwise you nearly end up over the handlebars!!! ; ). It was a close one.
The bike was fast, twitchy, light and looked the nuts. I'm one happy boy. It also weighed in at 23.5lbs. That's light.
Not only have I designed and built my own bike, I did it all with a great friend and future riding partner. Massive thanks to Gideon for all his advise help and direction and of course the build. My first hard-tail built by us. How cool is that.
Now it's time for fun and adventure on two wheels.
No comments:
Post a Comment