Blog#2: Because Build Story!

Beast Mode!!! The eXsTaCy!

Before I get into my cycling happenings and what not there is something we need to talk about. No, it's not about that time down in the Dominican when I went on an excursion and I lost my.... My bike! Or at least the one I am most enamored with at present. I have lots of bikes but up until a few months ago I had three main squeezers: a gravel bike, a full rigid 29er and a fat bike. With those three bikes and as many as eight wheelsets I have been able to cover a very wide range of riding! (More to come on my quiver vision quest). The only thing about those bikes is that they are all carbon and I wanted something that I could potentially bike pack with, albeit one with a metal frame as I am less worried about frame damage with a metal framed bike. I also wanted to do a budget build. With about $5k to $6k into my main three and their wheel entourage, which, considering a single bike can be twice that amount is pretty frugal, I wanted it to be a even more budget oriented. A budget, metal monster, do it all, franken, weirdo bike. 

Enter Craigslist, last year: I was perusing the local C-list bike category and came across a listing for a 2013 Giant XTC 29er mtb. For about $100 I got what you see in the picture. 

A basket case?!

An early drop bar mock up.

Enter Covid-19: We all got slammed with C-19. Whether you got it or didn't you got affected by it. It turned my world upside down for sure and left me pretty down in the dumps. What's a boy to do? (pssst...you should build that bike you got last year). MUST BUILD BIKE. MUST OBTAIN PARTS...  

Before I began the build I really thought a lot about what I wanted out of it and how to achieve that goal as I do just about all types of riding. My main goal was that I wanted it to be good at most things not great at a couple things. The biggest hurtle for achieving a great range, for me, was the control setup. Again I really thought about this. The way I see it there are two main control setups: flats and drops and they represent two different worlds. Drops are optimized for road and distance and flats are optimized for offroad, trail, tech. You can use and adapt them for just about any situation but they are inherently designed to do a certain thing. 

For awhile I thought my gravel bike was the "do it all" bike. Especially when I converted it to tubeless. I went tubeless with a set of 42c Specialized Sawtooth tires and WOW! I was impressed!  In terms of tubeless I was an instant convert. After going tubeless and with a bigger tire I could now do trail! I could do it before but the bigger tire was more capable and tubeless greatly reduced the risk of pinch flats. 

My beloved Motorbacon!

Time went by and I came to find that while very capable my gravel bike was not going to be the all conquering bike I was after. I don't exactly recall my thoughts but I think I wanted more tire and the 29er came into view. 

A build list followed. The frameset would be a Chinese carbon or "Charbon" 29er. There are lots of varying opinions on Charbon bikes and parts but I have had great results with them. 

I have an uncanny way of randomly finding what I want or being in the right place at the right time. I "SCORE!" a lot. This time I was perusing Facebook Marketplace and low and behold there is a full carbon, full rigid, fully built Charbon 29er! Basically exactly what I wanted! The owner wanted about $1k which isn't exactly cheap but it was built with better parts than what I had planned and it was less than my build list cost! SOLD! 

At about 20lbs it weighed less than my carbon gravel bike yet easily fit a 2.0 tire. It was light, fast and very capable. It has a flat bar mtb setup meaning trail control was not a problem. Distance, however, was a different story and to improve the bikes ergonomics I found drop bar ends made by Origin8. They are a great option for flat bars and I still have them on that bike as well as a set on my fat. I eventually got a set of 27.5 wheels for it. I used those for trail and I have ran gravel bike tires on it for longer rides. It really is and has been a versatile bike! Plus it's pink! (More on that later!) I had thoughts of selling my gravel bike... 

The "Pink Panther" charbon 29er.

Time went by...then Covid....

Re: Enter: The Giant! I love both my gravel bike and the Charbon 29er but for this build I wanted the best of those two worlds and those two cockpits. I wanted distance comfort and ergonomics but also good trail and tech control.  After a lot of thought, parts research and some sketches I decided to take a set of drop bars and basically hack them into bull horns. Nothing exactly new but by doing this I was able to reposition road brake levers downward and further back giving me four finger grip capability and better leverage while maintaining a similar overall layout of the top half of a traditionally shaped drop bar with hoods. 

The well made Microshift 11 speed shifter ($50) is mounted in the open end of the bar on the right side. It puts the shifter within easy reach vs it's usual position on the bottom of a drop bar. The thumb flips the lever up and forward for down shifts while the first finger knuckle part of the hand flips the lever back. All shifting can be done while maintaining a good grip on the end of the bar. And finally the Microshift can be used in friction mode (should a problem arise) and it provides a nice visual index making shifting seem more intuitive than other kinds of shifters. 

There is a lot of nuance to this setup. Don't judge!

Tires: I started out with some 42c Specialized Pathfinders and while they are a great tire, with all the clearance in the lower stays they did nothing to satisfy my meat craving! Unfortunately in all my crazy mass of parts I didn't have any 29er tires on hand. Then....BOOM! I scored a deal with seller on Marketplace for three sets of used tubeless tires shipped for $115! Chunk Lights, X Kings and Racing Ralphs. The Chunk Lights were a tad heavy and aggressive. The Racing Ralphs are the lightest. I mounted the X-Kings and have loved them so much that I have rode them the exclusively. Front is a 2.4 and the rear is a 2.2. They are middle of the road for weight and they handle great but best of all they are fast! Great tires! They are used though and the back tire is worn so much on the sides that it bled sealant for a couple weeks yet it still held air?!

The fork is a "Charbon" fork I found on Marketplace. The seller, in another city, bought it from China but never used it. $85 shipped. Brittany Spears sticker not included!

For brakes I wanted hydros but that presented a complications since my bar setup would require road levers and hydraulic brifters are not cheap. Even used they can be spendy especially since I wanted 11 speed as my other three riders are 11 speed (I try to maintain some of the same standards between bikes as it means having parts that can be swapped from bike to bike). Ebay for the win: Brakes are once again a Chinese brand but they are cable operated hydraulic that cost, for the pair, $50! I'm sure they will explode in my face but for the last three months they have been great! For the cost I could literally go and buy another set and for bike packing, keep one with me. In terms of power they don't have true hydro stopping power but they still have plenty of grip and I like how they modulate. They have a kind progressiveness that I like. They also allow you to adjust the pull and grab point of the lever. Being that they are cable operated makes dealing with them so much easier. For the levers I bought a set of new Tektro levers from eBay for $25. Nothing special but I didn't need anything else!

For the drivetrain I wanted 11 speeds. My other three bikes are 11 speed so that means cassettes are readily available. I also wanted to do a 1x and thankfully the bike came with a 32t front narrow/wide! The other part of the 1x equation, a clutched derailleur was absent but Marketplace produced a used Sram NX for $50! I found a brand new Sram chain on eBay for $12 shipped. 

The bike came with a nice 30.8 Thompson seat post and a Specialized seat. I ran the seat for a couple months but eventually put my Brooks Cambium C17 on. Other bits like cables and stem were on hand. Bar wrap is used.

The ride: I have access to some really nice bikes but in the last few months I haven't had any desire to ride anything else! Mainly because of it's versatility. And because of it's versatility I haven't had to as I have basically developed two modes for it: Road and All-Road. For road mode I have another set of wheels with road tires that I swap out. Then for gearing I use a 11-34 cassette and swap the 32t front ring for a 42t. I have done group road rides avg 18mph! I am not a roadie at heart but sometimes I feel the need for speed and group dynamic. It's crazy to think that a bike could have such a wide range and for so little but as you will see in upcoming posts this Giant is a Giant! However you will also be privy to my bike madness which not only includes riding but also more crazy builds, my collection, plenty of bike nerdyness and tech tips and how to's learned over the past 20 plus years of tinkering. 

Thanks for reading!