Comments on: Custom Building a Modern Mountain Bike

By: Leif Simonitsch

Leif Simonitsch — Fri, 04 May 2012 01:56:48 +0000

awesome bike man

By: RobM

RobM — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:26:37 +0000

Wow, what a great post. What stuck out to me was that there really wasn’t that many specialist tools needed. I could even borrow a few of some mates. Makes me want to build my own bike up.

By: Paul Lockwood

Paul Lockwood — Mon, 27 Sep 2010 21:26:23 +0000

Tom, you should ask the question on here http://forums.mtbr.com/

By: Tom Pantz

Tom Pantz — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 02:28:30 +0000

Hi Paul,
I bought used Rocky Mountain Fusion hardtail from a pawn shop for $50 (it’s old like 1999) and I’ve suddenly found myself taking it apart and upgrading the parts with new shifters, cassette, cables and grips. I’m a complete utter newbie but I’m discovering working on the bike is very therapeutic. Now that I found your excellent article my eyes have been opened where I’ll be throwing my savings next. Where do you recommend finding good frames? Ebay? Should I search online anywhere in particular?

By: Paul Lockwood

Paul Lockwood — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 15:03:10 +0000

Agreed Rob. I’ve tried good hydraulic setups on friends’ bikes and the feel is great. Right now I am nursing knee overuse issue but when fit will look at tires and brakes

Since getting back into mountain biking I’ve learned a lot from others but still like this BMC rig. With hindsight I’ll possibly go for a fixed 120m fork to save weight. Saying that I did more FR stuff when starting out and needed the extra travel back then. As time progressed I dropped the FR and ended up being a fairly aggressive trail rider. Not sure a 100mm fork would be happy about some of the rougher lines I’ve learned the bike can handle on our local trails

By: Rob B

Rob B — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:46:47 +0000

The BB7s are perhaps the biggest short coming on what is a nice rig. Though you like them for now, if you tried some Magura Marta Sls, Formula R1s or 2011 XTRs you wouldn’t look back. Tubeless without tubelss specific tires is the way to go. The extra time setting up off the trail benefits greatly on the trail. Still nice build all up.

By: Paul Lockwood

Paul Lockwood — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:01:06 +0000

Thanks Luis. Saddle-wise I ended up using an old (1999-ish) Selle Flite from my road bike and like it. It’s pretty light and comfy enough for me

Tubeless? Maybe one day, I slashed a tire landing on rocks one ride + bought some Nevegal tires. Those tires have been so good I don’t want to change them

By: Luis

Luis — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:12:39 +0000

Hi Paul,

Excellent blog post! Very informative.
What saddle did you go with? Have you made the change to tubeless tires?

Take care,
Luis

By: Paul Lockwood

Paul Lockwood — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:19:13 +0000

Thanks for the tire tips, when swap-out time comes I intended to try something else.

One tricky thing writing posts is how much detail to include – this was write-up aimed at non-cyclists mainly. This build was a starting point re-using many components from old bikes, since last August I’ve spent over $6K on the hobby so took it ‘slowly’ It should be just wear items for the next two or three years, I hope!

The BMC now has SRAM x.9 rear mech + triggers, PG990 cassette and PC971 chain. I kept the XTR front mech as it works well. With new bars too weight now ~26.25 lbs – not bad for an AM setup.

Discs are now 160mm back and front – that shaved about half a pound from the rig One day I’ll try hydraulics but love the BB7s and recently put them on my hardtail too

By: Atosark

Atosark — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:15:18 +0000

For AM/XC I’d rather go for Continental Vertical ProTection 2.35 rear and either Kenda Nevegal 2.35 front or Continental Explorer 2.1/2.35 front.
Also for breaks, get AVID Juicy7 with ~180 front and ~160 rear. They are definitely worth it.
The fork is ok. But why SRAM chain with Shimano mechs? Either get Shimano mechs+chain+cassette+controls combo, or jump for SRAM.
Cheers~