Tasty Cycle

Frame-up build: SUCH a gorgeous chameleon color on this ENVE Melee. Every angle yileds a different color: gold, purple, brown etc. Its always a treat to build up a top spec bike from scratch.

Frame-up build: nothing like turning a pile of parts into a running, ripping bike! The newest generation of shimano XT seems nice enough. Not sure why we have to keep moving the cables closer to the bar (similar to SRAM) but ok 🤷🏽‍♂️

Find the creak: the Scott Spark is lauded as a lightweight ripper that employs A LOT of tech to accomplish pedaling efficiency and descending prowess. Some of it is actually well thought out (the linkage and hidden shock) and some of it is very poorly designed (the lock out lever and plastic headset).

In this case, the creak was coming from neither the pivots nor headset, but SRAMs fancy new chainring standard for XX drivetrain. The chainring corkscrews onto a threaded ring on the crank. Lots of surface area and nooks/crannies for dirt to collect. It also requires a special tool, awesome!

Handlebar Swap: very lovely and simple design for the internal routing headset on this Giant. Last few years, companies are really sorting out the best way to do this setup and it’s great to see. Unfortunately, the bars were a little bit bigger, so I still had to lengthen both hydraulic hoses and route them through the frame, not too bad though.

Bar Bike: nothing glamorous here, just a 70s Raleigh pieced together with a pile of parts from a customer’s backyard, set up single speed. Trickiest part was matching the 27” frame to modern 700c wheels. Luckily Tektro makes an ultra long reach brake caliper for such situations.

Looks can be deceiving: while appearing pristine, this bike had all kinds of weird fixes hiding. The bike was purchased used from a “racer”. My overall impression is that it was built by someone who knew JUST enough to cobble everything together:

-the crank bearing cups appeared to be tightened with vice grips, one cup was loose
-the wrong fittings were used for the hydraulic lines
-the rear derailleur had been dis-assembled and re-assembled wrong
-both derailleurs (and their set screws) were wrong
-the bars were wrapped wrong (always are though)
-the rear brake pads were cooked, but the fronts were brand new

For the man in your life who already has it all… a full gold titanium bolt kit for this from The funniest part was re-bleeding the entire brake system to replace the banjo hose bolt with a gold one haha!

Half Build: you might not know it, but many brands such as Santa Cruz, Pivot and Yeti ship their bikes nearly fully disassembled, unlike major brands. If you see one on the sales floor, know that it was probably built from scratch.

Half Build: you might not know it, but many brands such as Santa Cruz, Pivot and Yeti ship their bikes nearly fully disassembled, unlike major brands. If you see one on the sales floor, know that it was probably built from scratch.

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