Building up an MTB..

[andrewc]

I'll shortly be taking delivery of a 2nd or 3rd hand MTB frame (impulse buy  ) http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190341117286&_trkparms=tab%3DWatching

 Hoping to build it up for some easy XC stuff.

I've got a pair of 85mm sus forks in the cupboard, a seatpost and most of an 8sp drivetrain (need shifters).  I'm going to need wheels, tyres and brakes, headset, bars & stem.

Q - Hubs - will current rear hubs work OK with an 8sp XT cassette or will I need some sort of spacer ? 

Brakes, the frame is rim brake only, so the rear will be V's or possibly Magura hydraulics (just remembered I've got some of them in the box as well)

The fork will take a disk brake, so I may try one of those .

Q - Any opinions on cable vs hydraulic ? 

The fork has the bottom race from an Orbit headset on it, so I can swap it with the rigid forks on my heavy tourer. This means I'll need another Orbit headset as well.

Q - I'm well out of touch with current rims, the last wheels I built used Mavic F519's which have been very good. Is the XM719 a suitable choice ?

[andym]

8sp and 9sp hubs are identical.  Just need to match shifters to cassette.  Mavic pre-built wheels will have a spacer (don't lose it) which you need for both 8+9sp.

I wouldn't mix+match brakes.  Either Magura hydraulic rim brakes or decent v-brakes all round.  I wouldn't recommend cable disc.

Would assume you'd need a matching headset, unless you can remove the crown race.

XC717 or XM719 sound reasonable to me.  Didn't realise they were so cheap - might get some myself and lace on to some decent hubs and keep the crossrides as spares (too proprietary for my liking).

77quid for an 853 frame sounds like a good deal

[PhilO]

As above, except for:

I wouldn't mix+match brakes.  Either Magura hydraulic rim brakes or decent v-brakes all round.  I wouldn't recommend cable disc.

Mixing and matching brakes is fine - I've done it more than once and disk front/rim rear is a good layout. Hydraulic brakes are definately better than cable, but cable disks are still better than rim brakes. If you do go for cables, either ask around and see if you can get something somebody's taken off for buttons (that way you haven't lost anything by trying), or splash the cash and get BB7s.

IIRC XM719s are the nearest equivalent to the old F519s, so that's definately the rim I'd use.

[andrewc]

Frame arrived this morning and appears to be in OK condition, a respray will be on the cards in the future, once I'm sure I'll be keeping it.

Now got to choose components and find a supplier who won't be held up by the post strike.

[Tewdric]

I have some spare XC wheels with very nice DT rims, as I built my wife a top-spec pair to replace the ones that came with her Spesh full susser.  Drop me a PM for details.

[oncemore]

The frame was a near-bargain I reckon. However you kit it out won't be as light as a new alu frame - but sticking some rigids up front will help!

[Zoidburg]

Actually I think that will build up slightly lighter than a mid range ally hardtail, not as light as an all singing and dancing top end stumpjumper perhaps but certainly lighter than a lot of ally bikes below the £1000 mark.

If you build it up for XC or not my advice would be to never sell that frame!

It's steel, it's light, it's strong, its multi purpose, it will outlive many an ally frame, good steel is also not going to get any cheaper either.

[oncemore]

I can think of no reason why it would outlast an ally frame. But then I'm hopelessly naive about modern materials technology.

[andrewc]

Current plan is the Magura Odur forks I occasionally use on the Thorn Nomad.  These have an FSA Orbit crown race on so a matching headset will be fitted to the Voodoo in place of the one it's currently fitted with. Hopefully I won't need to trim the steerer.

Drivetrain will be the XTR front mech it came with, an XT rear mech and an STX RC chainset (both from the spares box).

Seatpost and saddle from spares as well.

I'm thinking Mavic X719 V brake compatible rims on XT disc hubs.  Avid BB7 disc on the front and a decent V brake on the rear.

Bars & stem ?  The Thorn branded riser bars on the Nomad are comfy, or lots of people seem to like the On-One Mary bars.

CRC have a sale on, time to hit the Visa card....

[andrewc]

And she lives!! 

After a very relaxed build up I've just come back from my first test ride on Voodoo Mary, a gentle pootle around Sefton Park.

The gears index perfectly,  the front disk brake works but seems too "soft" for my liking, I'll try tweaking that. The rear V brake can lock the back wheel with light pressure.  I set the brakes very close to the rim, so as soon as they got a coating of mud it was scrape, scrape , so more tweaking there.

The headset was too loose and needs adjusting, the seatpost keeps slipping down and I wasn't to keen on the Selle Rolls saddle I rescued from the spares box.

A work in progress i think..

[PhilO]

This thread is useless without pictures...