21st April 2005

After the excitement of picking up the new frame from Mike on Sunday, I spent at least 48 hours deciding on what gear I was going to buy to build it up.

Despite the fact that it should mainly be a swap of all the parts from the Prince Albert except those parts connected to the seat tube, there were a few things to take into consideration:

• my LX cranks which I bought in 2002 have seen better days, I have one deore crank fitted and the middle ring is totally hooked
• the cassette came from my Specialized Enduro and is also worn
• the rear mech has been giving me trouble for the past month, with a generally shonky feel and the jockey wheels are spiked

I also wanted to keep the PA in service if possible to give me an option rather than just the one bike to ride so I splashed out on lots of new gear to give me a few spares to rebuild the Prince Albert in due course.

So on to the build. I always start with the headset. This is usually fiddly but this time it worked like a dream using the headset press that Huey fashioned for me out of a few nuts, bolts and washers. Once the headset is on, I fit the forks, stem and bars and the bike can then sit on the small workstand I have clamped into the workmate.

Next on is the cranks. The new Shimano XT Hollowtech II cranks and bottom bracket look challenging for those like me used to the normal design, but spend a few minutes studying the instructions and with the park tool it's straightforward.

Seat clamp, seat post and saddle, front and rear mech, shifters, cables and chain in that order and we are almost done.

Brakes go on and a few finishing touches like grips and tuning the gears and after fitting the wheels it's ready to ride.

For the weight weenies, here's the full spec.

• dialled bikes double butted
• titanium frame 1677g
• Fox vanilla 130R forks 1874g
• WTB momentum cartridge headset 147g
• Race Face Prodigy Stem 80mm 8 deg rise 184g
• Avid straight jacket gear cable set 100g
• Hope seat clamp & QR 31.8mm 53g
• Shimano XT shifter pods M571 268g
• Shimano LX front mech M571 31.8mm 139g
• Shimano XT rear mech long cage M750 251g
• Shimano XT Hollowtech II cranks & BB M760 866g
• Shimano XT 9speed cassette 11-32 M760 263g
• Truvativ 27.2mm seat post (length 350mm) and Rocket V saddle 671g
• SRAM 9sp Chain 297g
• Pablo Escobars 336g
• Hope M4 hydraulic disc brakes 650g
• F519 rear wheel and disc laced to 32 hole Hope XC Hub 1275g
• F519 front wheel and disc laced to 32 hole Hope XC Hub 1081g
• wheel skewers 165g
• Continental 2.3 Vertical Protection tyre 620g
• Specialized Enduro 2.2 Pro tyre 590g
• 2 x tubes 250g
• Bar grips 160g
  

That's a total weight of 11.91kg or 26lb 4oz without pedals.

the double butted titanium frame

the parts that arrived today from Chainreactioncycles

Huey's patented headset press together with 'er indoors digital kitchen scales and the ubiquitous Black & Decker workmate

a willing helper (eldest son and heir) and the headset press in action

Mike has changed the angle the disc mount faces onto the frame giving a much cleaner cable line for my old style Hope M4 disc brakes

almost there

the final build later that same day

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