How to build a MonsterCross Bike 101

[NotSoBigBen]

51 minutes ago, Pikey said:

Fickle mate’s and there rules 😶

'their'

[Pikey]

12 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

'their'

And an English lesson 😶

Sorry, Grammar ! 

Edited February 8, 2022 by Pikey

[Koos Likkewaan]

2 hours ago, Chadvdw67 said:

What I want to know is, how many rigid forks do you have "just laying around" for all these bikes 😂🤣

Now there is something I was also wondering about ??🤔🤔

[TyronLab]

17 hours ago, Stretched@Birth said:

I'm just curious, as I have the problem on my flared drop bars, can you reach the brakes whilst riding in the drops?  I'm considering changing out my flared bars for more conventional road style bars.

What's your setup like i.t.o. reach/stack and brake placement? In a setup like the one NSBB has I can imagine it'd be tough to get to the levers from the hooks (in my terminology hand positions are flats-hoods-hooks-drops from top to bottom). 

I had a 46cm Rapide gravel bar and reached the brake levers pretty easily. Had the bar set up that the extension is horizontal and the hood's flat bit is in line with it. If your brakes are set up too high on the bar (so that the hood's flat bit sits at an incline) you will struggle to grab the brakes. And I'm assuming you're doing this to get a more upright or less stretched position, thus my question about fit.

I love flared drops (especially the Rapide ones) as I find the angled-in hoods to be a much more natural position for my hands. So much so I'm putting one on my tandem.

For reference this was my setup. Excuse the dorky positive angle stem and stack of spacers. This was my Munga Grit setup so comfort trumped style:

[Stretched@Birth]

18 hours ago, Pikey said:

I have a spare alloy bar that is 44 top and 51 in the drops . You are welcome to try them and if they work ,we can do a swap for yours . 

I'll take you up on that offer!  Will contact you directly.

[Stretched@Birth]

18 hours ago, NotSoBigBen said:

Then you're riding on your own mate!

You'll ride with him on his "wife's" pink bike, but complain that the bars look naff...? 

[Stretched@Birth]

1 hour ago, TyronLab said:

What's your setup like i.t.o. reach/stack and brake placement? In a setup like the one NSBB has I can imagine it'd be tough to get to the levers from the hooks (in my terminology hand positions are flats-hoods-hooks-drops from top to bottom). 

I had a 46cm Rapide gravel bar and reached the brake levers pretty easily. Had the bar set up that the extension is horizontal and the hood's flat bit is in line with it. If your brakes are set up too high on the bar (so that the hood's flat bit sits at an incline) you will struggle to grab the brakes. And I'm assuming you're doing this to get a more upright or less stretched position, thus my question about fit.

I love flared drops (especially the Rapide ones) as I find the angled-in hoods to be a much more natural position for my hands. So much so I'm putting one on my tandem.

For reference this was my setup. Excuse the dorky positive angle stem and stack of spacers. This was my Munga Grit setup so comfort trumped style:

I'll take a pic sometime and post it.

[NotSoBigBen]

18 minutes ago, Stretched@Birth said:

You'll ride with him on his "wife's" pink bike, but complain that the bars look naff...? 

You have to draw the line somewhere .... bloody hell, pink shirts, pink socks, pink bike where will it end?

[Nakoota]

I have half a thought to convert my wife's unused Momsen SL729, GX, SID Ultimate (probably built more for me than her) into a monster cross bike now as I am also converting my Pyga stage to 120mm and need to sell her SID to do so.

The bike has a practically new GX groupset and Sram dual pot Level TLR brakes.

Are there hydraulic road/gravel shift leavers that that would work for the GX groupset and TLR brakes without changing anything else other than bars and levers?

Edited February 21, 2022 by Nakoota

[RABUBI]

I used Shimano 105 hydraulic 11spd levers with normal old xt calipers, worked fine.

the issue came in with indexing of 11psd road to 11spd mtb cluster. they do not match

[CARANXCycleMobile]

“nights I dont sleep,ideas are formed

[CARANXCycleMobile]

Sleepless nights creates idea’s 

vertex 50 made 29er

[TyronLab]

I'm planning a drop bar conversion on my STR and need some help. Don't want to spend an arm and a leg, so I found these calipers:

https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/mountain-bike-brakes/475890/mechanic-disc-calliperbrand-new

Anyone used these before? If they're MTB specific they'll be long pull, so standard rim brake brifters won't work well as far as google has taught me. Any solve for this someone's come up with?

Currently running a mix of Shimano hydro brakes and GX 11spd derailleur, so I'm planning on buying a bar end friction shifter to handle shifting and then the cable brakes + cheap road brifters just for braking. Seems it should work out the cheapest.

Alternative is to find a set of Shimano 11spd hydro brifters and change the derailleur. Should be able to keep the cassette and chain at least but it'll be spendy.

If anyone has any suggestions or any of the above they're looking to part with gooi a DM my way.

[MORNE]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:46 AM, TyronLab said:

What's your setup like i.t.o. reach/stack and brake placement? In a setup like the one NSBB has I can imagine it'd be tough to get to the levers from the hooks (in my terminology hand positions are flats-hoods-hooks-drops from top to bottom). 

I had a 46cm Rapide gravel bar and reached the brake levers pretty easily. Had the bar set up that the extension is horizontal and the hood's flat bit is in line with it. If your brakes are set up too high on the bar (so that the hood's flat bit sits at an incline) you will struggle to grab the brakes. And I'm assuming you're doing this to get a more upright or less stretched position, thus my question about fit.

I love flared drops (especially the Rapide ones) as I find the angled-in hoods to be a much more natural position for my hands. So much so I'm putting one on my tandem.

For reference this was my setup. Excuse the dorky positive angle stem and stack of spacers. This was my Munga Grit setup so comfort trumped style:

nothing wrong with how that looks! nice bike

[MORNE]

1 hour ago, TyronLab said:

I'm planning a drop bar conversion on my STR and need some help. Don't want to spend an arm and a leg, so I found these calipers:

https://bikehub.co.za/classifieds/item/mountain-bike-brakes/475890/mechanic-disc-calliperbrand-new

Anyone used these before? If they're MTB specific they'll be long pull, so standard rim brake brifters won't work well as far as google has taught me. Any solve for this someone's come up with?

Currently running a mix of Shimano hydro brakes and GX 11spd derailleur, so I'm planning on buying a bar end friction shifter to handle shifting and then the cable brakes + cheap road brifters just for braking. Seems it should work out the cheapest.

Alternative is to find a set of Shimano 11spd hydro brifters and change the derailleur. Should be able to keep the cassette and chain at least but it'll be spendy.

If anyone has any suggestions or any of the above they're looking to part with gooi a DM my way.

its all relative. You can build a mechanical setup that outprices a dura ace hydro setup LOL. Trust me, I realised that after building my bike haha. Could just as well have built a full GRX hydro setup and had some money left to boot. But then it would not have been unique or borderline maintenance free as mine is now.

Yokozuna Ultimo's (or Juintech R1), or Paul Klampers will set you back almost 8k just for the two calipers. Proper compressionless housings another R1.5k (these are vital for mechanical brakes imo), some nice mechanical levers another 1-2k and a proper 11 /12 speed bar en shifter another 1k (shimano or microshift). it ads up quickly.

But i chose this route for the reliability and low maintenance. if i fall or knock a lever and it breaks....meh, fine...thats 1-2k. Do that with a high end hydro 'brifter' and you better have access to a second mortgage lol!

That said, IMO The best bang for you buck will be some TRP Spyres on some TRP RRL or similar mechanical levers and some Jagwire compressionless housings.  I have TRP spyres on my wifes bike mated with some 105 11 speed brifters and they have OTB stopping power with semi metallic pads in them once you have them bedded and set up. 

https://www.merlincycles.com/trp-spyre-post-mount-disc-brake-caliper-106630.html

https://trpcycling.com/product/rrl-alloy/

Edited April 18, 2022 by MORNE

[Vaultboy]

On 2/9/2022 at 8:46 AM, TyronLab said:

What's your setup like i.t.o. reach/stack and brake placement? In a setup like the one NSBB has I can imagine it'd be tough to get to the levers from the hooks (in my terminology hand positions are flats-hoods-hooks-drops from top to bottom). 

I had a 46cm Rapide gravel bar and reached the brake levers pretty easily. Had the bar set up that the extension is horizontal and the hood's flat bit is in line with it. If your brakes are set up too high on the bar (so that the hood's flat bit sits at an incline) you will struggle to grab the brakes. And I'm assuming you're doing this to get a more upright or less stretched position, thus my question about fit.

I love flared drops (especially the Rapide ones) as I find the angled-in hoods to be a much more natural position for my hands. So much so I'm putting one on my tandem.

For reference this was my setup. Excuse the dorky positive angle stem and stack of spacers. This was my Munga Grit setup so comfort trumped style:

Sweet setup. I've got the 8spd, and was considering the same bag (R659 on Takealot) and the 44mm rapide bar. What tires are you running? I reckon the WTBs are gonna fail on me come winter, but finding 650b's is turning out to be a mission.