Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 I've been looking to build a steel DJ frame ever since I sold my old alu frame last year. I regretted it badly since it was probably the most fun to ride out of all my bikes. I could play with it on the street, on the dirt jumps and because of how responsive it was it was even more fun on the Spruit than my trail bike. True to form, it had a few ghetto hacks and I was never really happy with the vertical dropouts as it was always a mission trying to run the perfect chain tension. So I decided to build up my ultimate DJ. Requirements were steel frame, horizontal dropouts, a proper DJ fork ( either the Manitou Circus or the RS Argyle) and a garish colour scheme. Black on black is boring. I opted for the FireEye Shortfuse as it was a pretty good price, the colour is retina wrecking and the chainstays are really, really short meaning I could run the back wheel pretty slammed. I saw that the guys at Sprocket & Jack are the South African agents and after visiting them a few times I really liked the place. They have got to be the most open, friendly bike shop I've ever come across. The workshop is open to the whole store and Grant and Sean are chilled about working with their customers and they both have an enormous wealth of experience. Anyway, frame arrived and I immediately got excited about the build, it looked even better in person than I had seen online.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Next to arrive were these beautiful ASP aluminium tensioners. Dissapointingly, the dropouts were too short for them to actually work, they only gave me about 2mm of play. Bugger.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 The big find for me was an Argyle Solo Air fork that had already been dropped from 140mm to 100mm. The thing is unbelievably light and brutish. And it happened to clash completely with my frame, excellent. I bought it on a complete bike, stripped it down and flogged everything except the fork, the bars and the stem. The bars were exactly what I wanted as well, Deity 75mm risers.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Next to arrive thanks to BMXdirect were the United Nash Cranks in eyewatering chrome, the Animal headset and the BB. BMXdirect left the chainring bolt out for some reason so I did the traditional thing and ghettoed it with a bolt from the hardware store. The guys at Hunter Cycling came to the rescue though, locating a spare bolt as well as a chainring shim for me.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Chainring (Shadow Conspiracy) and cranks loaded up And then the wheels (Spank Subrosa on Hope Pro2Evo hubs). I built the front wheel at Sprocket and Jack under the tutelage of Sean, which was a pretty rewarding experience and not something you'd get from your average bike shop. It's like the guys are just as invested in your build as you are.
Cruz Addict Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 awesome looking build, keep up the pics i am following this with interest.
G00SE Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 Awesome build Radman, those FireEye frames are really good value.Cant wait to see it finished!
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Sean came up with the bright idea of reversing the main body of the tugs so that we could run them anyway. At first it seemed like it would work but in the end it meant I wasn't able to run the back wheel as slammed as I wanted. Setting up the chain line, pedals and new grips (bought from the Hunter Cycles guys when I picked up the chainring bolt) Sean mounting the Zee brake on the back. It's probably a bit overkill for a DJ but a mate sold it to me at a wicked price and it had enough hose length to wrap around the headtube twice so a good buy. Sean also showed me a great technique for aligning the brake, something I had battled with before. He tightened it a little, spun the wheel really fast and then tapped the brakes a few times before locking them, which brought the calipers into perfect alignment.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 A nice touch from Sean, using different colour cable ties for the brake hose. Final tuning before she left Sprocket & Jack. Sean was incredibly generous with his time as was Grant with the use of his space, I'm hugely appreciative for all the help and advice they provided.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 The final build, I love this thing, it's a pity she's going to be scratched and beaten within a few weeks but that's the nature of a DJ bike, you can't be too precious.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Awesome build Radman, those FireEye frames are really good value.Cant wait to see it finished! Yeah, they are brilliant value for what you get. A little heavier than the Deity and NS frames but only by a couple hundred grams and a third of the cost.
the nerd Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 Nice build!! That shop IMHO is the best around...
Skylark Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 Nice build, to verify it's a keeper we need to see pics of you on the bike getting serious air, preferably upside down [emoji16] Why would a modern frame us IS brake mountings? Please expand on the tap the caliper brake voodoo technique to center them. Thanks!
G00SE Posted August 24, 2015 Posted August 24, 2015 Nice build, to verify it's a keeper we need to see pics of you on the bike getting serious air, preferably upside down [emoji16] Why would a modern frame us IS brake mountings? Please expand on the tap the caliper brake voodoo technique to center them. Thanks! My Nukeproof Solum also has an IS mount.. Probably because there is no need for anything else.
Barry Stuart Posted August 24, 2015 Author Posted August 24, 2015 Nice build!! That shop IMHO is the best around... It's brilliant hey, haven't experienced a bike shop like it before.
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