Extremely cool. Bravo!
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Looking good! I like the upper shock mount
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Thanks. I copied Starling.
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Looks awesome! I really love the cable routing through the shock mount.
Happy New Bike!
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Been bouncing around workshop and I have not found any problems. I was afraid that my ST reaming job was very bad and it will slip, but so far it has not moved.
I fixed my crooked rear wheel with dropout insert and a screw holding it in correct position. Just drilled the dropout to 15mm and made 0.8mm eccentric aluminium insert, theres a drawing somewhere in this thread if someone is interested. Looks ugly, because I had to enlarge my “axle pocket”, but if I clean it up, I don’t think anyone can notice.
I have a perfectly straight bicycle now and I’m very happy.
I did some weighing. No idea what steel enduro frames weight and how are they weighted (what parts)?
BB and headset missing. 4.445 kg.
I can lose some weight If I ditched 2 bearings and made a new narrower axle from 7075. Maybe 200 grams.
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Any ride reports?
Nop sorry. Temperature still around freezing. It does ride fine around workshop 
. Probably 1 more month waiting.
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Not a ride test yet. But thought I make a little update.
It felt a little short, so I decided to take out a plumb bob and a measuring tape.
Reach - 455 mm damn it is 1 cm shorter than I thought.
Head angle - 64.2
Chainstays - 444
Wheelbase - 1245 so this is also ~1 cm short
Stack - 642
BB height - 356
So yeah I somehow made it shorter, but it is okay, everything else seems money.
Weight - bathroom scale 16.8 kg.
I got light wheelset and tires, but 120g insert, 384g time pedals and 135g mudguard.
Spec:
Deore 11 speed
Deore 170 cranks 30 tooth
Deore cassette 11-51
Highline 3 170 mm dropper
Magura mt5 180 rotors
Shimano Hollowtech II bb
Superstar headset
Flow 3 rims with superstar v6 hubs
Yari - still waiting for my upgraded compression stack
Super Deluxe Ultimate with MegNeg
Time mx 4
Cheap WTB saddle
40mm stem
Reverse Components base 35mm rise handlebar
PNW loam grips
2.6 Eliminator and 2.4 xr4
Zefal deflector FM30
Cheap build, but came out lighter than I expected.
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My very early ride report
The bike has survived 3 rides in my local woods, I even crash tested it and now I need to heal my elbow for a bit 
. And probably need a new rim.
Bike parks are closed so the real test lies ahead. Waiting for Sappe (Finland) to open. And I’m going to Livigno July 3-7.
Local riding is flat or very short steep and techy, so not the greatest test, but it works nicely. Not sure what to tell, the bike is very quiet, in the beginning the rear end wanted to kick a little, but this is/was the shock misbehaving. Frame seems stiff, can’t say I notice any flexing.
Still trying to figure out rear shock. Last ride was with 0 bands in megneg and 3 positive tokens - only used 70% of travel - it did not feel stiff, but now going to try with 2 tokens. So constantly bottoming out should not be a problem.
Maguras are exactly like they say - Between Shimano and Sram.
Time pedals are very similar to Crankbrothers. I like both more than Shimano, because they are easier to clip in.
Got my M-suspensiontech Yari compression cartridge - needs some faster testing, slow steep felt fine. And Since I’m quite light I modified the rebound stack myself - took out 19mm shim to get faster HSR.
What I can not comment is the rear end stiffness when cornering fast. I’m a little afraid it is going to bend a lot, but so far I have not noticed it.
Is my rim dead? Never had this kind of damage (bulging around 2 nipples, no crack). Probably caught a stump between the spokes and frame and went over the bars. Wheel was out of true and this is what I found. Time for a new rim or is it fine?
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Looks great. So jealous.
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If the wheel was properly tensioned and the spoke threads have the right amount of engagement then your wheel is probably toast.
In other words, the rim might last a while but you’re probably not going to be able to bring the wheel back into even tension. If you’re able to true + round the rim satisfactorily, the tension imbalance will probably end up forcing the rim to crack.
I’d rebuild the wheel. With my luck, if I didn’t, I’d be on some amazing, life changing ride and have the rims break when I’m the farthest point from home.
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Are you going to paint it or leave it raw? Looks really good.
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Thanks. Going to leave it raw. I did 3 coats of K2 ceramic coating. I did saltwater test, and it reduced rusting by 75%.
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With the design do you have the ability to change the shock size for less travel?
Yes. I have 230x65 shock, but I did design it so I can swap in 250 or 210, without geometry change.
And if I want to use 27.5 rear wheel, I made different plates for that.
Not sure if there was any point in that, but at least It is possible to make a trail bike or slightly slacker and lower mullet out of it. Or I know my friend has 250 coil shock I can test.
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Rode quite a lot with 356mm bb. No pedal strikes and it was fine, but I always had a feeling that I’m very high up. Finally I got used to it riding local woods, but then I visited bike park and again that strange high feeling came back. I did lower it to 350 - felt a lot better, but then I started rubbing ST when bottoming.
Reach is good when pedaling or just playing around, but bike park felt a little short. Maybe because of high bb? I have ridden shorter bikes and felt fine. I’ll just get used to it or get higher bars.
Anyways it was good just needs a little tinkering, but I would say this bike has been a success.
I made a fork bushing burnishing tool 35.055 size. After burnishing and Supergliss 68k it feels buttery smooth. I did try rockshox oil and a few fully synthetic motor oils ppl are using, but they all felt sticky even after burnishing. 68k feels very good. Next week I’m going to try and re-valve my shock.
And now I have a mullet. Only one ride so far, but I liked it a lot. 344 mm BB height. First pedal strikes, but I’ll keep riding. Did not feel any slower, but climbing got harder, because we have a lot of very steep climbs and now the front end is too easy to lift. Next bike is going to have a bit longer chainstays and reach (if I don’t fuck up), ST angle is good (don’t want to go steeper because then there is going to be too much weight on my hands).
Next visit to bike park will give me more answers.
Would look 100x better with matching sidewalls, but I’m cheap and always buy tires that are discounted. Still love the way it looks.
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Cool!
How did you end up at 35.055 for your fork bushing tool? Just curious. Did you make a t-handle or do the drill and threaded rod style?
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I did want to make 35.07, but somehow ended up with .055. Decided to give it a go and it turned out that was all it needed. Bushings were not tight from factory. Easy job. T- handle made out of scrap. Head is made with a long narrower part, so it is easier to get it started.
A few years ago I burnished very tight bushings with 32.09 and they came out a bit too big for my taste ( could feel some play). That is why I decided to go smaller. This one was threaded rod attached to Makita power drill. Power drill makes too much heat. So I recommend T- handle. And if the bushing are really tight, I would make different sizes and work it bigger starting with something like .03.
Edit: ended up with .055 size, because the lowers slide into the uppers under their own weight. For me it was the indicator that everything is perfect. Usually need to go bigger to achieve that.
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Nice!
It’s amazing what you can achieve performance wise with bushing tools. I think each company and fork needs different sized inserts. Some need a bit more than others.
I have a t-handle bushing tool from Fox like yours and a threaded rod and drill type one from Ohlins. I have a few inserts that are .1 and .18 oversize but I’m mostly working on Fox and Ohlins forks. I did do a Zeb for a friend with the 38.18 insert and he loves it.
That’s an insert I made for the Ohlins tool.
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Good to know. You are more experienced then me then, maybe If I get bored, I’ll make bigger heads and see if it gets better. What fork bath oil do you like? To me the oil part seems to be even more important if the bushings are not too tight.
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