So I usually ride a fat and have a lot of fun doing so, but I've decided it is limiting me from getting better. I know technically you can do anything on just about anything with practice, but I find it difficult to get any better at stuff like manuals, wheelies, more technical and related skills. So I decided I wanted to build my own bike both to save money and to do it once. Almost everything has been purchased already, so if there's anything that looks glaringly wrong or missing then sucks for me, but I'd still love to hear it!
For the frame I'm chancing it with the ICAN Trail P1
https://icancycling.com/collections/mtb-frame/products/trail-bike-frame-p1. FWIW I spoke to them through email and got a better deal than the website, and they were definitely a pleasure to work with. Going for a matte purple color. They also were initially advertising 15-20 days to build and paint, but it actually shipped out same day I ordered! Now just impatiently waiting for it to make it to Texas. Message me if you're curious about the price, since sending an email is really easy I won't post it in here out of courtesy.
For the fork I picked up a X-Fusion Slide 34 RC with 140mm of travel. - $320
Rear shock is a X-Fusion O2 RL Pro 200 x 51. I saw some reviews that suggested rebuilding this might be difficult, but it was also $100. I know X-Fusion doesn't seem to have the greatest rep, but I'm comfortable with at least trying these based on how much I paid. - $100
Wheels were difficult for me. I was so tempted to build a set just to say I've done it, but I ended up getting a set of new Roval Traverse Alloy's in 29. These are the newer 28 spoke, they look pretty solid especially for what I paid. - $300
Tires are going to be a Maxxis Minion DHR II 3C in 29x2.4 in back, and a Schwalbe Magic Mary Soft in 29x2.35 up front. I'll be setting it up tubeless of course. Maxxis - $50.58 Schwalbe - $38.91
Brakes are Magura's MT Trail Sport, with a 180 front, 160 rear. - $141
I've got a Shimano XT 12 speed shifter and derailleur, and have a 10-50T XD cassette ordered. Shifter - $50, derailleur $75, cassette $130.
I'm going to add a dropper, currently looking for deals on eBay or I'll salvage the X-Fusion Manic I'm running on my Farley right now. - Salvaging the Farley dropper for now $free
I've also ordered a Renthal Fatbar Lite Carbon with a 10mm rise. - $120
I'm also going to try some shorter crank arms, with a 160 Canfield Bros GXP crankset with 30t wolf direct mount chainring. Bought this at used with a BB and need to confirm what the bottom bracket is still but supposed to be decent quality and I know it'll fit. And after reading all the controversy in the forums on using shorter I'm curious to see what the short arms are like at least! - $120 for the set (used)
For odds and ends I've got the following:
RaceFace Chester's ($38)
ODI Ruffian's on order ($33)
OneUp Components bash guard($79)
Spank Split stem (already owned, $free)
Fabric Scoop Elite seat that I'm taking back from the Farley ($free).
I've got parts ordered from all over so I might be missing something, but I think that covers it.
What do you guys think? Now that I have all my pricing info, this will hopefully be a pretty sweet build for under $2500. Even if you added in the costs for the dropper, stem, and seat it's still probably fairly close to that price. This does exclude shipping prices, and since I used eBay some of it would be YMMV to repeat, but most of these prices are either still available or can be found with a little bit of searching. As things continue to arrive I'll keep adding pictures!
