Started a new project.
I've got a daugther. She's 5'4"" tall and outgrown her current bike, a 15,5" carbon Specialized Stumpjumper 2009. So, she needed a new bike.
Because she's riding races in the Netherlands and last year she became Dutch Champion in her age (11 yr), there were some requirements for her new bike. It should be light, reliable and it should fits her well.
Should we buy a new bike or build a bike on our own, like I did for myself ?
Of course it would be a Chiner. Nothing more fun than building a bike together with your daugther. And I've got really good experience with building a chiner myself.
So, we contacted Peter of
XMCarbonSpeed.com. And Peter was willing to sponsor my daugther because of her results and the help I gave Peter during his startup his own new company (also credits to Sitar_Ned and Carbon_Dude).
In November Peter send us a 18" CS-136 27.5-er frame with a FK-052 fork. It came in in the beautifull UD black finish, but you know how girls are, the bike needed a design. So, my daugther thought some weeks about a design. Putting painter's tape on the bike, draw her decals on the bike and finally she knew what she wanted. A bike in gray with flakes and neon pink decals. Huh ? I tried to changes her mind to a complete neon yellow bike, but she wasn't sensitieve for my ideas. So, I digitilize her ideas and went to a local painter.
After three weeks (almost the end of Decembre) and a lot of communication with the painter, we got the frame and fork back. At that moment, I was really glad she didn't changed her mind
The painter putted two clear paint layers with flakes, two clear paint layers, neon pink decals and again two clear paint layers (total 96 gram). On some places you can see the carbon-'flames' through the paint. So nice!
Now the time was come to building up the bike. Together with my daugther. She was very interesting in how everything works, in all the ins and outs. And that's good. If there's a problem with her bike, she can fix is by herself or if she can't, she can exactly tell me where or what the problem is.
The build went well. The only issue we had was some left-overs from the painter. There was some paint in the BSA BB. And at the drop-out we had to sand some paint away. After that, it was a piece of cake to put all the parts together.
We used only new part like:
- Shimano XT M8000, 1x11, 34T, 11-42T
- Wheeltec wheelset (Ryde Edge rims with wheeltec hubs). Weight 1345gr.
- Schwalbe Racing Ralph 2.25 tyres. Tubeless.
- XTR pedals
- Carbon handlebar, stem, seatpost (3k weave)
- Procraft light weight saddle
- 16gr grips
Tip: When you ordering a carbon fork, order it together with a axle. I forgot this and I couldn't find one in Europe. Peter sent me the correct axle.
The day before her 12th birthday the bike was ready.
This nice birthday present got a final weight of 8.3 kg (18.3 lbs), without pedals and accessories.
Of course she was very happy with her new light weight racing bike. Hopefully she has a lot of fun on this bike during her races. Don't care if she wins or not, the only important thing is the fun-factor.
A final word to Peter of
XMCarbonSpeed.com: Thank you for sponsoring my daugther and being one of the people who makes it possible for her to ride her dream. Thank you!
Here're some pictures of the final result:
And here are some pictures of the design/painting/building proces:
