- Standing right next to me, here,
is the Santa Cruz bike build bike.
This is the bike we've been building
over the last few months,
on a weekly GMBN Tech show.
And, just before I tell
you everything about it,
I just wanna say a huge thank you
to all the manufacturers
and the bike brands
that have sent stuff
in for this bike build.
We're talking Santa Cruz, DT, Crankbros,
et cetera, et cetera.
A link to them all will be below this,
and the reason I wanna thank them
is because they're the
reason it's gonna make such
an amazing prize.
That's right, I'm giving this bike away,
you're gonna have to stick
around to find out about, though.
I just wanna tell you
all about the bike first.
(intro music)
So, at the heart of the bike, of course,
is this size large Santa
Cruz Nomad Alloy frame.
It's running the latest incarnation
of the virtual pivot point system on here,
with 170 millimeters of travel.
It's got boost 148 out back,
of course boost spacing
up the front, here.
And, what you can't see on here,
is it's got an Invisiframe
kit fitted to it,
so it's a custom 3m
Scotch protective coating
all over the bike, to
basically keep it looking
as good as possible,
for as long as possible.
So, of course, the Santa Cruz Nomad frame
is famous for coming in two incarnations,
in carbon and, of course,
the slightly cheaper alloy.
Of course, the riding
attributes are very similar,
it's got the same suspension platform,
everything is the same,
same geometry on there.
It's just slightly more wallet conscious,
and dare I say, some people actually
prefer an aluminum bike to a carbon bike,
so it is that option, there, too.
Now, in picking this
bike, it actually made
building the bike quite a hard process,
because when you buy a complete bike,
the way the manufacturers spec it,
is it's a method called OEM,
that's Original Equipment Manufacturing.
So, all of the stuff
that's spec'd on a bike
is purpose built, it's
not for the consumers
to buy in the aftermarket,
it's purpose built
for the manufacturers to spec,
so, they get a really good price on them.
So, although this frame
is just under $2000,
or there abouts, the
complete bikes are not really
that much more, you're talking
about three and a half.
So, really, for the stuff
you'd get on a bike like that,
it's actually very good value in relation
to the price of that frame.
So, I knew it was gonna
be a very hard task,
trying to keep the budget down,
so what I concentrated on was trying
to build it with affordable things,
but things that were gonna last.
We'd spent more money on
things that needed it,
less money on things that were just gonna
break and wear out.
Kind of just makes sense to
do that with a mountian bike,
given the nature of the
way you ride these things.
We'll talk a bit about the price,
what it came in as, afterwards,
but I just wanna talk about
the shock a little bit.
So, it's got the Rockshox
Deluxe Shock on here,
it's a really, really good shock.
It's very plush, very active.
And, of course, it can be tuned, as well,
which is something we
did over at T F Tuned.
If you wanna check that out,
the link to last week's video is just
in the description below this one,
where we take it over there,
and have a few things done to that.
Now, let's take a look
at the front of the bike,
because there's some cool
stuff going on up here.
So, up the front, here, we've
got a slightly different fork,
we took a look at Fox,
at DVO, at Rockshox,
and a whole bunch of other stuff,
and we've ended up with a
X Fusion Metric on here.
Now, X Fusion is a brand that's been
around for several years,
and they're also quite
famous for making internals
for a lot of other fork manufacturers.
So, this stuff is really,
really high quality,
and actually, we took this
fork over to T F Tuned
to get it set up, so it
could match that rear shock.
And, they were really
impressed by the quality
of the internals, there.
So, that's a good
testament, because they work
on a lot of products over there.
Now, it's 180 mil travel fork,
this is the latest version of this,
and it's got the black
stanchion tubes on it,
previously it had silver ones.
So, just looks a bit cooler, really.
It's got a 20 mil axel on there,
you've got adjustable high and low speed
compression damping, adjustable
rebound damping on there,
and it's an air-sprung fork.
Also, on the lower legs of the fork,
you've got these carbon protectors.
So, these are fantastic, because
they add almost no weight
to the fork, you can
customize the way it looks,
and it protects it, if you're
knocking the bike around,
maybe putting it in the back of a truck,
doing uplifts, going on
chairlifts, that sort of thing.
The fork underneath will
remain completely as it is.
The cool thing about these,
is we've had some custom
decals made up from Invisiframe
just to tie in with the rest of the frame.
And, I kinda go with
the trademark GMBN camo.
As for rolling stock on the bike,
we've gone for DT Swiss E
1900 Spline wheels on there.
Now, they might not be the most
expensive wheels out there,
but I love the simplicity of them.
So, they've got 25 mil
internal rim width on there,
don't get me wrong, I
really like wide rims,
but too wide can affect the
shape and profile of the tire,
so this was part of the consideration.
So, actually, these work out just right
with what I wanted to do with the bike.
They're traditionally spoked wheels,
so you can get those
replacement spokes anywhere,
and they're very easy to service, as well.
So, from that point of view,
it's a no frills wheels set,
they're nice and light, they
do what they need to do.
Now, I've got them set up tubeless,
we're using the milKit valve system,
which I'll often talk
about on a GMBN Tech show.
It's a product I really,
really believe in,
I think it's an excellent little product,
and I'm running, currently
in here, continental sealant,
because we run continental tires here,
at GMBN, so it's very
easy to use that stuff,
it works really well, job done really.
But tire wise, we've done
something a little bit different.
Because the bike's gonna be ridden
in a multitude of different conditions,
I chose to pick to three tires.
Now, this is what I choose to
do on my own personal bike,
so I run a variety of tires,
but I tend to normally run three.
So, up front on this one,
we've got a Maxxis Minion DHF,
so that's a down hill front-tire.
Now, out back, we've got the
Semi Slick option of the Minion
because at the moment,
the trails are still dry,
it's a super fast tire, but
it's still got nice support
on those shoulder lugs, there.
Really, really quite impressive.
But, for when the conditions
get a bit more demanding,
I'll swap it out and
put on a DHR two tire,
which has got amazing
traction, under-braking,
acceleration and it's got pretty much
the same side novels on there.
So, you don't have to
get used to another tire,
it just simply has more traction.
It's a really good versatile combination,
and it would do for riding in the UK,
at least, all year round.
So, up to the cockpit of the bike, here,
and we've got some really cool stuff,
so we've got a Race Face 35 mil diameter
bar and stem combo, we've got the aeffect.
So, the bar itself is the 20 mil rise,
and it's the 780 mil length.
The stem, we've gone for 40,
because it just reflects
the size larger the bike,
and kind of the aggressive nature of it.
There's plenty of room in
that front center, there,
so you can have a nice short stem for
direct, really stiff and
responsive steering on there.
We've got a Hope headset underneath here,
and combined with that, we've
got a good old GMBN top cap.
For the rest of the bars,
we've got the 50 to one
handlebar grips on here,
this is a collaboration
with Fabric Cycling.
It's kind of like a mushroom shaped grip,
but the profile itself
bulges out in the middle,
which really sits nicely
into the center of your hand.
Really supports you hand, it's
a really nice feeling grip,
they've done some great work
in getting that one out.
And, you might notice,
we've got a TRP G-spec
quadiem brakes on here.
Now, these brakes were actually
from my own personal bike,
but I decided I couldn't
not put them on this bike,
they just looked so good on it,
I think you'll agree, that
they're a pretty stunning brake,
and ultimately, they're
good enough for Gwin,
they're good enough for anyone.
Of course, the awesome stopping
power is further accentuated
by massive two or three
mil rotors, front and rear.
Making no comments about this bike,
180 front, 170 travel rear.
This bike is a beast, it
can be ridden really hard,
so you're gonna need that
extra stopping power.
Now, also, on the bars,
here, I got the shifter,
which is a box component to the shifter.
This is quite cool, because obviously,
there's a lot of great SRAM componentry
and great Shimano componentry,
but just nice to have something
a little bit different.
Got a nice positive action,
it's exactly what you want it to be.
It's quite neat looking to boot,
on the left hand side,
we've got the USE remote
for the dropper post,
which is the Helix post,
which we'll take a look at in a minute.
Something that's really cool about it,
is the USE logo is CNC machined
onto the thumb paddle, here.
So, actually gives it all
the traction you need,
so you don't need to do
any aftermarket hop ups
to give yourself better
traction with your gloves,
or your bare thumb in wet
conditions, for example.
Nice thinking.
Now, as far as perching
yourself on the bike goes,
we've got a custom one-off saddle, here.
So, this is made by Fabric,
and the color on the top of it,
the accents are very
close to the gold graphics
on the main frame, here.
Now, this saddle was
actually made for Mark Scott,
the Enduro racer, who
races for Santa Cruz.
But, on a recent visit to
Fabric, when we were over there,
we saw the saddle, I just had
to see if we could get it,
and we blagged it, they gave it to us.
So, sorry Mark, you don't get the saddle,
but I think everyone agrees,
it looks wicked on this bike.
Now, the saddle itself is perched
on the USE Helix dropper post.
Now, it's a fairly new product to market,
it comes in various
different sizes and drops.
This particular one has
165 millimeters of drop,
and the thing that I really like about it,
even through I've not
really spent any time on it,
is that fact it's a completely
mechanical operation post.
Unlike all the other ones
that got hydraulic cartridges
in there, this one simply has the spiral
Helix on the inside.
It's got an air valve on the inside,
and the air basically is just
tuned to return the post,
that's all it's there for.
Now, Helix is the mechanical operation,
so hopefully, in the long term,
it's just gonna be a very reliable post.
Now, out back, of course, we've got
the same DT Swiss wheels,
I've already referenced the tires,
it's the same sealant, and yeah,
again, the same MilKit
valve system on there.
The transmission is where things
get a little bit different.
So, at the moment, we know a lot of people
are choosing to run a
12-speed transmission
and they do work fantastically well.
However, I do like the fact that 11-speed
is that little bit lighter,
and I especially like
the E thirteen cassettes.
So, the E thirteen cassette
is a very different design,
from both the Sram XD system
and the regular Shirmano system.
So, it's actually got a little
tiny nine tooth sprocket,
it goes up to 46, so it's
a huge spread of gears.
But by having that nine tooth on there,
you can actually run a
smaller chainring up front.
So, in this case, we've got a 32
and you still get a really
good spread of gears.
Now, they achieved this by not
having a traditional lockring
or lock-in style system at the bottom.
So, the upper part of the cassette,
which is the top three sprockets here,
these actually slide on and
then they lock in place,
as per the Sram XD system
and the lower part of this
cassette, the steel part,
which would actually get more use,
so therefore is slightly
more resistant to that,
actually locks on to the
upper part of the cassette.
So, really, really cool
system, I really like it.
Like I said, we've got a DMR
32 tooth chainring up front,
we've got the DMR Axe Cranks.
So, these things are absolutely solid,
but, there not that heavy either.
So, these are the cranks,
been around by the Scott
Velosolutions team all year.
So, Brendan Fairclough, he's
been sending on these things.
They look really good and I love the fact
it's a British design thing as well.
Just a nice little extra touch on there.
So, chain wise, we've got a
black and gold one on here,
just to tie in with the
rest of the color ways.
It's a Connex Wipperman chain,
now, Connex have actually
been around since
the late 1800s, they're a
really, really old chain company.
Been making chains for an awful long time,
and they're very good.
I've run them for a long time,
and I've got nothing but praise for them.
So, it was really good to
get this chain on here,
it's nice and reliable.
As far as the derailleur goes,
we've gone for the box two,
so it's an 11 speed system,
it's got its own clutch design.
And, I think I just like because
it's not a Sram or Shimano.
Sram and Shimano, we know
make excellent transmissions,
but it's really cool that someone else
is actually doing this as well,
and it works really good, too.
And just to finish the bike off,
I've put my choice of pedals on here,
because there's a lot of pedals out there.
There's a lot of different
styles of pedals,
there's the flat pedals,
there's the clipless pedals,
Shirmano, Crankbrothers, TIME, Look.
I run the Crankbrothers
mallet Enduros, I love them.
They work really great with
the shoes I choose to run,
so, it's a nice 15 pedal for
the bike, so that's all good.
And then, when I was at Eurobike,
I spotted the Fidlock system.
So, this is a bottle with a
magnetic retention system on it,
I was so impressed by
it, they gave me one,
but I've actually decided to
put it on this bike, as well.
So, really cool system, actually fits
on a lot of different
bikes, that you wouldn't
be able to get a bottle
on quite as easily.
Retention system has an actual, sort of,
retaining device, as well
as the magnets on there,
that help pull it into the
bike, and look at this.
And, it won't come off,
like other bottles can do,
this one is has got a really neat system,
so impressed with that.
And it's a no-brainer,
on a Enduro focused bike
to have a water bottle on there, as well.
Now, of course, there is the small issue,
the fact the bike has taken
quite long to put together.
Personally, I've really enjoyed that,
because I've been just cherry picking
what needs to go on there
in getting it built.
But, there has been a
few issues with supply,
here and there.
The frame, for example,
came direct from Santa Cruz,
the tires came direct from Maxxis,
the wheels came direct from Switzerland.
There's all sort of stuff on here
that's come direct from Source.
Again, the Race Face bars and
stem, they came from Canada.
Everything, really, has come
from the source countries.
So, it actually has taken a bit longer
than I originally anticipated,
and certainly a lot longer
than if I was actually
just buying the stuff and
building the bike for myself.
I just wanna emphasize that point,
the fact that so many
component, bike brands
and manufacturers have helped with this
bike build project.
There's been stuff coming
from all around the world,
like I emphasized the point
of frame coming from America,
the headset coming from North Yorkshire,
it's really cool that all
these brands have done it.
So, thank you to all of them,
Santa Cruz, X Fusion, Rockshox,
everyone that's contributed
to this project has made
it such a good prize.
And, that's right, were
giving this bike away,
which was my intention from the beginning.
It had to be right,
everything had to be just good
and set on the bike.
So, the bike itself, what is it worth?
What do you need to know about it?
So, the Santa Cruz frame, like I told you,
retailed for just under two thousand,
the complete built on these,
between three and a half and
just under four and a half.
Now, when they started getting to about
three and a half grand,
I stopped counting.
So, I estimate this is
worth about four thousand,
but really, to me, it's
worth a lot more than that,
because I had a great time building this
and hand specing everything
that I would wanna ride myself
on a bike like this.
As far as winning this bike goes,
it's a size large, it's a one off,
there isn't another one just like this,
anywhere on earth, right now.
And, if you wanna win it,
the link is in the description below.
But, it's not just as
easy as clicking a link
and putting your name and address in,
you're gonna have to work for this,
because it's a one-off bike.
Its a really cool
social-based competition,
so good luck with that one.
If you wanna see some more
really cool custom bikes,
check out our Pro Bikes
playlist, right down here.
And, that's where we go to all
the races, around the world
and check out the pro
riders actual race bikes.
Super cool stuff in there.
But don't forget, if you
wanna win this actual bike,
click the link below this
video, share it around,
you might have some friends
that also wanna enter the competition.
Let everyone know about
it, the more the merrier.
And, of course, don't
forget to like, to share
and to subscribe to our channel.
