What’s in the stand, pt. 1…

Here’s a bike that was recently in the stand. Custom Steve Potts 26″ wheel mountain bike. The owner originally was going to go with flat bars. However, after visiting my shop and seeing all the mountain bikes I have with drop bars, decided to pull out her old WTB drops and thumb shift adapters to organize the build around those two items.

Building a bike around parts from the 1980’s in 2010 is not so easy. Things have changed, yet they really haven’t. Because the thumb shift adapters only accept Shimano 6 or 7 speed thumb shifters and decent wide-range (with close ratios) cassettes aren’t available in 6 or 7 speed, that posed an immediate challenge. The solution: the Shimano 7-speed thumb shifter has an extra “click” in it allowing the use of an 8-speed cassette. There are decent wide range 8-speed cassettes available. The base for the build is now established.

The wheels are built with a set of White Industries MI6 hubs. I like the hubs from White Ind. better with each wheel I build with them. Rims are WTB’s Laser Disc Trail and spokes are DT Swiss 14g butted Competition. Just a nice wheel that will last for damn near ever.

One of the things I really like about the White Industries hubs is that they are light, cheap, and strong. Well, relatively cheap when compared to some of the other wallet-draining hubs on the market. They are light, while at the same time, they have a stainless steel (instead of aluminum) hubshell. Why is this important? Because with aluminum, you are stuck replacing cassettes with ones that have aluminum spiders every time you replace your cassette. Standard steel cassettes will dig into and damage aluminum cassette bodies. I see riders all the time who bring their bikes in to the shop in need of new chains and cassettes who are limited to more expensive cassette replacements which sometimes, they don’t feel they can afford. The White Ind. hub gives the owner options.

The rest of the build is fairly straight forward: XTR derailleur (XT up front), RaceFace cranks, Avid BB7 road disc calipers, Thomson post, Brooks seat, RockShox Reba fork, WTB Wolverine tires. The green Salsa seat post clamp, quick release levers, and King green headset are nice touches. Yes, there are a stack of spacers under the stem. If it had been known that drop bars were going to be used on the bike, the front end geometry would have been slightly different. As it sits, the position is perfect and a custom stem that eliminates most of the spacers is on the table.

How ’bout some pictures?

(What’s playing: KWMR Morning Glory)