# MTB build for MrsBssll



## JhnBssll (26 Jan 2022)

I've been scouring eBay for some time now waiting for a project frame to come up and today I won a slightly ropey looking and incomplete Boardman Pro FS frame for £32 😄







I want to build a relatively nice bike for her so have also picked up a used Monarch+ DebonAir rear shock, some cheap used SID's which need a bit of TLC and some lovely looking 26" wheels with Hope hubs 😊











I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the frame and forks colour-wise yet; if the paint cleans up alright I'll leave them as they are but if they're too scruffy I'll probably strip and paint them with new graphics.

Groupset-wise she has trouble with her right hand/arm so I've bought an 11 speed gripshift shifter and will mount it on the left of the bars, coupled to a 1x11 SRAM setup. Probably GX but depends what I can get second hand 😊 Brakes are yet undecided - ideally I'd like Hope's to go with the hubs but I cant imagine getting them particularly cheaply so I may have to look at other options.

This should be fun, I'm looking forward to the arrivial of the frame 😊 First jobs will be to measure up the rear shock mounts to order a mounting kit so I can fit the rear shock plus sorting a headset and stem so I can fit the forks  It feels like a while since i've had a bicycle related project


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## Reynard (26 Jan 2022)

Ah, another one of your projects. Looking forward to see where this one's going to end up... 

I like the red and gold of the front fork - why not make the rest of the bike match? Besides, I really *like* red bikes...


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## cyberknight (27 Jan 2022)

nice just one thought from their road bike range they used tapered head tubes, not sure if thats relevant for your build ?


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## jowwy (27 Jan 2022)

JhnBssll said:


> I've been scouring eBay for some time now waiting for a project frame to come up and today I won a slightly ropey looking and incomplete Boardman Pro FS frame for £32 😄
> 
> View attachment 628350
> 
> ...


You mean the wife doesnt get Di2 or sram etap………


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## avsd (27 Jan 2022)

and so another project thread begins ....

Watch thread option selected 👍


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## Ming the Merciless (27 Jan 2022)

I think a red and black colour scheme would work well with the forks. The forks appear to have better paint condition.


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## T4tomo (27 Jan 2022)

Ming the Merciless said:


> I think a red and black colour scheme would work well with the forks. The forks appear to have better paint condition.


agree with with this, the forks look more loved that the frame, but that might just be cosmetic muck that cleans up. Maybe some tasteful decals in red and black on the frame to tie the two together more might be a more economical solution than a respray


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## JhnBssll (28 Jan 2022)

The frame arrived this morning, as did the rear shock  Both are in better condition than I'd hoped so that's a great start  The frame has several chips and scrapes but less than I'd expect on a 12yr old mtb frame, and the rear shock looks almost brand new 😊

The shock was advertised as recently serviced so if it works ok when it's bolted together that will have been a real steal - they retail at ~£500 new and I paid £140 for it 






Back to the frame - the linkage bearings feel smooth with no detectable play, another good start as it seems spares for these are hard to come by  I've just ordered some shock mount bush kits but still need to locate some suitable mounting bolts. I've signed up to a boardman owners group on facebook and am hoping someone can give me some specs so I can order something similar to the originals 😊 As I mentioned before there are some scuffs and chips but nothing too horrid, I'm looking forward to seeing what it looks like once the old yellowing tape has been removed and the paint cleaned up a bit 😊 MrsBssll seems keen to keep it white so I might look into finding a close match to touch in the chips.















I won a SRAM GX mech on eBay last night for £26, listed as spares or repair so I'll try and fix that and get it working again when it arrives. I found a new SRAM 11-42 cassette and NX 1x11 chainset too so they've both been snapped up  I need to work out what length BB axle I need - it's a 68mm shell and the cranks need a Truvativ PowerSpline BB but they come in 108, 113 and 118mm axle lengths so need to get that right 😄

Anyway, I'll update as and when more bits arrive or I get a chance to strip the frame down a bit to clean and inspect


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## fossyant (28 Jan 2022)

Ave you finished that van yet, or the kitchen, or the porch.... Glutton for punishment !


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## fossyant (28 Jan 2022)

Looks a good project though.


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## JhnBssll (28 Jan 2022)

fossyant said:


> Ave you finished that van yet, or the kitchen, or the porch.... Glutton for punishment !



I think a better question would be "will I ever finish that van, or the kitchen, or the porch..." 

I guess I like a varied workload


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## fossyant (28 Jan 2022)

JhnBssll said:


> I think a better question would be "will I ever finish that van, or the kitchen, or the porch..."
> 
> I guess I like a varied workload



We need van updates !

Any plans I had for a little van have been completely messed up by Manchester city council now with their huge clean air zone.


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## JhnBssll (28 Jan 2022)

fossyant said:


> We need van updates !
> 
> Any plans I had for a little van have been completely messed up by Manchester city council now with their huge clean air zone.



It's still being used for waste disposal from the building works between bicycle trips so I'm hesitant to finish the interior just yet - won't be long until I've got most of the messy stuff done though


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## JhnBssll (2 Feb 2022)

Rear mech update! The GX 'spares or repair' mech arrived yesterday and I've just had a tinker with it. It was advertised as having a seized lower jockey wheel (easy fix) and being bent. I've seen and repaired a lot of bent cages in my time, it's not always possible to get them perfect but generally worth a punt. The cage was the first thing I looked at when I unwrapped it and was a little confused to find it perfectly straight but hanging at a definite angle to the mounting bolt...






On closer inspection I realised the parallel linkages were twisted, I've never seen one do that before 






The linkage pivot pins are held in with circlips which meant I could strip it down and take a closer look, so that's exactly what I did. On removing the first pin it was pretty obvious it had taken a bit of a knock 










Once it was fully stripped I took the linkages and pins in to the garage and hit them with a hammer repeatedly until they complied, then brought them back indoors for reassembly...











Great success, one straightened bargain rear mech  I'll pop the jockey wheel out later and see if that's salvageable too but pretty sure I've got some spares I can throw in if needed 

The wheels are in a box downstairs, they arrived earlier - I'll do another update later when I've opened them up and had a look 😊


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## JhnBssll (2 Feb 2022)

Wheels - slightly disappointing. They were advertised as true and in good nick, but there are 4 dents in the rear rim and one in the front and they're not true  I can straighten them up, but do I really want to? The answer is no, so I've contacted the eBay seller to try and come to an agreement. I'll keep them but will need to rebuild the nice Hope hubs on to new rims, with new spokes too. It's not the end of the world, I've managed to find a pair of brand new 26" disc rims in white for £18 so have ordered them already  

Here are a few of the dings in the rim - how anyone could think these were in good condition is beyond me


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## Reynard (2 Feb 2022)

Maybe if your name is Albert Steptoe...


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## JhnBssll (2 Feb 2022)

Time to clean up the frame! I got the degreaser out and readied the heat gun to heat up the stickers and protective tape for removal then got to work... It came up quite nicely!






There are still some big chunks of paint missing but I'm not sure what to do with those bits now - the paint is slightly pearlescent now its clean so I'm unlikely to be able to match it to touch in the chips. Current plan is to build it up without any cosmetic work and let MrsBssll ride it around for a while, then strip and paint it at a later date if she so wishes 

You may have noticed the shock is fitted - the frame came with no fittings at all for the shock so I had to measure up and order some custom bits from offsetbushings.com. They fit a treat! Unfortunately they were unable to provide bolts so I did some more measuring and investigations and discovered the lower bolt is almost identical to those used on the Vitus Mystique shock mounts, so ordered a bolt kit from CRC for £2 and it fit perfectly  I couldn't find an upper bolt so I've ordered a selection of high tensile M8 bolts and will work out which one fits best, I might have to cut one down but we'll get there eventually. Until then I've popped a random M8 bolt through to hold the shock in place while I mess around fitting bits


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## JhnBssll (3 Feb 2022)

With the frame clean and the shock mounted (albeit temporarily) I decided to test fit some more bits. First I wanted to try and salvage the seized jockey wheel so whipped it off the mech and had a look under the metal dust caps. I was quite surprised to find a sealed cartridge bearing under lots of solid black gunk - goes some what to explain why these mechs are over a hundred quid new I guess! I was able to carefully pop the seals off either side with a craft knife then scoop most of the crud out before flushing it through with degreaser. Once it was clean I worked it back and forth until it was spinning freely again then repacked it with grease and refitted 










With the mech in place I decided to pop the cassette and disc on the rear wheel and fit that too...






Why stop there? Despite not having the headset yet I figured I ought to pop the forks in and mount the front wheel too...






Despite having SRAM running gear I decided to go Shimano for the brakes. SRAM brakes seem to have issues and I couldn't find any Hope's at a reasonable second hand price. I found a full set of Shimano XT levers and calipers in good condition on eBay and they arrived this morning so I offered them up to check they would fit. All seems fine so far!











Next item to source will be the bottom bracket. I offered up the NX crank arm this evening, I think I'm going to go for the shortest axle variant as it would seem to suit the chainline. Worst case I'll have to send it back and order another


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## JhnBssll (4 Feb 2022)

Popped in to the garage after work as the headset arrived this morning... It went in nice and easily so I've built the front end up...





I've given the front caliper a bit of a clean and fitted new pads, I'll do the same with the rear another day...






While I was cabling up the rear mech the bottom bracket arrived so I was able to test fit the cranks and pedals too 😄











I found a seat post in my odds'n'sods cupboard which fits nicely so thats a result... I've got a chain and front chain guide arriving tomorrow, otherwise I'm waiting on the replacement rims which are due Monday and a saddle which I haven't ordered yet  Spokes and red nipples arrived today 😄 Quick progress with this one, hopefully it'll be ready for a test ride next weekend


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## Ming the Merciless (4 Feb 2022)

JhnBssll said:


> The frame arrived this morning, as did the rear shock  Both are in better condition than I'd hoped so that's a great start  The frame has several chips and scrapes but less than I'd expect on a 12yr old mtb frame, and the rear shock looks almost brand new 😊
> 
> The shock was advertised as recently serviced so if it works ok when it's bolted together that will have been a real steal - they retail at ~£500 new and I paid £140 for it
> 
> ...



Reminded me I have a fox rear shock to sell.


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## fossyant (4 Feb 2022)

SRAM jockeys are well known to seize. The dust caps trap crud between the cartridge seals and the cap, sometimes melting the seal.

Moved to BBB jockeys as they don't trap the dirt.


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## JhnBssll (5 Feb 2022)

The replacement rims arrived unexpectedly today so I cancelled my prior plans and got busy with the spoke wrench 😄 Here's the front wheel after some time spent delacing, relacing and tensioning...






I had wanted to alternate between black and red nipples but they had no stock of the black so went with all red instead 😄 A nice bit of bling for MrsB 

With both build up I figured I'd try a ghetto tubeless setup despite the rims not being tubeless compatible - always worth a try at mtb tyre pressures  I wouldn't say they were holding pressure, but they're also not haemorrhaging air so I suspect given long enough they'll seal, fingers crossed 






And a close up at the back with the red nipples...






It should end up being a pretty decent bike at this rate 😄 I've got a chain and chain guide to fit but I've had enough tinkering today


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## Reynard (5 Feb 2022)

That's starting to look like quite a cool thing. Loving the colour scheme. 

Question - what are the pedals, btw? They look like they'd be a good colour match for my Raleigh Max...


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## JhnBssll (5 Feb 2022)

Reynard said:


> That's starting to look like quite a cool thing. Loving the colour scheme.
> 
> Question - what are the pedals, btw? They look like they'd be a good colour match for my Raleigh Max...



Thanks, I think its looking cool too 

The pedals are Spanks Spoon, purchased as they're currently on sale at Wiggle, here... https://www.wiggle.co.uk/spank-spoon-dc-pedals


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## Reynard (5 Feb 2022)

Thanks


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## T4tomo (7 Feb 2022)

Looking very nice. the white rims / red nipples ties it all together nicely


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## JhnBssll (8 Feb 2022)

I had some time to tinker this evening so fitted the front chain guard, chain and saddle. I then spent some time setting up the gears, brakes and suspension. I was a bit peeved to find the damping adjustment knob missing on the bottom of the SID fork leg, that needs some investigation. There is no obvious compression or rebound damping when the forks are compressed so either the knob has gone missing with them set at minimum or the entire damping cartridge is missing  I guess I'm going to have to open them up at some point and find out 

Other than that it's rather fab.. The tyres are still not holding pressure perfectly but neither are they completely flat when I go back to them so I'm expecting them to be fine after a few rides have swilled the sealant around nicely 😊


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## Chislenko (8 Feb 2022)

Excuse my ignorance, is that saddle front dip a female specific thing?


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## Reynard (8 Feb 2022)

Chislenko said:


> Excuse my ignorance, is that saddle front dip a female specific thing?



Nope, SMP make 'em like that with the droop snoot - both male and female-specific versions. Some people swear by SMP saddles, others maintain they're made by Torquemada...

That's saddles for you.


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## Chislenko (8 Feb 2022)

Reynard said:


> Nope, SMP make 'em like that with the droop snoot - both male and female-specific versions. Some people swear by SMP saddles, others maintain they're made by Torquemada...
> 
> That's saddles for you.



Thanks Reynard, must say don't pay much attention to passing saddles as they usually have a backside hiding them 🙂


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## Reynard (8 Feb 2022)

Chislenko said:


> Thanks Reynard, must say don't pay much attention to passing saddles as they usually have a backside hiding them 🙂



Indeed. 

I bought a S/H bike off someone on here that had an SMP fitted. First time I came across one. Not my  in the saddle department despite giving it a try, I'm a Charge Ladle / Madison Leia kind of girl.


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## jowwy (9 Feb 2022)

Chislenko said:


> Thanks Reynard, must say don't pay much attention to passing saddles as they usually have a backside hiding them 🙂


i have two of those saddles on both my ebikes.....they are like comfy armchairs


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## AndyRM (14 Feb 2022)

Very nice!


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## yo vanilla (6 Mar 2022)

Early in the thread I was thinking I quite like the white paint, and I am glad to see it's worked out!


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