MTB build for MrsBssll

[JhnBssll]

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

 

[Reynard]

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...

 

[cyberknight]

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

 

[jowwy]

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

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 😊

View attachment 628351

View attachment 628352

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

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

 

[avsd]

and so another project thread begins ....

Watch thread option selected 👍

 

[Ming the Merciless]

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

 

[T4tomo]

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

 

[JhnBssll]

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

 

[fossyant]

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

 

[fossyant]

Looks a good project though.

 

[JhnBssll]

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

 

[fossyant]

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.

 

[JhnBssll]

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

 

[JhnBssll]

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 😊

 

[JhnBssll]

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