Meet Frank

I think the name is going to stick.  Borne from the parts of many past bikes Frank is truely a monster but can it be tamed? Actually Frankenstein was not the monster. The monster was known as "The Creature" and Frankenstein was the monsters create.  But that kind of attention to detail would be lost on naming a bike, so Frank it is.

So, last year I did the Metallak race.  After much debate over which bike to ride I determined that a mountain bike would be faster...So I took my cross bike.  Even though I did well on the cross bike I was stressed the whole race and felt like a mountain bike would have worked better.  Except all my mountain bikes are heavy and there is a lot of climbing and hike-a-bike.  Fast forward 11 months.

I signed up for the Metallak race again and bought a new lightweight carbon bike.  No, not the bike for this race, I bought a carbon road bike.  But, with just a month before the race the seller had a  good lead on a light mountain bike.  Well actually it was just a mountain bike frame.  And it was in  New Hampshire.  Fortunately he also had a lot of spare lightweight mountain bike parts that he was willing to sell cheap.  And I have a decent set of wheels that would finish it off. So sight unseen I decided to buy it.  I'd have it 2 weeks before the race.  

The frame was very nice!

I actually had the option of a lightweight carbon fork or a decent suspension fork.  Since I've never owned a hardtail with a front suspension I figured I'd give that option a try.  The fork actually outweighs the frame.

Some Assembly Required.

Having just gone through my first full bike build this didn't seem like it would be too hard.

There, I put them in the right places.

The bike actually took shape very quickly.  Most of my time was spend refurbishing some of the old parts before I put them on.  I'd say 2 hours were spent futzing with the Rock Shox remote including a youtube search on how to remove the cable.  I finally determined was un-salvageable. Luckily the seller had given me a spare!

Next I went to change the SRAM 104 BCD 32T chainring to the SRAM 104 BCD 36T chainring and found that it was made for a slightly different spider size. 

WTF?

The new chainring said Eagle and the crank was GPX but otherwise they seemed like there was no reason for the change.

There I fixed it.

So after dropping one of the fucking chainring bolts in a very full trash can and needing to fish it out of the greasy rags, I got it installed.

It Fits Now!

I got the crank installed with the BB30 to GPX adapters and noticed that it didn't install tight enough to pre-load the bearings and hold them into the frame.  Adding spacers on the non-drive side didn't help.  I finally realized that there was a step in the non-drive side adapter and tightening the crank only forced the spindle harder into the step.  What I didn't realized until much later was that adding spacers to the drive side would take up this slack.  That still isn't actually done yet but I know what I have to do.

That doesn't look right.

OK, the bike is built except for the nit-picky things.  The frame is apparently set up for a 140mm rear rotor and I have a 160.  And the front is set up for a 160mm but I have a 180 I knew that but only have one spacer.  If only my caliper mounting bolts were just a little longer.  Unfortunately with the brakes dangling on the frame it makes the bike totally un-rideable until I make a special trip to a bike shop.

2-1/2 hours later I can finish it.

I'd love to say that if I had a local bike shop that it would have been easier.  But so far every local shop has never had any of the special parts I am looking for.  That is probably one of the reasons that all 3 of them have gone out of business.
 

Test Ride Time

Overall the size seems good.  I've got the seatpost about as high as it goes to get the leg extension that I like for XC riding and to make  mountain bikers cringe.  The test ride went well but I felt like the seat kept slamming me in the ass in the bumps.  Not unlike how my old Pugsley use to feel.  I know, I know, drop the seat.  That always leaves me feeling like my power stroke is incomplete.  Probably because it is.  I think the answer is to drop the font bars to a more aggressive riding position.  I was also told it looks "Silly" the way it is.

Frank

I determined that the old pads and rotors didn't team up and stop the bike all that well so I pulled them apart and give the rotors a light sanding and burned any old mineral oil off the pads with a blowtorch.  Better.

First Metallak Test on Frank

I took Frank out on the first real ride on my Metallak Test Commute Route.  My time was 16 seconds slower than the previous mountain bike test.  To be fair, I did have to portage around a very broken bridge for this ride and I had a headwind.  Overall I still feel way too upright and the seatpost wants to compress my spine over the bumps.  I think the bars need to go lower and the seat needs to go back so I can bend and not break. Lower tire pressure wouldn't hurt either.

I'm looking forward to repeating my Metallak Test with this bike with the Schwalbe Big One tires mounted tubeless to see how it compares.