Building A $15K MTB For An Important Cause

Today I'm a little emotional and very confused, because this build is for the trails, trails that one year ago were devastated by Hurricane Helene. That storm redrew topographic maps and turned the entire outdoor economy upside down. But one year later, Western North Carolina has made quite the recovery. We're going to keep it going by raffling off this bike to raise funds for our mountain bike trails, and I've been asked by the organizers to build it. That's why I'm confused. Build what? It's an $11,000 bike. It's already got parts on it. It's put together. It rides. What the heck are we building? I guess let's get it inside. So the fact that we're replacing a bunch of high-end parts on this bike and putting parts from local companies like Industry 9 and Cane Creek, that makes sense because they're supporting this project. But what doesn't make sense is why they started with a complete bike rather than a frame set. I mean, what are we going to do with all these parts that we take off of it? I don't know. Just go with it. This is for charity. It'll all get put to good use. Let's do a little experiment, shall we? It's called Chat GPT versus looking stuff up. In recent years, people have lost the ability to look stuff up, and what you'll find with bicycle stuff is that oftentimes it's more trouble than it's worth to use Chat GPT. So I'm going to look up where all these spacers go, and then I'm going to cross-check that with actually looking it up and see if it gets it right. This is the bottom bracket bearing. It gets installed into the frame, and then depending on exactly what frame you have, there are going to be spacers between one or both of the cups and the frame. You have to look that up. Then there's a crank set itself, and depending on what crank set you're installing on what frame, there are usually spacers on either side, and then the rest is taken up by this little tension ring over here. So the key piece of information we need is the bottom bracket shell width, which in this case is 73 millimeters. I can see that with a caliper, and I could look it up if I didn't have one. Then you're going to check with the manufacturer of the crank set to figure out where all the spacers go. In this case, it's Cane Creek, and they give us a little QR code. Okay, this little black spacer that comes with the cranks, you have to put this on the drive side on a mountain bike. Says it in the instructions. As for the bottom bracket, they want this little spacer to go between the bearing and the frame. So it should be laid out exactly like this, how I have it on the bench. Let's see what Chachibitty thinks we're supposed to do. Let's see what our robot overlords say. Between frame and BB cups, one two and a half millimeter bottom bracket cup spacer on the drive side. So the first thing it tells me to do is absolutely incorrect. Let me push back. Are you sure that spacer goes on the drive side? And it got it wrong again. What's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is, if you can't look stuff up, you still need to go to a bike shop. Okay, this is not a replacement for a bike shop. You either need the ability to look things up like our ancestors in 2020 did. Yeah, it just, it can't get it right. Consistently gets bike stuff wrong. All right. Well, we know this is installed right now, but I need closure on the Chachibitty thing. So I sent it a screenshot from the user manual and it said, you're right. Your screenshots from Cane Creek's Hellbender BSA 30 install guide, blah, blah, blah. And then I said, so to confirm everything you told me was wrong and I am right. And it said, yeah. Right, you're using this to write your doctoral dissertation and it can't even get a bottom bracket spacer right. I don't know what else to tell you. This situation over here with the rag is causing me some anxiety. So let's install the shock. I'm going to show you something you can do for style points. It's easy and anybody can do it. So as you can see, the label's upside down over there. So we want to peel off the label and put it back on the other way so that it shows right side up. Very small detail doesn't add that much speed to the bike, but there's an easy way to do it with a blow dryer or a heat gun. So you could probably do this without heat, but heat makes stickers behave themselves. And so we want to warm it up. Don't get it too hot. If you get it too hot, it's going to stretch and do all sorts of stuff. Just get it significantly warmer than room temperature and then carefully peel it off. This sticker's being kind of stubborn. I'm such an idiot. Why did I decide to do this? I screwed the sticker up. Well these decals are easy to get because people like to color coordinate their bikes and so we will install it and then when that decal comes in, we'll put it back on. So from here on, I'm going to be really careful not to make any more mistakes like this. After all, Pisgah Areosorba asked me to build this bike for them because A, I can get the word out about their fundraiser, which I care about as well, but B, they must think I know what I'm doing. So this can be our little secret. Next. We're installing one of these upside down Fox podium forks. I've never even seen one of these in real life and so we're going to read the user manual really carefully. So I'm just going to cut this fork to the same as the one that came on the bike. When you use a pipe cutter to cut one of these, it leaves a nice burr on the fork. I'm going to show you what to do to get rid of that. So this is going to present a problem when you're putting your stem back on. It's going to scratch up the inside. Not good. You can use a file or some emery cloth or whatever to grind that down or go over to Harbor Freight or something and get one of these, a deburring tool. It'll do the outside and it'll also do the inside. Next, the star nut. This goes inside the steerer tube. We don't install this because this bike came with a little multi-tool in the steerer tube and this goes inside and compresses the bearing. Last little detail, if we were swapping a fork like this, normally we'd take the old fork and pull this little guy off. The crown race, that's where the bottom bearing fits, but we have a new crown race along with upgraded bearings. It's overkill, but that's a good thing. Now many crown races will just push on. They have a split in the middle and you can just use force. This one, you would have to use a block of wood and a rusty hammer to get on as I did when I rode BMX as a kid. But ever since I misplaced my block of wood, I've been using this crown race setting tool. I think this is a little much. I'm going to change some stuff around. Okay, that looks good, works good. Let's route the brake hose, which they seem to be making out to be more complicated than it actually is. It looks like you just routed through these holes. So we'll leave that brake caliper loose so we can align it later. They also gave me a whole bunch of new titanium bolts, mostly for style points, so they match those coatings on the suspension. And so after we're done putting this together, we're going to have to go through and find out where these all go. I think it's time to set up these wheels. So this video is not sponsored in any way. A non-profit asked me to build this bike for them and they obtained all the parts. So why am I showing neatly aligned logos of like Industry 9 and Continental tires? Well, it's because you're supposed to align the tire logo with the valve stem. It takes like two seconds to do while you're installing the tire, and then the benefits are limitless. First of all, it's deceivingly difficult to find a valve stem, especially out in the woods. And you can just look at the tire logo, boom, there is the valve stem. So if you're racing to fix a flat or whatever, you can do it quickly. Also, if you damage your rim and you have the tire out on the bench, you know how it was oriented on the rim and you can check it out. There are so many different reasons why after the fact you would want your valve stem aligned with the logo, not just cosmetics. And so that's why all professional bike mechanics do this. And you should too. Now we can put the wheels on. And this is my very first experience with wireless XTR. I've never even seen one in the flesh. And so let's put the battery in this thing. All right, I love the way those buttons feel, but it's shifting a little bit hard and it's making clicking noises. It's a trim issue. I need to just shift it over a little bit. I don't know how to do it. Let's give Chat GPT another chance and see if it gives us the correct answer. Those answers you gave me on the cranks were absolutely terrible. I need you to do better this time. Please tell me how to change the trim on Shimano Wireless XTR. Do not write me a magnum opus, period. Press and hold the third button for about two seconds. That puts the derailleur into trim mode. Once in trim mode, use the shift paddles to adjust the derailleur position. Okay, the derailleur has a yellow light on it. I'm just going to keep trimming until it stops clicking. Way better. Not bad. I would run this. It feels a little more kerchunky than SRAM, but you really know what gear you're in. A lot of people like that feeling. It feels more analog. Feels more like cable-activated shifting. Why is this chain guide rubbing on the chain? Well, because I did something wrong, and now I know exactly what it was. You're not going to believe this. This is the original crankset and original chainring. This chainring has a three millimeter offset. What that means, in plain English, if you look at the chainring this way, the way it's machined, the teeth are off by three millimeters to one side. Cane Creek E-Wings only have zero millimeter offset chainrings, and you can buy a special one that doesn't, but we can't get that today. So if we want to solve this problem today and move the chainline over by three millimeters, I have to follow Cane Creek's recommendations, which in this case, take the bottom bracket cup spacer and put it on the drive side, just like Chad GPT said. It's still got a ways to go. You would think when I showed it that screenshot earlier on, it would have said, ah, yeah, that's the normal recommendation, but I know you have XTR because you told me what type of bike it was. Instead, it was just like, yeah, I'm wrong, you're right, that picture's right. So it's got a ways to go. It's not actual intelligence. It's like mimicking stuff, but pretty impressive that it was able to figure that out. I've installed a lot of E-Wings. It's always been paired with SRAM, so now I'll know that forever. Pretty interesting case. Let's move on to some pedals and the other wheel and make this look like a bike. I just caught myself. I put grease on the pedal threads. I'd already put some titanium anti-seize compound in here. These are titanium cranks. If you over tighten it, it will never come back out. Titanium galls. It's a word you don't hear very often, unless you're talking about titanium. I should clean this off and put titanium anti-seize on it. Okay, I thought I just lost my mind for a second, but this makes perfect sense. A box podium fork has two separate stanchions on the bottom. It's an upside down fork. And so this damper side, just from the weight, it's moved down. You can see the axle doesn't line up with the other leg. So this moves freely. It's just a damper. And so you have to line it up before you put it in. Now the wheels installed, but there are pinch bolts here that hold the axle in place. First you tighten the pinch bolts on the threaded side. That's the side with the disc brake. Then the floating side, you have to actually put the bike on the ground, cycle the suspension several times, and then tighten that pinch bolt to make sure that everything's lined up. Bikes are complicated nowadays. So now it looks like we have a complete bike. It's not completed yet. There are a few things we have to do. First of all, I have to align the front brake caliper. I have to install the dropper post lever. There's also a water bottle cage. And then we also have the rest of these bolts. Now I'm not going to use all of these because I think it might be a little much, but these are titanium upgrade bolts that match everything down to the bleed screws on the levers. So it's a really good way to customize your bike. It's definitely overkill. I don't think that titanium bolts actually increase performance of anything. They're a little bit more of a pain, but the details are really showing here. There's a whole bunch more replacement hardware here, but if I keep going, this thing is going to look like a hooptie. And so we're going to stop. There are a lot of other details that we need to work out starting with this shock. No one will ever notice. So this particular shock is so new that they actually don't have a replacement label for it available right now. And so this is going to have to be a stand in. Hopefully we can replace it before somebody wins this bike. I feel kind of bad about this because Fox Factory is local here. They've contributed a lot to our trails and they're contributing to this build with these parts. I've actually never tested any of the Fox live valve stuff, but this is wireless. It actually adjusts your suspension as you are riding according to the trail. So whoever wins this bike is going to be able to install the app, set it up and actually have their suspension adjust to the terrain as they're riding. Pretty interesting stuff. Again, nothing that I have any experience with, but it's certainly not supposed to look like this. Speaking of all these crazy accessories, this bicycle comes with a lot of stuff like volume tokens and chargers and cleats for the pedals and you name it. So I'm going to try and stuff it all inside the frame. So whoever wins it has it all. So that's mostly everything inside the frame. I've got a couple of spokes and instruction manuals that's going to have to get zip tied to the bike. Let's get it off the stand, peel off the warning labels, clean it up and stare at it. Then I will tell you how you can win this bike. This is more mountain bike than most of us can realistically use, and that's why it's a pie in the sky dream bike designed for a fundraiser. So let's go for a ride and I'll tell you what the donations are for and how you might be able to win this bike. I actually don't mind pedaling on gravel roads, especially in Pisgah where they're absolutely beautiful. But if we want to see this all connected by single track someday, it is not going to happen on its own. It's going to happen by supporting those who advocate for us. How do you win the bike? Well, I'll start by reiterating that this is not my fundraiser. It's run by Pisgah Area Sorba of Western North Carolina. When Hurricane Helene's remnants ravaged this place, they along with the Forest Service were out here with their volunteers and these trails might not have opened as quickly if it wasn't for their efforts. But Pisgah National Forest is federal land managed by the U.S. Forest Service, and so with a budget of $6,000 per year for all of these trails, they'd be forced to just close many of them as they become problems. Partners like Pisgah Area Sorba, Migatsu, that's not so, and you can donate to their cause to get entered to win that bike. And if you only want to donate to enter to win the bike, that's fine too. Selfish altruism still helps. And the best part is that each entry only costs you $10. And so if you donate $100, that's 10 entries. Now for legal reasons that I don't quite understand, you have to be in the United States if you want to win that bike, if you want to take delivery of it. And so, I don't know, if you know somebody in the United States, maybe they can donate on behalf of you and then you can figure out all the customs and everything later. But, that bike is up for grabs right now, and I'm about to ride downhill. And when I get to that downhill, I hope these angry dogs that I hear up ahead are not there. Because if they are, I'm going to be going a little faster than usual. Not sure if they're friendly or vicious, ferocious killers. Oh, you're a nice pup, aren't you? Hey little guy! I barely rode this trail before they rebuilt it, and so most of this is going to be a complete surprise to me. You get to ride it with me for the first time. Oh heck yeah, I went fast, I could have doubled that. And that! Oh nice! Okay, we're going to have to maintain our speed here. Where is this land? Whoa! Yes! Oh, I can get into this. Oh yeah! Oh yeah. People have been complaining about this trail a little bit because it's too much flow for Pisgah. Pisgah's gnarly, but it'll wash away. Whoo! Whoa! Supposed to pre-ride, re-ride, and free-ride. Sometimes I just go straight into the free-riding. Well, only one thing to do. Okay, that can happen. The trail fairies will come and do the rest. But at least the trail is now passable. This trail is a hoot. Some good downhill with some cross-country stuff mixed in. It reminds me a little bit of DuPont Forest, and I don't say that as a jab. I like having options. I like having variety. So the thankless task of advocating for mountain bikers. There's an astonishing amount of administrative overhead to get it done. And so thank you to all the volunteers and everyone that makes this possible everywhere. That stump jumper build was actually a pretty good learning experience for me because I got to know some parts that I've never worked with before. If you want to win it, well, I left all the information below. Thanks for spending some time with me in the shop today, messing around with a bike, and riding some trails. Thanks for riding with me today. I'll see you next time. Oh yeah. Heck yeah.