vp's Cogworks: The Marin and Beyond

Thanks!

Just finished with the brakes. They need some new pads obviously, these 29 y.o. XT pads are rock hard and worn like hell. As for the cantis themselves, they cleaned up very nicely! Small fun fact, these have 2 mm Allen-head set screws for spring tensioning, not regular ones.

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Soon...

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Here's the frame after some thorough cleaning. Cheeky "FOR OFFROAD USE ONLY" stickers on both seat stays.
The frame literally smelled like horse shit, probably seen some pasture rides! It's ridiculous how great the shape of the components is compared to the frame itself.
Already installed the derailleurs and brakes, and now comes the (im)patient waiting part for some components to arrive.

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Oh and I've ordered these off AliExpress a week ago—now it's obvious that the colors will mismatch hideously.

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Might look okay once it gets a bit dirty! Nice set of parts up there ^

Will try to get it dirty asap then! Thanks! :)

Wheels: Wolber AT-18 rims laced to Deore XT 730/732 (F/R) hubs. Front 975g, rear 1580g, rim tape, QR and casette included. Not bad for near 30 y.o. MTB wheels innit? And they're smooth as butter after a re-greasing. No pics yet as it's bloody dark here at the moment.

Really hope to finish this by thursday. Weighs 10.9 kilos already, damn.

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Almost done! It's in a rideable state finally. Need a 26.8 seatpost (probably, not sure yet, 26.4 falls in, it's coke can shimmed right now and tightened like a mofo), proper saddle, bar tape needs to arrive and I'll swap the brifters with actual brake levers once I get them.
And I have to toe in the brake pads as they squeal like a sounder of boars right now.

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Really enjoying your builds dude. Keep it up!

Thank you, will do! :)

In the mean time I've installed two sets of Avid Single Digit 5 V-brakes for the Diamond Back. They came with Avid levers too, full pack for 20 quid, which is a more than fair price. They bite like a motherfucker, way better than the cantis (and they were set up absolutely properly with high quality brake pads, etc).

These arrive tomorrow. :)

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So by the time all components arrived I got sick, so the assembling gets delayed a bit. Damn my luck! I wanted to take the Scott's frame to get re-aligned tomorrow but I guess it needs to wait until next week.

Progress! Tape didn't turn out matchy in the end :P Next step will be a proper saddle & an actually fitting seatpost.

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thats looking capable!

Have a 26.8 salsa seatpost that would be good on this !

Cheers! @T0mg I'll most probably get a same Zoggie as this one, but in the correct diameter. Cheap & easy to get here in Hungary. :)

Aaaand let's turn this into an obligatory build-mum-a-bike thread, aka. the Merida frame finally gets used very soon. :)

So, the thing is that the Scott is bloody small for me after all, which makes it not very comfortable nor functional -> most components will be transferred to the Merida. Not the cockpit though.

I love this one already.

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that stem! phwoarr!!!

Haha, the Shogun is a fishy one, but it's just a placeholder, gonna use the one on the second pic. :)

Things went slowly in the last couple of weeks, but it only needs a seatpost now. :) Excuse the hideous photo.
Went with a Deore LX FD-M563 front derailleur in the end, as my DX was seized and pretty much unusable on the high gear. This one's buttery smooth and even matches the color scheme of the bike better. :)
Also mom insisted on bar tape instead of a grips, so I went with that.
This build definitely turned out to be more challanging than I initially thought it'd be, but it was fun, entertaining and educating nonetheless.

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That Scott looks fun!

I like the fact that your mom has an opinion on your grip choices.

Ps if u wanna get rid of the shogun stem let me know!