A different Rock Lobster Team Tig 853

You keep my Arkose out of this

*squints*

Oh it’s a thorn

Right, a little update. Was the basket a bad idea? Yeah, even with the forks locked out the mounting point was a lot more shabby than google images suggested. I think that blunder can be put down to a long time yearning for a basket bike, eyes bigger than stomach or something...
It's since been removed and will likely be up for sale shortly.

Bike is also used for MTB purposes.

New setup looks like this:

Upgrades:

• Thomson seatpost
  
• Hope seatpost collar
  
• Flite saddle
  
• Easton Monkey
  
• Lite bars
  
• Ergon grips
  
• It did have a 90mm thomson stem - now a 70mm brand x to try the size out. Thomson will be up (if anyone's after a 90mm thomson x4 in mint condition, drop me a PM)
  for sale soon as well.
  
• Hope hoops - hope pro 2 evo 40t hubs and Stans flow ex rims. One of the rear DS spokes broke on
  the crank brothers wheelset, which was a nice incentive to upgrade to something slightly classier
  
• FireEye broil pedals
  
• Brakes have been bled and new Hope pads installed
  
  
  

When not in MTB set up, top tube protector, Maxxis DTHs, and a rear mudguard go back on for practicality.

Long term plans are to possibly increase rotor size upfront to 180, and resize brake hoses as they're both a touch too long. Somewhere along the line I might slam the stem and chop the steerer, but I might upgrade the fork in the future and don't want to limit myself in terms of selling this one.

A dropper post would be preferable so as not to swap between QR collars, but not yet warranted given the type of riding i'm doing.

Will try and get a better picture at some point in the future. The new cockpit and removal of front mech has brought the weight down a ton. I'm tempted to bring it to the LFGSS bike packing trip later this year if funds allow.

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Thank god! Looks great

@miloas, how’s this looking now, just about to embark on a team tig 853 myself.....

Back to smooth tires, TT protector and a rack. Looks stupid, rides fine, but I'm back in London now and want it to look ugly as possible. Might put some gaffa tape over the Fox logo as well.

Other than that it's great! I'd be tempted to put some rigid surly forks on it for the above reasons, plus a proper rack for the basket. At the moment I don't want to get it stolen.

I might try and get up to the Surrey Hills before then though...

Your update pic is broken, can't leave this saga unresolved

I don't think you want to see the update pic, bike doesn't look very good. Admittedly better than the first picture with the horrible red wheels
Edit* Unless you mean the update 5 months ago, in which case i'll add pic as an attachment.

Fatal mistake? Were you specifically wanting the aluminium sl version and bought the 853 in error?
Quite a transformation though, amazing the difference removing some ott poorly colour matched components can make. Why go 1x if you use the bike for mtb duties?

Edit: just spotted it was already 1x, front derailleur tricked me...

No no, the fatal mistake was that I wrote the title incorrectly - I've edited it now to the correct version. I very much wanted the 853 version!
Yeh, the red wheels and stem were horrible, I knew I was going to have to replace them as soon as I bought the bike, as well as convert it to 1x, but I didn't have the funds at the time.

Converted to 1x because I didn't really need other gears when I was just using it to commute. In retrospect, a 32t chainring might be a bit big for the front and for MTB duties. It came with a 28t rear cassette which will need changing at some point.

Once my road bike is finished I'm going to treat this to new rotors, brake hoses, gear cables, 32t cassette, and chain.

There are tons of RockLobsters on ebay at the moment, a rim brake version just sold for £150.

BOOM, I pick it up on Friday....

Awesome man! The rim version is much nicer than the ridiculously overpriced disc version that was up at the same time.
What's the plan for it?

Essentially my route back into mountain biking, got myself an old muddy fox courier a few months back as my daughter is now riding a bike and my road bike isn’t ideal for the local routes she’ll likely be on. It may or may not stay but this is a far more realistic proposition for actual off road riding. The frame/fork has disc mounts and I’ve got an old set of Hope xc wheels tucked away somewhere so the main thing will be changing over to discs, and obviously the usual needless tinkering will crop up.

Are your forks 130mm?

Ah sorry mate, completely missed this! How's the build going?

I think my forks are 110mm but I can't remember, will check again when I get back.

Trying and so far succeeding not to ruin what was/is a fairly original bike.
The bike as I bought it had been set up for the previous owners wife so an old Thomson stem, ea70 risers, a 25.4 cannondale carbon post (wrongly purchased for a previous bike) and an slr saddle I had lying around have all been bolted on. The xt v brakes are more than decent with new pads fitted so I’ll refrain from splurging money on the first set of 10yr old disc brakes I see for sale.
Still really happy with it, not done many miles on it and certainly no serious off road stuff but always seem to have a massive smile on my face when I’m on it.
I’ll see about getting a couple of photos over the weekend.

@CptnBigNose how's the bike going now?

On another note, i've got plans to enter some gravel events next year. I don't want to buy a gravel bike, so i'm planning on getting this ready for gravel events. I've given myself the rough deadline of mid February to get the parts sorted, otherwise i'll procrastinate and it'll take forever.

I know nothing about gravel riding/races, no idea on what kit to bring or parts to run etc., only what i've seen on the internet.

I'm thinking most of the races are between 70-120km in length, so i don't need any big bike bags or heavy duty equipment, just enough to hold tools, medicine kit, waterproofs and food/water.

On top of the plans i already have for the bike, i'm thinking of wide flared shallow drop bars and road hydraulic shifters. I don't know whether shimano road shifters can operate with mtb derailleurs, so i might go for a sram drivetrain.

Drivetrain upgrades:

1. Sram force/apex shifters 1x
   
2. some sram mtb rear derailleur, maybe NX 11 speed? I know nothing about sram mtb so any advice appreciated
   
3. 10-42t cassette
   
4. potentially shorter cranks, 175mm is a little too long
   
5. new chain
   
6. crank bros pedals (candy?)
   
   

Braking

1. Shimano XT RT86 rotors
   
2. Any new pads, the hope ones on their currently keep glazing over
   
   

Cockpit

1. any wide flared drop bars
   
2. maybe some aero extensions
   
3. new stem depending on fit
   
   

Wheels
I think i'll try tubeless for the first time.

1. Keep the Vittoria Barzo tyres, maybe get Maxxis ikons
   
2. new rim tape
   
3. sealant
   
   

Misc.

1. Bar tape
   
2. Bottle cages
   
3. Frame pump
   
4. Backup lights
   
5. Saddle bag/handlebar bag
   
   

I can't think of anything else, but if anyone with more gravel experience sees something missing let me know.

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That's bangin'.

Looks awesome!
What events are you entering?

Thanks man :) I'm really tempted by the Yorkshire True Grit Dark Skies race, but it costs £80 to get there, £60 to enter, and probably £70-100 for food and accommodation; and that's not even factoring in the amount of kit i need to get.
Still though, i'm keen to work to a deadline and get this finished!

Sounds good, Ive been thinking of doing grinduro scotland for a while but cant quite consider stumping up the funds atm.
Not sure if ive missed entry or not as well haha

@miloas, just to prove it exists.....
Loads of riding recently but all on my commuter, hopefully cycling to the park with my daughter later so will add a photo of the Lobster out its cage.

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That looks great, the white decals really suits it! How are you finding it?

It was a cotic soul that got me back on a hard tail 10 odd years ago, how I loved that bike. It’s been gone a while now but this feels similar, I’ve still to cover most of the same tracks I did on the cotic but everything I’ve done so far on the rock lobster has been spot on, it’s a great fit, more by chance than good judgement, I drove away having collected it convinced it was too small but having seen it decided I wanted it anyway. My commuter is Reynolds 853 too, and has seen off a few more expensive road bikes, seems I’m a bit of a fan boy.....

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Small update:

Plans to update this into a gravel bike are on hold for two reasons:

1. I want to keep it as an MTB. I'm sure some bar ends and aero extensions will suffice for any long-distance gravel events if necessary!
   
2. After attempting the festive 500 in one sitting with very little preparation, I've developed a knee problem and am now painfully aware of the need for a proper bike fit. Those aren't cheap and I can't afford to do both at the moment.
   
   

I did find the time to upgrade the braking a little, moving from mismatched avid/hope rotors (160mm) to Sram centreline rotors (180mm) front and rear. Satisfied my OCD a little bit as well. The plan didn't go as intended, and the front brake still doesn't work very well. I will bleed them when I have a chance.

So that's one piece of the puzzle done, once I sort the brakes that'll be stopping power sorted. I also nabbed a NOS Topeak bottle cage off eBay, supposed to be silver but look white in the pictures. King cages still reign supreme aesthetically.

Next up will be the drivetrain, moving to Sram 11x and neutrino cranks. The Shimano stuff works fine but is in need of an overhaul, and I haven't moved from the 11-28 cassette yet. Makes more sense to scour eBay/classifieds and replace the lot.

I moved back to riser bars and a shorter stem. The long position with the hope stem and flat bars was too uncomfortable with riser bars. I think I might try a longer stem and handlebars with a bit more backsweep.
I'm very aware it is looking UGLY with the cage, top tube pad, excess cables and mudguards - I haven't had time to get it looking pretty, and I don't want it getting nicked! That's the excuse anyway.
I'm looking forward to taking it to some trails soon.

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I will contradict and say that top tube pad and mudguards are looking good and make this build kind a special. I loved the red stem too

At a crossroads with this, so coming for some forum advice.

Lots needs to be done to get it up to spec, somewhere in the region of £2/300. Realistically, I won't be using it as an actual mountain bike anytime in the near future, and it seems odd to get it repaired just to pootle around town. There's a lot of pros in the 'sell it' column. On the other hand, it's too nice a bike to not sort out and get fixed up.