Kiskubai's Garage (Solving problems I've created - formerly unexpected Space Chicken)

While I'm almost done with getting my hands on the parts, and just ordered the last bits and bobs to finally put this together as a whole bike, I thought I'd document the process :)

During lockdown I've been furloughed, so had a lot more time on my hands than usual, and been excessively browsing ebay and other sites for bike stuff. Not that I needed any. I've stumbled upon a Space Chicken frame by On-one in my size. The seller said he most definitely wont be posting it, or packaging it up for courier. In person pick-up only, and this kept the price real low. It was from a job-lot auction of a bike shop closing down. Thankfully I could work with these conditions, and got myself the frame at a price Im ashamed to even write down.

Now comes the catch: It was completely gutted. All spares missing: mech hanger, axles, fork, headset, seatclamp, and even the cable guide grommets.

The purpose of the build:
I want to race the upcoming CX season, and I was looking to buy either an older AL CX frame with cantilever brakes so that I can move most of my current setup over, OR get my hands on a great deal with disc brakes. I can totally work with the gravel geometry.

Because I'm not in any hurry with this build, I was looking out for great deals on everything, and tried to pick parts that are really lightweight, but known to be reliable. Its looking like it will be around 8.3kg with road tyres.

I'll continuously update this thread over the next few days with the parts that I've got so far :)

Ye! This will be nice!

Lets start with a couple of things Ive already had for this build:

Crankset: Praxis Zayante AL.
Originally I wanted to put my all-time favourite Dura Ace 7800 crankset on this. However, I found that it was a lot easier to find a narrow-wide chainring for 110mm BCD rather than 130mm. So the praxis had been stripped from one of my other bikes.

Dont mind the chainring bolts. I bought the Hope 42t narrow-wide chainring from @m_xprez_j to go on it. The frame specs stated that the max chainring it will take is 42t, and I was slightly annoyed by this as I was planning to use this bike on road as well. But a quick trial with my Praxis chainring shows that it should take even a 50t no problem. With a NW chainring it will be a closer fit, but it should be fine.

Other parts Ive already had at home:
-Whatever random saddle I'll put on it
-FSA drops and random stem, this will likely change
-Shimano M540 SPDs
-25mm gatorskins (just to get it rolling, on the lookout for gravel / cyclocross tyres)
-Ultegra 6700 shifters from my other bike

This has determined that it will be a 1x10 bike. My road bikes are 10sp as well. I found a long-cage 6600 ultegra rear mech at home that should handle up to 32t. But as soon as my derailleur hanger arrived, I quickly discovered why I had that rear mech in a parts bin, and not on a bike:

Left side is the 6600 rear mech, the right one is my 7800 DA borrowed from my training bike. At least we now know that the frame and the derailleur hanger is fine.

I was looking for something that would work with my 6700 STI's pull ratio, and found that the first XT Shadow line originally intended for 9sp does just that. It should work properly on 10sp cassettes with these STIs. Thankfully LFGSS came through, and I bought one from @nikitos the same week I started looking. These weight about the same as the Ultegra, coming in at 228g.

I bought a fork from @HelicopterHelicopter on here, which was tapered, and matte-black. The compromise was that it takes 15x100 thru axle wheels instead of 12x100, and its a Post Mount brake standard instead of Flat Mount. But I could live with this.

After doing a bit of research I was pretty set on the brakes, it was either gonna be TRP Spyre, or Avid BBsomething, whatever came up as a bargain.

Soon enough I bought a pair of Flat Mount TRP Spyres (great deal in pair), and a single grubby PM Spyre.

Ive sold on the spare FM caliper to recover the cost of the PM. And then the work began. This is the state the PM caliper was when advertised on ebay:

The fun part:

And I ended up with this:

Onto the wheels!
As much as I wanted centerlock rotors, I already had very limited choices because of the mix of 142x12 & 100x15 thru axle standards, and my budget was maximum 70 pounds. Another fortunate ebay adventure brought me this Weinmann XC180 set, that fits the bill. It weights in at 1733g which is great value for the price.

Ive also found a seatpost that I've wanted for a long time, and it was the right size. I went with a KCNC Ti Pro light. Its 133g, but should be fine under my 64kg.

This is the current state of the build:

Notice the bubble-wrap subbing in for the headset at the moment :D Headset is on its way, and so is all the other small bits.

Next challenge I've ran into: As I mentioned before, the frame came without the grommets for the internal cable routing. I spent countless hours on ebay and aliexpress trying to find the right size. Once I did find the correct ones, turns out it would take up to 2 months to receive them.

So I did what any normal person would do, downloaded Fusion360, made a cup of coffee, and fired up some youtube tutorials on 3D modeling. This is the end result:

I am in the process of getting a prototype 3D printed, and if it works well then get the rest of them done. Quite excited about these, to be fair. Cant beat the feeling of making something, even if it's technically not with your bare hands.

Is this the spacechicken that had the cracked seattube?

Dont think so? There is a (by the looks of it) scratch in the paint on the seat tube around the same height the chain would run, but Im not too fussed about it if it turns out to be a crack. Ive got access to cheap but quality carbon repair with a friend who works in aerospace (mostly aero lol) and does a personal favour here and there. Besides minor repairs theyve pieced together a Wilier Izoard that cracked at BB and brake mount, and the seat stay was in 2 pieces.
Was on the back of the car and its been crashed into. Been running as a commuter under my 95kg friend for the last 7 years.

Two ways to find out, put it together and ride it, see if it creaks...etc, or sand it down. First, I'll build it and then I worry about it if theres anything to worry about :)

I reckon..

If it is the one you've seen, have you just seen it on ebay, or know more info about the frame?

May have just been the same seller, there was recently a cracked space Chicken on eBay.

That first picture looks the same.

This must be satisfying - your part finding and cleaning up is top notch!

This is looking great

good thread and build

Did a little digging, and indeed I'ts the same seller, frame photographed with the same background. The cracked one was advertised as cracked, and it was a size M, mine is S. For what its worth, that one went for 28£, and I totally would have bought it to get it repaired!

Some new bits coming in. Got some Promax rotors off FB marketplace for a tenner (160mm front, 140mm rear), and the bolts arrived as well.

Brake cables are in. As this is my first disc build, I wanted to get the "gold standard" so that I can experience a cable disc system well done, and based on that I can evaluate if I want to switch to disc on my road bike as well. So I went with the not-so-cheap Jagwire compressionless cables in "stealth" colourway (black on black):

Not pictured:
Lifeline all black bartape, shimano workshop grease.

Borrowed some nail polish remover from my flatmate. When she gave me a look I just said "dont ask."

Here's the results:

Didnt see that coming huh? :D One of these days I might even get around replacing that bolt in the stem.

Finally the carefully placed assortment of bubblewrap in the head tube had been replaced by an FSA headset, and got a set of carbon spacers to share between my bikes. Really like the look. Also got a pair of Vittoria Hyper 700x37 tyres from @TheShipwright, they definitely look better in the frame :) CX tyres whenever I find a deal...

Moar pics of bike with tyres please!

Good luck and nice to meet

Great nail polish results. I've found compressionless outers are great for all brakes, certainly for discs.

Really nice - big bonus that those forks look like they were made for that bike!

AAaaaalright, looks like its ready! As always, a bike is never finished, but Ive taken it for a test ride and snapped some pics :) Probably will do a proper ride over the weekend.

With these tyres it weights 8918g on the spreadsheet, and it comes to 9.0kg on a bathroom scale with the Garmin on, which checks out. On the long run probably will change saddle, and change the chain to run an 11sp chain on it (narrower on the outside so less noise from cross-shift with 1x, allegedly).

Looks great. Surely some on-trend knobbly tyres are needed though...?!

Looking great. How are the disc brakes with those cables?

leik :)

Finally got around finishing the cable guide project. It involved buying a 3D printer (like any normal person would do!), experimenting with materials, and its done now.

Came out quite well, except the one at the rear brake because of the placement of the hole in the frame. I need a more slanted angle for the cable to exit from the grommet for it to exit with the smallest bend possbile.

For those interested, I printed it from NinjaFlex Cheetah TPU (flexible material) on an Ender 3.

Great thread, missed it the first time around!

Trick

Jazzy matching cable housing makes it, good job.