• After solving the seatpost dilemma (more here)on the Giant Chaos, I rebuilt it as a budget adventure bike. I’m quite happy with the result so far, some highlights include:

    • the bodge seatpost solution
    • gel flite recovered with a 1€ piece of leather
    • rather powerful canti setup (last gen xt canti levers, DX brakes, eagle koolstop pads, compressionless cables and inner liners around the tight bends of the cable hangers)
    • insanely grippy 2.1 inch schwalbe billy bonkers tyres. I partially destickered them because they were a little too shouty for my taste.

    Full build comes in at slightly under 12kg with pedals and the rack - it feels rather lively and not as tractor like as one might expect. I’m currently waiting for mudguards which will be modified with diy flaps.

  • If you look closely, you can see that the letters are painted on an additional very thin layer of rubber. I carefully peeled off the edge of said layer and then proceeded to peel off the rest by hand.

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