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| Only thing left of the original bike is the frame |
Yup, I named my first bike Doglas hehehehe.
Before I started mountain biking, I saw lots of
videos in YouTube where these cyclists pretend
to be Imperial Guards taking out their speeders
for a spin in the forest moon of Endor. When said
Imperial Guard is alone on a ride, almost always
they have a dog with them. A nice, romantic notion
hence I named my first bike Doglas ... as in a dog.
Anyway! After my first endo at the last DH section
of BT loop going to the carpark, I convinced my wife
that having a FS bike will ensure that I will no longer
endo ... that is of course untrue, but that is a story
for another day. Once I got my first FS bike, Doglas
was disassembled so I can transfer all the stuff from
my HT to the FS. ... and so for 3 years this frame
has been hanging on my wall.
Now that I have a surplus of low-end stuff and I
finally knew how to assemble my own bike, I thought
I should go and assemble Doglas again.
The only thing that I don't have tools for is for the
removal of the old headset (with dirty bearings) and
installation of a new one. Mechanic John from Hup
Leong helped me with this. I also bought new shifter
cables and housing which Shimano conveniently
package in a set and which are also available in Hup
Leong for 30$ plus (can't remember the exact amount).
Mechanic John also helped me seat the crown bushing
for the fork that I will use and later when I got home
... surprise, surprise, he installed a rubber stopper for me
on my fork's steerer tube. This rubber stopper will see
to it that when I turn my bike upside down and wash
it at Esso, all the gunk from the steerer tube will not
find it's way inside the star nut and be deposited there.
Thanks mate! ;-)
I have already listed my reference materials from YouTube
for building my bike and so what follows are weight
information that some may find interesting.
See the old school bearing above? Heavy isn't it?
See the wonders of modern bike technology? From the 290gr
BB above this pic, the modern day BB is just 91gr. I think the
newer pressfit BBs should be even lighter than this.
I had to weigh this non-series Shimano crankset with the
Shimano M520 pedals attached as I can't get them to budge.
Since the other crankset had the pedals on them when I
weighed them, I had to weigh this with my XT pedals
included. This is a Deore 170mm crankset. The biggest
chainring was changed from 42T to 40T. Remember that
I took out the biggest chainring (40T) from the 3x10 speed
crankset that came with my Reign? Instead of the 40T,
I attached a bashring to that crankset. Thinking that I have
not used the 11T on my cassette yet, I took out the 42T
from the Deore 3x9 speed crankset and attached the
40T that I got from the 3x10speed SLX crankset.
... ok, you might all think that you read somewhere
that we can't mix and match these 3x9 and 3x10 parts.
Note that I have these parts lying around in my house
and don't have to buy them. Basically, if they don't work,
then all that I have spent is the time to do the experiment.
BUT this change did work. I used a normal 3x9 XT FD,
3x9 SLX shifters, Deore crankset with the biggest chainring
changed to the biggest chainring from a SLX 3x10 crank
and it works. But I do notice that shifting from the middle
ring to the biggest ring is a bit 'sluggish' ... but I can live
with that.
This is an 11-28T SLX cassette. I think this is
a DH item?
Above pic is of a Deore 11-34T cassette.
Lots of weight saved here. I will be using my bike
on Mt. Faber Climb nights, ECP spin nights and
maybe cruising in T15. I think I don't need a 34T
or a 32T for that.
I took the bike for a spin today at T15 and ... it
was ok. What struck me though is that the ride
is sooo jarring! Also, almost every downward
direction of the trail gives me vertigo! I have an
On-One Inbred HT and if you want to have 'fun'
while riding an HT, I recommend the On-One
or similar such bike. This Jamis is for remembering
what got me started and how it was during
those days ...
However, your results may vary. I personally
know a guy (let's hide this guy's identity under the alias
of Boom Ravilas ;-) ) who usually uses his Jamis HT
even if he has a Giant Trance. I asked him once why he
likes using his Jamis HT. He told he is much faster
on his Jamis HT than on his Giant Trance !
