MTB Project… Times Two

I’ve had a couple of projects I’ve been working on for the past few months that I thought I’d share with you. The first project, is my PedalForce MTB bike. Regular readers will recognize the frame, as my uncle also has the same frame. We both purchased the frames at the same time, I’ve just been a lot more pickier about what components I’m willing to put on the bike.

The second project is my old Klein Pulse Comp that I bought new appoximately 11 years ago. It had been sitting in my mom’s garage for about 4-5 years, and I decided to dust it off and rebuild it, seeing how, despite its age, its a far superior frame to the kinesis frame my other mountain bike was built around.

The PedalForce project is focused around two different areas. First, I wanted to create a very light bike. The frame comes in well under 3 pounds, so I’ve been carefully picking up parts one at a time to compliment the already light frame, in an effort to keep the bike at, or under, 18 pounds. There’s a few pieces in the picture that don’t actually belong on the bike – the seat post binder, for example – that are simply there to hold the bike together. I also wanted to try a 1×9 drivetrain setup, as I only seem to use the middle chainring when I’m riding on trails.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with the Klein once I finally got it back to Charlotte. I learned most of my MTB skills on this bike, and wanted to retain the nostalgic feel… but I also wanted to make it a serious enough bike that I could use regularly. So the bike has a strange mixture of old and new.

The most obvious parts are the XT M739 V-brake on the rear, which I bought new a decade ago, and old school 2 bolt silver stem. No idea where the stem came from, just found it in the garage, and after about 30 minutes of watching TV with a can of Nevr Dull, it became the shiniest part on the bike. The Chris King headset was also installed to try to keep that vintage look going, along with the Thomson seatpost.

The drivetrain, however, is all new. The FSA cranks aren’t staying, I just had them on another bike and put them on the Klein to make it rideable. The wheels actually belong to my PedalForce, but since that bike most likely won’t be ridable until winter, I’m borrowing them for the Klein. I’m still unsure what kind of pedals to get… I typically ride Eggbeaters, but after using Speedplays on my CAAD9, I’m wondering how nice Frogs are. You’ll notice that the seatpost clamp is missing as well – I ordered a 35mm Salsa Liplock, which is the standard size clamp for a 31.6 seatpost. Apparently Gary Klein thought that 34.9mm was too narrow for seat tubes, and the Pulse measures in at a huge 36.3mm. If you look closely, the seat tube tapers just below the seat stay/top tube/seat tube juncture. If you’ve never owned a Klein before, things like this are pretty much the norm for his bikes (at least, before Trek pretty much took over the specs circa 98/99).

I’m going to put the Phenom saddle on tomorrow and I’m hoping that I either have a seatpost clamp that fits, or the bike shop has one handy so I can start riding. I rode around the block without a seat to test everything, and it rides so nice, just like I remembered. I can’t wait to take it out for a spin on the trails.

Once I get everything settled, I’ll post some pictures of the finished product, and hopefully I can make some more progress on my carbon bike soon!