Why A 29er? Part 4

After several lengthy conversations with Craig, I started looking for a higher end hard tail. I bought a vintage Clark Kent titanium Mt. Bike.  It had great frame and nice components to start the build-out with.  I will do a future post on this bike.  It’s a great ride and it still gets lots of use.

I bought and sold a Trek 5200 -  an awesome bike but, as I said earlier, I’m not a Road Biker.  I also bought and still own a Flyte XLS-3 Cyclo-Cross.  This is another awesome ride.  It’s kind of a road bike on steroids made for rough – tough off road racing, which makes it a great trail bike. I’ll do a future post on this bike, too.

The reason I’m not riding the Flyte as this time? I broke my left wrist and can’t ride a drop down handlebar for about a year. I still wanted a bike I could get some miles in during the limited daylight hours of winter, which lead me to a 29er.  But what 29er and by who?

For those new to the term:  A 29er is basically a Mt. Bike frame set up to have 29” wheels, not 26” which is standard on most Mt. Bikes.  Another bit of info:  A 29” wheel is the essentially the 700c wheel that is on most Road Bikes.

There are a lot of great stock 29ers out there, but they come with a hefty price tag.  It became clear to me that to get what I wanted, I was going to have to build it. My criteria was: speed, comfort, cost, and a certain amount of eye candy… yep I wanted it to look HOT!!!

After some searching I found the Motobecane FANTOM 29 frame.  I knew this was the frame I wanted to use to build my very first Urban Prodigy.

This brings me back to Tom’s email last week; the bike Tom asked about is my new custom Motobecane  29er or what I call the “Urban Prodigy” (something wonderful or marvelous; a wonder). 

Here are the specs.

Frame : MOTO29X Aluminum with TrailTuned PowerStay Design, DualProfile Downtube with reinforced Gusset, replaceable rear derailleur hanger.

Fork : One on Ridged Carbon 29er

Crankset : Bontrager Race X Lite Carbon 

Bottom Bracket : TruVativ Giga X-pipe

Pedals : Bontrager King Earl

Front Derailleur : Shimano XTR

Rear Derailleur : Shimano XT long cage

Shifters : Shimano  XT Rapid Fire 27 speed dbl trigger shift

Cassette/Freewheel : Shram 950 9-speed 11-34

Wheels : Bontrager Race Light

Tires : Schwablbe Big Apple

Brakes : Avid BB5 BallBearing Mechanical Disc front and rear, 185mm rotor

Brake Levers : Trytro RS360 A

Headset : Chis King 1 1/8 inch

Handlebar :  Bontrager XXX Carbon Riser

Stem : Bontrager XXX Carbon 120mm

Saddle : Bontrager King Earl

Post : Bontrager XXX Carbon 27.2mm

I have around $700.00 in this bike.  I was very careful about what I spent. Some parts were used, mostly coming off new bikes that had replacement parts put on.

If you could buy this bike it would probably run in the market of $1500 - $2000. 

EXCITING NEWS!!!! Craig and I are going to build a line of “Urban Prodigy” Bikes.  We are going to try our hardest to keep the cost under a grand.  If you might be interested in one of these LMK. My email link is in the sidebar.

Comments

[spideybite]

Very cool, I love what your doing with the 29er. My queation is how is the geometry of the Fantom frame equipped for the 29" wheel. Are we talking a comfortable ride here? Not personally having seen the Motobecane frames I wonder about their qualty?
What do you think, I am awfully tempted to dive in to a 29er.
Spidey