6/27/15 4:44 PM

A local web-based bike business has been having an end of financial year sale for the past month where they've been knocking gear out at ridiculous prices, and I took advantage of it to put a new bike together for my wife. Not counting some of the parts such as cassette and crank and brakes that I already had, the whole thing cost just under $2k Australian (~$US1500), not bad for a bike where the brakes are the only components that aren't top of the line.

6/27/15 4:58 PM

I really like the lines and shape of that bike. looks like a great ride.

6/28/15 8:45 AM

Your wife isn't worth the best brakes?

6/29/15 8:13 AM

That is some serious climbing gears.

6/29/15 3:02 PM

Yep, cassette is an XTR 11s 11-40, front chainrings are 44-30, so bottom gear is around 20 inches. The big gear, amusingly, is exactly the same as the big gear I used when I started road racing as a young bloke in the 1970s - 44-11 is exactly the same gear as the 52-13 that I had in those days.

I'll be curious to see how well the cassette lasts, seeing that nine of the 11 cogs are titanium. I suspect that when it wears out I'll replace it with the recently released XT equivalent for half the price. Unfortunately the XT wasn't available at the time that I put this machine together.

Last edited by Nick Payne on 6/29/15 3:13 PM; edited 1 time in total

6/29/15 3:11 PM

"nine of the 11 cogs are titanium"

I always found the 3 Ti on my D/A cassette never really shortened the life of the cassette. These are the cogs with the most teeth/chain engaged in use, and I don't really spend that much time in them as compared to the middle of the cassette. Although with 9 cogs... again, how many teeth and chain pins engaged at one time in which particular gear used??


I want to put a 27/44 crankset I have been seeing as a MTB double on the new Strong Monster CX incoming. That with a 12-32 or 34 will be as low as i will need for the few walls I hit.