- Hardtail mountain bikes are not only
really fun and responsive
but they're also great when you're on a budget.
I get asked all the time, what's a good budget hardtail?
And that's all gonna depend on what exactly your budget is.
For example, if your budget's like unlimited,
this would be a great hardtail to get.
(upbeat music)
I know this is not the video you need right now,
the world's coming to an end, inflation, recession,
but I started planning this months ago back in July.
I commissioned Sage, a titanium frame builder
in Oregon to build me exactly the frame that I wanted.
It even has a custom paint job that only covers some
of the frame, so you can see the raw titanium and the welds.
I worked with a professional frame builder
to design and build it.
I painstakingly chose every single part
that is going on the bike and now it's here.
And we could talk about this bike all day
but before we do that, let's build it.
(upbeat music)
So why titanium?
Titanium's extremely durable, it's lightweight,
it's very resistant to fatigue, it can last a lifetime.
Working with titanium is pretty tricky.
It requires a very clean space, plenty of shielding gas
and an extremely steady and experienced hand.
And what you end up with are the sickest looking welds ever.
(upbeat music)
So I've been looking forward to building this for months.
I'm gonna savor it.
First, I'm gonna do the boring stuff,
like peeling the stickers off the fork
so I can color match it,
mounting the tires and adding sealant.
Just prepping all the time consuming items.
Then I'm gonna make sure all the bearings are in place.
And then we get to the fun stuff.
(gentle music)
(wrench ratcheting)
E Wings.
E Wings are titanium cranks.
They remind me of old BMX cranks.
They're just gorgeous, they're super stiff,
super strong and super light, but that's not all,
they're 165 millimeters.
Almost any bike you buy is gonna have cranks
between 170 and 175 millimeters.
Rarely do they make them this short, but I'm really short.
And so custom bike, you get to choose all the parts.
These are gonna be ideal for me.
(upbeat music)
These Fox stickers are not the flavor
of blue that I thought they would be
but we'll see what it looks like
on the bike and we can change 'em.
(upbeat music)
To preload the bearings in this headset,
it's not getting a star nut,
it's getting a threadless carrier for a one-up EDC.
It's a tool that I can use for repairs
that's always gonna be with me.
(upbeat music)
Why carbon? Why not not titanium bars on a titanium bike?
Well, the answer is ride quality.
These bars flex just a little bit in all the right places,
that's what they're known for
and so I think it's gonna pair really well
with this titanium frame.
(upbeat music)
This bike uses a UDH, it's a universal derailleur hanger.
What that means is that if you're a bike company
and you don't want to engineer your own derailleur hangar,
you can use the UDH and then when you go into a bike shop
they're gonna have it because it's universal, there's one.
(upbeat music)
(plastic clicking)
(sighs) I had to take the bottom bracket out
to run the brake hose.
Live and learn!
(upbeat music)
I almost never do frame protection and when I do
it's just on the chains day but the rest of the bike,
we're gonna let it wear in just like any other.
(upbeat music)
We are almost at the point now
where we get to stare at this bike, but I have one problem.
(frame rattling)
Whose fault is that, Oscar?
Well, my fault, of course!
I should have put that foam tubing around the brake hose
but now I have to take all this apart,
take the bottom bracket out, but I found a hack.
This guy on YouTube posted a solution two years ago
and it's pretty brilliant.
Now he's a road biker with a carbon frame.
Same difference.
We're gonna go to the hardware store
get gap filler rod, drill holes in it
and then make a little slice, push them down into the frame.
And we have a lightweight
very clean solution to stopping the cable from rattling.
And then we have a nice mild 50 degree day
that I think we can stare at this bike in.
(upbeat music)
First things first, here's my existing hardtail,
my carbon one, with all the batteries,
pedals, one-up EDC, 26 pounds, six ounces.
So of course you want to know what the new one weighs.
Same thing, batteries, pedals, one-up EDC,
26 pounds, seven ounces.
So the new bike actually weighs an ounce more.
If I had fresh sealant in the old bike
they'd probably weigh exactly the same.
Why doesn't the new bike weigh significantly less?
And the answer is titanium's heavier than carbon.
And so I didn't choose titanium
because it's the lightest material,
I chose it because it's the strongest.
This will last my entire life.
I can get it repaired infinitely
and to be frank, it's easier to find somebody
that builds custom titanium frames
than it is carbon frames and it'll looks sick.
And you know what else is sick?
Me.
(upbeat music)
Yeah, I woke up Monday morning with COVID
and so it'll be another few days
before I can tell you the most important thing
about this bike, how it rides.
But you probably want to know what it costed.
And a lot of that would depend on what you purchased
each of these parts for,
the prices are changing fast right now.
It seems to be north of $12,000 and south of 14.
Now the frame itself was designed and built by Sage,
it's a company in Oregon.
They had a bike called the Power Line that was very,
very similar to what I wanted.
So we started with the Power Line
as the platform and we altered the lengths
of the tubing and the angles to get it exactly how I wanted.
Now when you're choosing the geometry of a bike,
you're trying to decide in what conditions
and at what speed the bike performs best.
A big Enduro bike can be a little bit
of a handful when you're just pedaling it around
but once it gets up to speed, it handles amazing.
Cross-country bike comes alive the second you put your foot
on the pedal, but at really high speeds it can get sketchy.
A trail bike sits right in the middle
and this trail bike is skewed
more towards the cross-country end.
Not much.
This is gonna be
for actually covering some ground and exploring,
hence the paint job, Blue Ridge camo.
It's a camouflage in the shades of the Blue Ridge mountains
because this is for getting lost in the mountains.
And actually the painter also makes knives
and so he made me a knife that perfectly matches my bike.
And so I don't know, maybe I'll mount this
to the bike somewhere for self-defense.
Hidden within the Blue Ridge camo
are quite a few Easter eggs.
We'll take a closer look at those next time.
As well as a lot of other details like the geometry.
Now in the main triangle over here
you can see I've got two bottle cages.
It's very hard to find a bike
with two bottle cage mounts when you're the smallest size
because the bolts would go right into your dropper post.
And so these mounts jut out a little bit from the frame.
And we had custom > made
that just stop right before the seat post.
But that's not the only mount we put on the frame.
We put one right here in front of the seat on the top tube.
And I can do with that mount whatever I want.
Now you've seen sometimes I like to put a GoPro right there.
That's the first thing I did was I designed a GoPro mount
that fits right here on the top tube.
I'm gonna design all sorts of stuff with this.
I'm gonna have a blast with it.
The Power Line is made for a 130 millimeter fork
which I have on here.
And as you can see, it's a Fox Factory 34.
I chose that fork because in my opinion,
it's one of the best forks you can buy period.
It's light, it's easy to service, it's reliable.
Another important part, the wheels.
I went with Berd wheels.
I tested those on my last hardtail and loved them.
Berd wheels have polyethylene spokes.
It's like a fabric.
It makes the wheels extremely lightweight
and it gives them a certain ride characteristic that I love.
Also worth noting, these are 29 inch wheels,
that would make this my first 29-er
besides the Kent Travail.
Now up front I have a Maxis Minion
because that's my go-to tire,
but at the rear I have a Maxis Recon
and this is a little bit faster rolling, lighter weight.
I think it's a good mix of tire for the types
of things that I'm gonna be doing on this bike.
Moving outwards, we have TRP Evo Trail brakes.
No surprise there. I love TRP brakes.
I like the feel of the trigger.
They have plenty of power.
I have a 200 millimeter rotor up front
and a 180 in the rear,
as you would expect on a bike like this.
Something you may not have expected was the Revgrips.
Revgrips kind of move a little bit
and you can actually adjust how much they move
by adding or removing tuning washers.
I made fun of the Revgrips
for being gimmicky and expensive when I first reviewed them
but the audience pushed back hard.
There were tons of devout Revgrip users among you
and you convinced me to give them an honest try
and I've come to really like them.
Of course, I've got SRAM AXS through and through,
dropper post, drivetrain, cassette.
That pretty much goes without saying.
And as I mentioned, the drivetrain has made it
to Kane Creek E Wings, not your run of the mill crank set.
Some of the strongest cranks out there.
Probably the only downside is
that they cost about as much as a bike.
Now on the ends of these cranks are the Census Crew Pedals.
I just wanted something really special.
And the Crew Pedals are very uncommon.
I love the way they look.
They're super light, they have titanium spindles.
They should be super durable and super smooth.
(upbeat music)
I wanted a bike that was gonna be really distinctive
that I was gonna be excited to ride
and that looked like nothing else out there.
And you wouldn't believe how bummed out I was
when I woke up Monday with COVID because that was the plan,
I was gonna ride this bike all day,
pretty much like worked my entire life for this
is the way that you could look at it.
And so I'm excited to ride it
and we're gonna do that next time
and test it in every type of scenario.
I'm pretty excited about this
and so I'm releasing a Blue Ridge Jersey,
same colors as the Blue Ridge Mountains,
three quarter sleeve, it's extremely comfortable
and we're gonna make every effort to get it
to you before Christmas or Hanukkah.
We also have our e t-shirts and a variety of other garments.
And if you're getting it for yourself
don't get it to support me.
Get it because you deserve it.
Thanks for joining me today.
I hope you'll join me next time
when we actually test this bike.
And thanks for riding with me today.
I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)