Hey folks, how's it going?
It wasn't long ago when I looked at this Brand-X frame that was dirt cheap
and tried to figure out whether it was worth riding it on an actual trail
or just keep it on the trainer.
Well, a couple of months later I have it built into an actual bike
I did ride it a little bit,
so this is a quick bike check of a Brand-X Hardtail.
HT-01 is the model number
and I've made quite a few mods to it.
Aside from covering it in this 3M tape
I have an internally routed dropper port that I drilled and
I drilled out the cable stops all up here.
All these mods are covered in a video that I'm gonna post in the description.
I even decided to go for their headset so this is a
tapered Nukeproof 1"1/8 to 1"1/2 inch headset.
The geometry of the frame is not the most current
but I thought it would make a nice trail bike.
68 degree head angle
74 degrees seat tube angle,
425 millimeter chainstays, again this is a 27.5 bike
Cockpit - I built it around the Easton handlebars
that I had in my parts bin, this is a 35 mm carbon bar
760 millimeter wide.
Specialized grips that I like a lot,
a little bell that is useful when I ride on the road mostly.
Brakes - these are trusty Deore M6000
and in my experience the Deore brakes are probably
the most underrated and the ones that
gave me zero trouble over the years.
This is a good old 10 speed Shimano Zee.
This was meant for more aggressive riding.
It's something in between SLX and Deore.
So again, a 10 speed drivetrain.
A good old Rockshox Revelation fork.
This is the 32 millimeter stanchion
that I modified to 130 mm travel.
This came as a 150 mm but it would have been a bit too much for a hardtail,
so that's what I did.
I also changed the RL damper to this RCT3.
I don't think it makes too much of a difference
because this is a Motion Control damper
so none of the sophistication
of the current Charger damper.
Air spring - again it's simple, doesn't have a DebonAir spring.
Moving down you're gonna see the caliper.
This is with the appropriate mount for 180 mm disc.
This is the good old Ice-Tech XT disc RT86.
and you're gonna see my front wheel
which is not exactly the same as my rear wheel.
But who noticed that so far?
These are Dt Swiss wheels that I found on clearance
I think I paid 250 dollars for the pair.
They're built around 350 hubs which are very very reliable.
And this one has 25 millimeter ID RIM.
So very good wheel overall.
Tires that I've used are the Michelin ForceAM that I reviewed recently.
Really nice surprise I've never ridden Michelin tires before.
These are very capable, good rolling resistance.
It took them a while to seal tubeless but aside from that
I have no complaints, these are actually highly recommended by me.
Yes, you do have a bottle cage
that I've used to actually mount my dropper cable.
I mentioned that this is something that I did.
I am using, this is a Bontrager dropper post, 150 mm travel,
I did cover this in the Cheap Droppers video that I did not long ago.
And the dropper remote is actually the Bontrager branded one as well.
This is the new generation that can be integrated
with any type of brakes you might have.
This saddle is from my good old Transition bike that I sold recently, a WTB Volt.
Moving down to the rear, you're gonna see the 160 mm disc
and this was an IS-to-POST mount adapter that I needed.
But I did cover this recently again in Shimano Brakes A-toZ How-to Install video.
These are the cheapo, really cheap 3x cranks, 9 speed from Shimano,
170 mm cranks because I kind of like that length on all my bikes.
And you can see, this is a threaded bottom bracket.
I decided to give a try to this BB52 which is the Deore BB from Shimano.
I'm curious if it's going to last as long as the SLX or the XT
that I've used most of the time.
Here on the drive side, you're going to see that my front uses thru axle.
This is a 104 BCD which is a very easy to find chainrings for.
I'm using an absoluteBlack oval, 32t
and this is a KMC 10 speed chain that I had left over.
And that goes with a good old 10 speed cassette.
This is the closest I've ever been to a single speed I guess.
This is an 11-36t cassette.
This is an 11 speed derailleur, an XT GS so medium cage, M8000.
I know there's a lot of people out there that are going to tell you
that you cannot use 11 speed derailleurs with 10 speed cassettes
Well I'm using it here, works like a charm.
I did that because I am thinking that at some point
I'm going to install an 11- 42t or 11- 46t for the cassette.
Tire clearance - this is again a non-Boosted frame
you can see the 27.5 x 2.35 tire installed here.
And that leaves me about 5 mm from the cornering knobs.
Same on the chainstay, so I don't believe you can install
a tire that's much larger than this 2.35 in this frame.
However, I did try a 29er or 700c wheel
with road or cross tires on the frame and they fit just fine.
So quite versatile if you're interested in something like that.
The fork clearance again, it depends on the fork that you're installing.
This older Revelation non-Boosted as well
gives me quite a bit of clearance
so I wouldn't be surprised if i could install even a 2.6 tire in here.
And as I mentioned earlier,
my rear wheel is not the same as the front.
However this one uses a DT 350 hub
so that's a ratchet hub, very low friction, very easy to maintain
and very easy to change to the various standards.
This one is the QR 5 mm because the frame doesn't have a through axle in the back.
So I had to use the QR end caps.
Pedals are trusty Shimano M520
that i've used on a few bikes before.
And with the pedals this bike weights exactly 12 kg which is 26.5 pounds.
In this configuration the bike cost me close to 1000 dollars Canadian.
That's out of pocket money plus the few parts that I had laying around.
So not cheap by any means, it's never cheap to build from scratch.
However the bike is safe, I know I can take it to the trails,
and I'm not gonna die, and it's fun to ride!
And talking about riding,
I did go to the local trails recently,
here's some footage from there.
You know what, 130 mm on this bike
I think it's just perfect amount of travel.
I'm used to pushing harder on a full suspension over there.
Let's see how this goes...
Flying!
This bike rips man, holy smokes!
So much fun!
ok some berms.
Okay so what's the conclusion for building a cheap bike
using a cheap frame?
Frame is the most important part of a bike
I bought this for 120 bucks, I used it on the trainer,
but now that I built it into a real bike
I really enjoy riding it!
68 degrees head angle, with that 130 millimeter fork ,
74 degree seat tube which is pretty good for climbing,
425 millimeter chain stays,
this is very capable trail bike that I'm gonna continue to run
for the foreseeable future
Is it my first 27.5 bike in quite a while
and I didn't expect to have this much fun with it so
What do you guys think?
Interested in building something like this?
Let me know what you think in the comments below.
As usual, if you have any questions don't forget to ask.
Don't forget to like, subscribe,
keep an eye on social media.
And until next time ,
hope to see you guys on the trails,
why not riding a Brand-X hardtail.
Cheers guys, cheers!