Project Bike: Part One

The world economy is in the tank and gloom-and-doom outlooks are everywhere. What’s a rider to do? Ride of course; it is one of the best ways to forget all about disappearing retirement accounts and nasty unemployment rates. But there is the small matter of your bike. It is two or three years old now, starting to show its age and just doesn’t excite you quite the way it once did. You need a little something to spice up your relationship with your ride, and nothing does that like some fresh shiny parts. But how do you know what works and will give you a good return on your investment? Especially considering the limited resources you can devote to pimping your ride these days.

Here’s our starting point, all cleaned up for its closeup. A 2006 Enduro Pro frame adorned with a mishmash of functional but pretty average gear. Time to put a little snap back in its step… cue the upgrades. || photo: Jim Clagett

Enter the NSMB project bike. We grabbed a slightly older steed that had lost some luster (maybe just like the one in your garage). We’ll be rebuilding it part by part over the summer and bringing you reports every few weeks on all the goods. The focus will be on value: quality parts that will extend the life of your ride and re-light that fire.

This first installment is the icing on the cake; think of it as eating dessert first. That is not to say these parts don’t functionally enhance the quality of your ride, because they do. But you will certainly notice a theme here as we kick off sprucing up the old Enduro Pro. It’s not quite The Beatles White album, White Men Can’t Jump (although I resemble that remark in the air) or even Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle. Since the bits are brown and white, I’ll dub this the “Rootbeer Float” stage of the rebuild.

Transition Park n’ Ride AM Saddle

There are only a few places you actually connect to your bike while riding it so you had better make them count. The Park n’ Ride AM saddle is nice visual upgrade to your steed but let’s be honest; a seat has to feel good over the long haul or you just won’t use it. That is especially true on a bike like this, that is set up to be pedaled. Nothing will put a crimp in your style faster than a seat that doesn’t fit your rump.

The chromoly rails, a comfortable shape and the just the right dose of padding add up to make this a solid place to put your backside on a ride. || photo: Ed Snyder

I have been riding this saddle for a few weeks now and have taken it on an epic jaunt or two. I even felt confident enough to race on it, and I haven’t raced in a long time. Transition struck a nice balance between the amount and the density of the padding. They have just enough to catch you off a hard landing but not enough to get in the way of your sliding easily on or off the back of the saddle. I would call it a medium-sized seat and when I first looked it over, the middle section appeared to be wider than most I have used. On the bike that does not seem to come it to play at all and I found myself forgetting this was new seat altogether. That is a statement in and of itself, as ever since I broke my tailbone a few years back I have been über-picky about the seats on my bikes.

The acid test came last week when I forgot my padded cycling shorts and end up riding in just a pair boxers under my old, thin Fox Huck shorts. We were in for a couple of hours on the bike in warm temperatures and I was dreading the possible after effects. The ride went off without a hitch and my backside emerged virtually unscathed. Any seat that can pull that off gets major points in my book.

The synthetic leather shell has a sublimated Transition logo on it to keep your ride looking stealthy, if you choose the black version. The white is a little less stealth and a little more rock and roll, but it isn’t plastered in bright logos or fancy stitching either. At 250 grams and $40 (USD) this seat is certainly in line with our value theme but doesn’t give up an ounce of performance.

Deity Dirty Thirty Bar

A great handlebar is a subtle thing that can really effect the way you sense what your bike is doing underneath you. Too much material or the wrong bends can leave you feeling like you are latched on to an iron pipe. Too little and you can feel like you are trying to drive a noodle after it has been cooked. The first time I held Deity’s Dirty Thirty (at Interbike two years ago) the only thing I could say was “wow”; followed quickly by “I want one”. The bar looks terrific due to a five-step finishing process that Deity uses to coat them but even more importantly it just feels right in your hands. You end up with a great looking, durable handlebar that give you an effortless connection to the handling of your machine.

Not sure what is sturdier in this picture, the bar or the picnic table; but I sure know which one is lighter and better looking. The bar weighed in just over 300 g before being cut down. No word on the picnic table weight. || photo: Jim Clagett

The 31.8 mm diameter bar is formed out a custom drawn 7075 aluminum and comes stock in the 30 inch (760 mm) width, hence the name. My white powdercoated version topped the scale at just a hair over 300 grams before I trimmed about two centimetres off of each side. That made it manageable for the trees and it retained the sweet feel in your hands. The bar looks great, has plenty of space for controls and lends a very solid but smooth feel to the handling of the bike. Not much more you can ask for in bar.

The Dirty Thirty all mounted up and looking sharp. So even if I don’t ride like a rockstar I can start to look a little more like one. || photo: Ed Snyder

The bar comes in at $65 (USD) which certainly isn’t the least you can pay for a bar, but not the most either. So how does it rank value-wise? Given the material, the high quality finish and the tested performance of the bar it is ranks on our board as a solid value that should stand up to some serious long-term abuse.

Chris King NoThreadSet Headset

This is one piece that it is hard to debate the value of. While it carries a price tag higher than you average headset ($129 USD) it also carries legendary performance and durability. The last Chris King headset I owned was transferred to three different mountain bikes over the course of seven years and and was then sold to a very happy buyer… still working perfectly. It never took a touch of maintenance; ever. They aren’t named “Chris King Precision Components” for nothing. If you don’t believe them, there is always the matter of the ten year warranty. You read that right, ten years. Try to find that on any other bike part around. If you do bugger it up a bit (or more likely lose a piece), you can buy replacement parts (any of them) direct from chrisking.com and keep right on rolling.

Solid, subtle and damn near perfect. Beat this one all you want… I bet you’ll give up before it does. || photo: Ed Snyder

This is pretty much the gold standard of function and durability, but it doesn’t lag behind on style either. You can get one in any of the ten available colors and if that isn’t enough you can mix and match your own. Want a team colored version? No problem. Rasta? They have it. Country flag colors? You get the idea. I chose the newest available color in the lineup to match the Enduro’s frame color; brown.

The other new graphic addition (or possibly subtraction) is the the “Sotto Voce” logo being used on the all the headsets. Sotto Voce is an Italian musical term referring to a dramatic lowering of the tone in a piece, that translates roughly as ‘whisper.’ In the case of the new King logos, it is a sublimated application that is etched on and is very slick. I think of it as the company knowing that it makes the baddest parts on the block and not having to shout about it. Either way it looks great and adds some style to the ultra-functional nature of the part.

NSMB Bar End Caps (by Straitline)

Now for the cherry on top of our little sundae. Bar end caps have a function (keeping dirt out and covering up the possibly sharp edge of a cut-down bar) but largely they are for looks. Since this is the NSMB project bike we might as well label it as such. There is no more stylish way to do that than with these slick caps made for us by Straitline. The logo is etched on by a laser so they should hold up to some nasty knocks.

Good looking AND they prevent you from ending up with the pointy part of the handlebar lodged in some soft part of your anatomy. What’s not to like? || photo: Ed Snyder

Installation is a snap as the cap simply replaces the outer ring of any ODI lock-on compatible grip. In my case that is a pair of Oury lock-ons for now, but if I choose to switch them up I can simply snap off the caps and port them right over the next pair of grips. They are like the gift that keeps on giving, or in this case the icing on our particular cake. (If you’d like a set we sell them in our online store -Ed.)

So the the project is rolling and more parts are on the way. Many thanks to the committed folks at Transition, Deity and Chris King for helping to give our Enduro a new lease on life and adding a little swagger back into its step. Stay tuned throughout the summer as we bring this older ride back to life with help from likes of Shimano, Sun Ringle’, X-Fusion and more.

Ed Snyder

Got a bike you reclaimed and made right again? A great upgrade you’ve made over the last year that had you wanting to ride more after you did it? Share the knowledge here…