This week we take a departure from our usual stream of handmade titanium and steel road bikes to show you something a little different. This bike is neither made of metal or a road bike, but instead an all carbon, full suspension mountain bike. It's not often that we build mountain bikes, but when we do, we make sure to do it right. Our client wanted a bike that was fully capable of anything, but keep the weight down. We know. That's what everybody claims their latest and greatest mountain bike is, but in this case, we actually made it happen.
The core of the build is the Orbea Occam, a trail ready platform built around 140mm of suspension and 27.5" wheels. Clean and simple lines, sleek and elegant design, and it's light - around 4lbs for the frame and shock. Insanity for a trailbike.
We went with Rock Shox to handle suspension duties. Since its release, the Pike has been the premier choice in performance and really was the only option. We matched it up with a Monarch Debonair, nicely tucked away under the top tube. To bring it all together we sourced custom decals to match the Orbea's paint.
We went with Enve for both cockpit and wheels. As far as we've ridden, nothing else checks all the boxes in weight, performance, and beauty. The M60s provide incredible support and stiffness, yet as light as world cup XC wheels were not many years ago. Paired with Schwalbe Nobby Nic's and this is an incredibly light,yet grippy set up.
Handlebars and stems are a thing you don't want to mess around with on any bike, especially an all-mountain trail bike, and Enve has continued to be the proven choice.
For a weight conscious build, SRAM XX1 is the only way to go. It's strange to realize that the 42t cassettes now look normal, but the gear range works, while 1x is clean and simple. We did opt for the Race Face Next SL crankset over the SRAM counterpart. It's incredibly light weight and lends the stiffness of a 30mm spindle while working in a standard 24mm BB shell.
SRAM has done some really impressive work upgrading their braking performance over the years. The latest model are the Guide Ultimates and they are very, very good. A clean and minimal design, housing four pistons per caliper, in a light and minimal design.
Cables can be a tricky thing on modern mountain bikes. Orbea has done one of the most impressive jobs of keeping things nice and tidy. Not only do they look nice and clean, but they're impressively easy to get the cables though. Something that will be much appreciated by your bike mechanic, especially while needing to internally run hydraulic brake and seatpost lines.
That's the latest mountain bike build to roll out of the shop. We're really looking forward to get the report from our rider after it's first few runs up and down Mt. Tam!
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