XC/Trail - 29er - Carbon Frame - Rocky Mountain Elements TO 2017

 Santa's Bike has arrived.

Introduction :

Happy new year folks ! I wish you the best of riding for this year, and who knows maybe a new bike ! If you had a new bike for christams, what are you waiting for ?? Just share it in the comments, i'd be happy to see your dream bikes...

For now and to celebrate here is the most unaffordable bike i ever built, made especially for santa :D

For this, i've used a red and white (obviously....) Rocky Mountain Element frameset : a polyvalent XC bike meant for both adventure and performence.

The frame is made with the Rocky's Ride9 system which allows 9 different geometry setups to tune the suspension as you want it to be. It comes stock at 2.2 KG with a Fox Float DPS Factory remote rear shock.

Suspension

Since it allready the best of the best, no need to swap the rear suspension, just need to take care of the front. In this case I wanted to put a white RS-1 fork to match the color of the front end of the bike, but this stupid thing is not avalaible in Boost spacing ! For once I wanted to use it... Anyways, you will find a Fox 34 factory with the mighty FIT4 cartridge on it and 120 mm of travel. i could have shave some weight on that one using the 32 Step Cast, but that meant having only 100mm on front... Which would make the bike less polyvalent...

Transmission :

You probably allready heard about them, but Box is a compagny that makes different kinds of components (initially for BMX, recently for MTB) including its own transmission (Im currently waiting for them to release their crankset and brakes to make a Box special bike... but thats only a rumor...) which is a direct contender to Sram and Shimano !
For this bike, I'll stick to a rear mech, 11-46 cassette and shifter from the brand (but take note that apparently the rear mech is compatible with Shimano shifters...)

To complete that trio, I choosed a black and red KMC X11SL DLC chain and the Race Face NEXT SL crankset.

Drive Train :

Once again you will find an Industry Nine Wheelset but this time with the Pilar Carbon Ultralight wheels with an impressive claimed 1355 grams with ceramic bearings

For the tyres, I used a pair of Hutchinson taipan 29x2.2 (again I can probably shave some weight here but they'd be more fragile which means less polyvalence...)

Brakes :

To slow our buddy Santa, I choosed the Sram's Level Ultimate brakeset (after all, the Level is not much more than a lighter and dual piston version of the Guides...) around the Alligator Starlite rotors (180mm on front, 160mm on rear)
 

Other stuff :

Actually, I lied, I didnt use Box components only for the transmission, I also used their Headset and bandlebars (both using carbon). The stem is from Enve (50mm long) and the grips from ODI with the Troy Lee Design version...

All of that is completed by the Easton Haven dropper post and a Fizik Gobi 00 Wing Flex saddle.

And for pedaling (because no, the world is not allways a downhill trail, it also goes uphill sometimes) I choosed the Ritchey WCS XC pedals.

Conclusion :

Oh... What a beautifull bike for an old man ! But if Santa loves the beautifull stuff, he is also a really REALLY rich man, because that 10.9 KG XC (and more) machine cost him 10 700€... Yeah, 10k ! But I guess its worth it... At least it is visually !

Preview :