Hello again!
I was away for awhile, but I am back for now.
Since my last post, I have done a lot, and I mean a lot, of up grades to the Motobecane Outcast 29er Singlespeed.
First, I bought a suspension fork for it. I gave the “fully rigid” thing an honest try and it was just not for me. Maybe it is my age, or maybe it is the rocky trails that I ride, but without a suspension fork, mountain biking is just not as fun! Try as I might, I could not find any 29er forks (for sale) that were v-brake compatible. I know the RST M29 fork takes v-brakes, but I could not find one for sale anywhere. Then I stumbled upon the Spinner 2nine fork, but again, I could not find one for sale or in stock anywhere. So in the end, I got a great deal on a 2009 Rock Shox Reba SL from Pricepoint.com.
New Rock Shox Reba SL fork.
Next, I was forced to do something different for a front wheel since the stock wheel is v-brake only and my new fork is disc brake only. At first, I thought I would just buy a new front disc hub and re-lace the stock rim to it. This would have been a fairly inexpensive option. Then I thought I might as well take this opportunity to upgrade the whole wheelset (don’t you love when opportunity strikes!) and shave a pound or so off the bike as well. After a bunch of searching and looking at wheelsets, I decided to have Universal Cycles build me a custom set. The frame is also v-brake only (which I prefer for a singlespeed since it make wheel removal easier) and most, if not all, ready built wheelsets were disk brake only. I went with Surly Singlespeed disk hubs (front and rear) laced to Sun CR18 rims with DT double butted spokes (all silver) with red alloy nipples. They turned out real nice and the cost was quite reasonable!
To complete the “front end” upgrades, I bolted on a Avid BB7 disc brake with 180mm rotor. So now the Outcast is running a “mullet brake set-up” - all business up front (disc) and all party out back (v-brake)!
New wheels, fork and BB7 font disc brake.
I also picked up a few little things to compliment the new Surly hubs like a Surly Stainless Steel 32 tooth chain ring, another Surly Tuggnuts, and a Surly Constrictor seatpost clamp. I also installed some ESI Chunky grips and Cane Creek bar ends!
New ESI grips and Cane Creek bar ends.
I really like how the new “all silver” wheels look. They have kind of a retro look to them. So that got me thinking…. how would the bike look if I stripped all the paint off the aluminum frame? Would the raw aluminum frame look like the Sun CR18 rims? So, I did a little searching on the internet and found a few post from people who did just that, and after looking at the pictures, I liked what I saw. So down to the auto parts store I went and I picked up a can of paint stripper ($5) and an soft abrashive disc for my drill ($9) and headed back home. I took all the parts (and I mean everything) off the frame. Sprayed the paint stripper on as directed. Waited about 30 minutes and then went to work. The spray on paint stripper worked great. The paint bubble up and then I just scraped it off with a plastic putty knife. The I got out my power washer and sprayed the whole frame down really good. This worked great since I was able to get into all the nocks and crannies of the frame. Next I took the abrasive disc (label says “removes rust and paint”) mounted in my drill and gave the frame a quick once over and took off any remaining paint. Then I got a bucket of warm soapy water and some medium grade steel wool and went to work using some elbow grease. I went over each tube of the frame with the water soaked steel wool and put a semi gloss shine on them. In the end, the framed turned out better than I could have hoped for, and I only spent about three hours of my time and $14.
Close up of the "new" raw finish!
With the bike apart, it gave me the perfect opportunity to clean and regrease every thing as I put it back together. I also replaced the brake cables and housing while I was at it and now the bike looks and rides better than new. Check out the whole package!
The "new and improved" Outcast 29er.
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