Build time

It's been awhile... actually kinda long not to be building a new bike. The '10 EG frame been sitting around for almost 2 years now. Yup one of those that went on a blow out after Titus collapse when the new owners just took over.. Next came the "V2" and now the "V3" EGs...

Paralleling many of the evolutionary trends in the natural world and the biking industry as a whole, everything gets oriented towards being lighter than ever.. tapered headtubes, optimizing for shorter but lighter class of fork!!

Pricing for these new EGs are good too. So much so it seem to make my rather antique "V1" now seem rather overpriced . BUT truth be told, I'm actually glad hanging on to this than grabbing one of the newer ones.

Nothing's ever perfect but there wasn't much to complain over on the older frames. Whatever I thought should be "improvements"  were not a part of those changes made on the V2 and V3... Changes on the newer variants might be a good thing for some but suffice to say, not for me.

Things "evolved" to a point where its hard to be as surefire when others seeked my opinion on the frame. The present configs now would suggest a final build that is a departure from its original intent.

Pretty sure it still can be built up into something bigger than the contemporary worldview of "Light Long Travel AM" or whatever oxymoronic classification is rocking the mtb world these days.... but that kind of thought might just be relegated to the die hard conservatives like yours truly with a preference for overbuilt qualities and considerations for longevitiy to cater for underskilled stupidities (of the rider).

Still having said, I'm setting out now to build a budget "weenie" second EG. Let's just see what the good ol' frames  are capable of.... 

Target: 1 x 9, decent sized tires (2.25??) correct type of fork and a couple of modern day frills like adjustable seatpost... under 28.5lb


Caught in between sizes isnt such a bad thing after all... EG2 is a small and complete with shock would qualify as a rather light 6" frame-- sans carbon of course

Small 2010 El Guapo Ano Brown  Sub 3kg. Complete with a Monarch RT3

Cockpit: 736gm as of now. But given the swapping fetish in this area of a bike, chances are it wont look quite as is by final build/ setup.

1-Ring "OREO" System: 838gm. Pared and stripped almost to minimum.. debating a few gm saving of alloy ring bolts over the steel that would see some force generated due to the 1 ring nature riding of this contraption.

Fresh off the truing stand.. 1.92kg. 

Wheelset isn't as light as originally intended but for peace of mind, nipples gravited back to brass as opposed to colored bling ano-alloy bits. Stan rim tape s are on the porky side of things but tubeless ready. Something I never contemplate in past but now could consider... Quite sure the next few days would be spent debating to "tube or to -less"

Alchemied Air Vengeance... should hit the scale at ~2.27kg once steerer gets chopped

Having the same one on the El Getsugatensho for 4 years.. light and strong. A headset I reviewed previously and swear by. So same is going on the EG2 now. 

Would qualify as one of the light weights previously. But by today's standard, sub 250gm flats exhibiting similar footprint is pretty common. Still pretty acceptable and offers an area on the bike should I really "need" to drop a hundred or so grams off the final build with something lighter later on.

More later...