What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with a good story for you to appraise, praise, and maybe look wistfully at.
This week, we’ve got Tom Howard’s latest bike, a project that’s been some time in the making. A recent ‘Forum Glossary’ immortalised Tom thus:
Reasonably priced = expensive.
Rusty Spanner
A bit spendy = outrageously, jaw droppingly expensive.
Expensive = Tom Howard already has one.
This may be an unfair mischaracterisation, but it’s still funny. And perhaps, when you see this build, you’ll think it’s not so inaccurate after all….
Why this bike?
I have Deviate’s previous offering, the Guide, which blew me away with how well the high pivot worked, it really was the best descending thing I’ve ridden, short of a full on DH rig. My only slight niggle was whilst the pinion gearbox is perfectly fine for winch and plummet, or uplift riding, it’s not ideal for a trail bike IMO, so when Deviate announced they were going to do a bike with a regular drivetrain, I put my name down for a demo as soon as they could get to me. Sure enough it descended better than any 140mm bike I’d ridden, floating through rock gardens, but the feeling was of a much more taught bike, there was no slack or drag in the drivetrain, and the shifter was much more familiar, so, bike ordered, and the Guide is now very much built as a DH bike, with this filling in everything shy of that.
As for the paint, I really like the look of raw metal in mechanical things, cars, bikes, watches etc but I’m also a sucker for carbon, which doesn’t really look a lot like raw metal, for obvious reasons. I’d already been speaking with Paul at JMJ about a paint job as the standard Deviate colours didn’t really do it for me. I’ve had loads of blue bikes, and while the yellow was something different, I wasn’t really feeling it tbh, so over the past year we’ve been bouncing ideas around, and as part of that he sent me a pic of a steampunk style model dog, with a load of (artificial) weathering and patina on the surface. Decision made. I didn’t want to just have a sea of silver though, so had planned to have some chequered areas, but then saw some digital camo which I thought, in black grey and gold, would provide a nice contrast, and something else to look at (and it’s definitely not tetris, ok? ;-)). I was debating whether to go jet black for the branding but though it might look a little harsh against the roughed up sliver, so went with brass instead, based on a few raw Curtis frames I liked the look of. It won’t be to everyone’s taste, but that’s their problem, I love the look and am super grateful to Paul and his talents that have been able to turn what was floating round in my head to what you see in the pics. He’s properly nailed it.
As for the other bits, I’ve seen plenty of folk do bike builds with a specific criteria, be that geographical, colours or whatever. Mine is simply kit that makes me go ‘Corr!!’ when I first see whatever it is.
Tom’s Steampunk Deviate Highlander Specification
- Frame: Deviate Highlander 140mm travel, custom painted by JMJ Designs
- Fork: EXT ERA, again painted by JMJ Designs to match the frame. If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing fully. When this was first released, there were a few ‘first look’ articles doing the rounds in the media, all fairly standard, press release-y type stuff, but ever so slightly different, they all had a little footer at the the end saying ‘we’ve given this a quick try, and it’s really, REALLY, good’. Normally the proper reviews come later, but these little comments intrigued me, so order placed and I’m not disappointed. I don’t pretend to know how or why it works so well, but it’s easily the smoothest fork I can remember using, yet still super supportive on bigger hits. Corr indeed…
- Shock: EXT Storia V3. First coil shock in about 13 years, bought based on reports of how good it is, and how good it looks. What’s amazing is how well balanced the front and rear feel now, no doubt thanks to Mr Porter at Mojo Rising’s tinkering.
- Suspension Set Up: Shock has a 550lb spring, Fork has 75psi in the main chamber, 115psi in the second. All the twiddly knobs are as they came from Mojo Rising, all feels incredible, so I’m not going to try an ruin, I mean, ‘improve’ anything. I float around 90kg at the moment
- Wheels: DT Swiss XMC1200, with Berd spokes. 1280g. Had some standard ones on a previous XC bike and was impressed with how light they were and what hammering they took, so was kind of a no brainer for a trail bike. The Berd spokes were an experiment to see if I could get an enduro/AM wheel set below 1300g, and they are, just. The certainly aid the spritely-ness of acceleration, taking half a pound out of already light wheels will do that, and there is a different feel that’s difficult to put your finger on when riding over washboard type trails, but it does feel smoother. Would be interesting to try out on a rigid bike. Royal pain in the proverbial to build too.
- Tyres: Maxxis, Assegai 2.5 EXO Front. DHRII EXO 2.4 rear. I know what I like and I like what I know. Maxxis is what I know.
- Tyre Inserts: None.
- Chainset: Cane Creek EEWings 170mm, Wolftooth stainless steel 30T ring. A chainring that should last forever, and stay shiny. Cranks are functionally the same as stuff half the price, but LOOK AT THEM!!!!
- Rear Mech: SRAM XX1 AXS. I’ll never go back to cables, but next time i’ll go GX AXS, which seems to be functionally the same, only a teensy bit heavier
- Shifters: SRAM XX1 AXS, see above
- Cassette: SRAM XX1 Eagle rainbow, 50-10. does what it needs to and looks ace doing it.
- Brakes: Trickstuff Maxima, w/Hopp components matchmaker clamps & intend Aero rotors, 203×2.25 F&R. These are the bits everyone talks about. Yes they are incredibly powerful, and the modulation is lovely. No they aren’t 3 times better than Hope/Saints/Codes. LOOK AT THEM!!! (Point to note, I took these off the Guide, just to get the Highlander running in final spec this year, the ones I ordered for this were due last Dec, then this July just gone, now this Dec, fingers crossed)
- Bars & Stem: Tune GT35 35x35mm stem, Tune Wunderbar bars 800mm, Tune top cap. Pretty subtle, pretty light (sub 300g for the lot)
- Grips: ODI lockons, Vans waffle pattern. Use these on all my bikes
- Seatpost: 170mm AXS Reverb. Won’t go back to hoses or cables.
- Saddle: WTB Volt Ti. Comfy, light, doesn’t creak. Might tweak the position a bit.
- Accessories: Ti Seatclamp and jockey wheels from Dward Designs. Bling for bling’s sake if I’m honest, hope he starts making chainrings to match. Crank Bros Stamp 11 Pedals – light, wide and thin. Will keep an eye on the bearings.
- Size and Weight: Large, 31lb 11oz as pictured
Tom Says:
After 18 months and lots of delays (for some reason?) it’s finally in its finished state, and I wouldn’t change a thing. I’ve got the Intend fork from the charity auction that will fit, so might give that a go on this once its repaired, just to see what its like before I decide what frame it will eventually be plugged into (next project), but other than that, no changes at all, which might well be a first for me!
I guess the elephant left in the room now is the cost of all the above. I’m far too polite to start waving figures around but needless to say this wasn’t an exercise in value for money, but bikes are my only vice and I would be lost without them. I get as much joy from building and looking at them as I do from riding them, and supporting an industry and community that has made me a very happy boy over the years. It’s cheaper than a top of the range, off the shelf Pivot Firebird though 😉
Is this worth the effort? Would you have been happy to have a yellow one? Has Tom missed a chance to add something Steampunk (there’s surely a great Steampunk bell out there)? Would you happily buy tickets to be allowed to stroke this, extra to lick it? And how the heck do you know when to stop cleaning it because it’s not actually dirt it’s the paint? Head to the comments!
While you’re here, we’d like to draw your attention to our World Bicycle Relief fundraiser. If you’ve experienced the joy of a new bike day, you’ll know how great it is. Now imagine you get given a bike, and it changes your life, giving you and your family access to education, employment or healthcare. Through World Bicycle Relief, you’ve got the power to make that happen, and if you can spare a little, we invite you to make your donation here.
