[Closed] My Cove Hummer is built........finally!

That my friend is very, very nice. Loverly in a right kind of way. Quite jealous ...

Good work 8)

Cheers ask1974, I must admit to being kinda chuffed at how it turned out in the end, quite a few times over the past few weeks i've thought about binning the whole idea due to the hassle involved as outlined in my other threads regarding cove hummers etc, but it's built up now and after an all to brief ride on tarmac i can say it's been worth it, all who've had a shot round the shop car park and up the street have came back slack jawed with admiration and said "i need one", so i can't wait to see what it can do on the trails.

If anyone is interested i may let it out for a supervised demo ride round the local 7 stanes trails, seeing as i now work in a mates bike shop i don't mind others having the occasional go on it if there's the chance to drum up possible build custom for the shop.

It's quite a different build from my last major bike purchase a few years ago, a custom soulcraft that i ripped the front end from back in 2007 but Ben at Kinetics is going to put a new front end on it and rebuild it with S&S couplings so i can fold it in half for ease of transportation - so it's finally all good in my bike world.

[img] [/img]
How my Soulcraft used to look

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How it ended up looking

[img] [/img]
S&S couplings that Ben is going to build into the new top-tube and new down tube, very clever bits of kit indeed.

[url= http://www.sandsmachine.com/#photo ]S&S info here[/url]

That's a really nice bike. Have fun!

Glad you finally got sorted. Looks well.

Weighs well under 23lbs in it's current build which i'm very happy with as no component was choosen for it's lightness but rather for it's strength, robustness.

Haha, load of balls. 😆

Not entirely balls...honest - cross my heart and hope to die....well, maybe not that far but certainly far enough for a kick in the balls if i'm telling porkies 😛

I could save 1.4 kg or 3lbs+ if i bought a lighter mech, seatpost, stem, fork, saddle, cassette, wheels, tyres, grips, pedals but decided against it.

I've always used thomson stuff, never broke anything yet but it's strong and relatively light, heavy talas 140mm fork with remote, could've bought a float or DT swiss and saved 300 - 400 g easy, Heavy Zee rear mech but bombproof (hopefully), Gobi saddle not the lightest but suits my boney arse as years of previous use will testify, XT cassette - xtr is how much? 😯 , 1500g bombproof hope/crest/x-ray sapim/brass nipples wheels - i could've bought fulcrums or other lightweight wheels which are 300g lighter but flexy, tyres are 650 g/700g+ with sealant so i could save 200g here easy, pedals are 400g, couldve stuck to titanium eggbeaters which i've ran on all my other bikes and saved 150g but nah, need a proper pedal and finally grips - crap foam grips or something you can hold on to in a death grip like my fat lizard skins.

I did consider getting it under 20lbs but what's the point on a bike like this? - i don't want to ride a flexy noodle, the build as it stands will easily handle all mountain use (mbr trademark) and i doubt i'll break anything through use as i weigh 68kg. However i am intrigued to see how it will ride when i find a suitably pimpy and plain looking carbon fork for winter use, research purposes only eh 😀

I'll cue up round the corner later, please form an orderly line to kick me in the balls, NO steel toe caps please!

😆

That is a lovely looking bike. Fair play sir. 8)

I really like that. If you put a short stem on I'll be happy to accept it as a gift.

Not often compelled to comment on new bikes but that is mint, good work!

I don't mind fancy graphics and bling myself but that is just lovely. Good work!

It's bloody bright intit! 8)

Nice bike.

Nice 🙂

😀

Lovely.
Stunning looking bike.

You forgot the gears at the front though, easy mistake to make. 🙂

That looks great 😀 I wouldn't want to get it muddy though, it looks so good and shiny.

Lovely build. Can't find anything to complain about really.

The Hummer looks awesome.

After riding down in Galloway for the first time a few weekends back, i am now very jelous of your bike and the trails you have on your doorstep.

Can't say i see the point of the S&S couplings, the soulcraft has such lovely lines it'd be a shame to have a couple of bumps in it for the couplings.

Awesome shininess!!! 8)

Very Very Nice

Very, very nice that.

I put an on-one 29r carbon fork on my hummer 2 years ago for winter and it's still on, makes the front nice and light, keep promising to send the talas for a service but can't be arsed,
PJ.

Can't say i see the point of the S&S couplings, the soulcraft has such lovely lines it'd be a shame to have a couple of bumps in it for the couplings.

The point is that you can bung it in a car boot easily, or pack it down for travel - and I'd dispute that they're ugly, I think they're beautiful 🙂

[url= http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5311/5907761989_67f9906f91_z.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5311/5907761989_67f9906f91_z.jp g"/> [/img][/url]

Can even make them more beautiful:

[img] [/img]

Nice lugs 🙂

Sadly they're not mine - I've not yet found anyone who wants to pay the extra for me to carve them out 🙂

It's the sort of thing I wish I had a need for just so I could justify owning it.

Sadly, 99% of my riding is straight out of my door and I use the car for the 1% that isn't.

Hey Ben,

Each to their own i guess, can't say I am one for the lugged look. I think that one of the things I like best about the Hummer the smoothness of everything.

somafunk. Congratulations! Not only have you built a lovely bike but the whole of STW seems to agree. Is this a first? What is happening?

You should bring it down to The Wobble in a few weeks time. 😉

I promise not to point and laugh at your newfangled gears and up and downy fork. 😆

Stu...the wobble you say?, would that be the beery wobble i attended a few years ago? - that may be an idea worth looking into, let me consider it thoroughly regarding driving down/overall costs involved before i make a decision as it is a helluva distance to drive from Galloway.

Cheers for all the positive comments peeps, i know we all mention it doesn't matter what others say about our bikes but deep down it sorta does a little otherwise why would folk post bike pics?, quite chuffed with it and everyone who's been in the shop the past couple of days have had a spin on it and come back saying only positive things.

As for the S&S couplings?, i want my Soulcraft to return to life with a new intended use, the sort of bike i can pack down into a suitcase and always have at the ready to take off with and go explore - i may keep it in the car at all times just for that chance spotting of a trail in the hills that makes you wonder "where does that go to?". I like the fancy lug work above but i imagine the costs may be prohibitive.....we'll have to see as i will not be building up the Soulcraft with shiny bits till well into next year so i may decide to spend what budget i have made available to allow Ben to get "arty" with the lugs and paintjob.

Whatever i decide it will not be cheap to repair the frame and install the couplings so as the frame will be repaired to ben's exacting standards i'll be happy to have it hanging on the wall as an ornament till i raise the cash to build it up as the frame deserves, I easily did over 200 miles every week on this frame during it's brief 3.5 yr life so it deserves to be treated with respect and brought back to life as i absolutely loved riding it.

Steel frames never die, they just get repaired and wheeled out for another adventure.

😆

would that be the beery wobble i attended a few years ago?

Yep that's the one. 17th and 18th November. There'll be quite a few faces you know there.

Purdy.

Hmmm?, 330 miles away stu, that'l cost £150 return for fuel, £100 for accomodation, £100 spending and food money...it may just be dooable......it'd be good to catch up wi everyone again - you's won't take the piss out of my geary bike or lack of any riding fitness will you?.........let me sleep on it, i feel a cunning plan hatching.

🙂

hey somafunk! whats the word on those two trials bikes? are they still for sale?mines sold and i'm bikeless...

The Montesa HRC and the Gas-Gas?, yeah, they're still for sale, oops...just searched for the original thread and noticed you posted up a couple of days ago - alright if i call you bout 8.30 ish t'night?.

you's won't take the piss out of my geary bike or lack of any riding fitness will you?

Of course not.

Well i might just a little but i'm sure there'll be plenty of people keen to catch up with you again after your dissapearing act for the last few years. 😉

That is a lovely bike. Out of interest, which chain ring is that?

Moki - It's a Renthal 34 tooth 10sp compatible ring, very nice and with Renthals reputation for motorbike chainrings i'm sure they know what they're doing when it comes to making a quality product.

Stu : I fully expect to get abuse (good natured of course 😉 ) hurled my way, if fact i'd be offended if i didn't.

I'm 80 % percent certain i'll be there stu 😀 , will try for accomodation now but i expect the pubs will be full up, i'll try them anyway just in case.

I was looking at my old wobble pics in my flickr account at work this week - ain't that a weird coincidence?.

[img] [/img]

Look!...an original wobbler.

Lovely build.

What hubs, rims and tyres are they?

Somafunk, no excuses it's my 40th birthday weekend at the wobble!

bikenell : They're 28h Hope pro 2's on 28h Stans Crest with Sapin X-ray spokes and Brass pro-lock nipples onto Continental Mountain King Protection 2.4 front and Continental X-King Protection 2.4 rear, wheels built by [url= http://www.justridingalong.com/ ]Jon @ Just Riding Along[/url].

Wheel weight is 796g rear and 674g front, not bad for a bombproof set of wheels, perhaps not bombproof for big riders but i weigh less than 70kg so strong enough for my weight and riding style, i don't get air, not if i can help it anyway.

Stu : Tried to call every accommodation place so far , nae luck but i'll try the tourist board tmorn - fingers crossed i'll find somewhere, bunkhouse?, dosshouse...i'm not fussy as i expect i'll pass out due to alcohol poisoning anyway.

Call the tourist info and speak to Berni. (She found you some better digs last time)
She should be able to find you something.

Just spoke to sheldon, he's going to call Berni t'morn and try his charm on her (so that'll be me f-cuked then 😛 ) , i stayed at someones private house just up the road from the pub last time?, they knew Pat adams and that crowd somehow, i can't think of their names though but i do remember they were very decent folk, big house set back from the road with a steep drive and long garden at the back, couple of young kids at the time and they were bikers as well....they set up a futon bed for me n' jules in the spare room and made us a fantastic meal and everything....bloody annoying that i can't remember their names, but i guess it was 5 yrs ago and we were all rather drunk at the time, although not as drunk as sheldon.

We may have a solution Somafunk, looks like there may be some spare beds going at our accommodation. More as I get it, in fact I'll text you when I know more!

Cheers tollah, Doesn't even have to be a bed, empty out a drawer or cupboard and i'll wedge myself in somewhere - Wohoo.....i'm off to wales 😀

Woop Woop. 8)

thats a cracking bike, credit to you 😆

Cheers zanelowe, i think this build may be a stw first - i don't think anyone has criticised any part of the build yet?, and no mention of the untidy worshop either?....has stw gone soft in the head? 😀

And good news, (for me at least) I'm going to the "[url= http://www.green-events.co.uk/events.html?page=2&id=50 ]Real Ale Wobble[/url] on 16th & 17th November, Woop-Woop, not had a bikey/beery/mates holiday since SSWC 2007 at Aviemore, to say i'm chuffed is an understatement.

Whoop whoop Somafunk joins KõN shocker 🙂 the legend is back

Hey,
Long shot but would you sell the Juan solo frame? A year now I've been trying to find one that somebody will sell 🙁 I very regrettably sold mine for the cash 🙁 pm me badabing0077@live.co.uk thanks

emailed you ononerider - sorry but i don't want to split the salsa, when i advertised it on here for £400 i did get offers for the frame and parts but i wouldn't consider splitting as it rides far too nice to split up.

I've been lusting after a hummer for a while. How's the setup and ride somafunk? Any advice for building up from scratch, sounds like main issue was with seat tube shim, is it easily overcome if you know how? I've got a pace 325.5 which seems to have similar geommetry at least and it's by far the most fun ride I've had in nearly 25yrs of mtbing.

Any advice appreciated!

Have just read your saga in full, painfull in more ways than one! I see that Ben in Glasgow did an amazing job of correcting a few issues - I guess I could cope with that, given the price that merlin are selling these for. at least I know where to go if i buy a frame and it turns out the same...

That's lovely that is 🙂

Cheers superfinlay/stevied 😀 , this how it looks t'night after a strip down and clean at the weekend after abusing it by ploughing through muddy tracks in the Galloway hills over the past few weeks.

[img] [/img]

The ride is just fantastic, with the talas wound down to 110mm it handles real sharp and the front end can be made to dig right in and the back will just flip round - you do need to ride the front and place faith in the front traction but once i adjusted my riding style from my previous bikes it's second nature now, it climbs far better in the lower setting but thats just to be expected, wind the talas out to 140mm travel and it just hoons down trails/hills and over anything in it's path and i don't mind admitting i've been caught out a few times when at speed as my response with regard to controlling and allowing the rear to float underneath me has almost spat me off a few times till i reign it in a bit and compose myself - purely rider error or too fast for my skill level you could say 😉

I've not bought a complete mtb package from a shop since my Marin Pine Mountain back in 1992 as every mtb since then has been a case of pick and choose what parts i want or what will work best for my wants/needs and build it up myself (apart from a bit of reaming help fae ben up there ^ )

Yeah it's a shame i got the response i did from the original shop or salesman/mechanic where i bought the frame as it was obviously not in a condition to be built up and to be told i was inept was rather annoying to say the least - i was practically born in an engineering workshop wi a silver spanner in my mouth or at least brought up in that environment and worked in one from a young age but hey-ho, it's their loss of a customer, i guess i've spent countless thousands over the years as i've been using them since the early 90's for all manner of bikey stuff and always had excellent customer service from them beforehand untill this one time. I'd have thought the shop would simply ream out the headtube on the original (1st) frame i received from them rather than sending it back to Cove as that's all that was wrong with it, it doesn't take a genius to take a digital vernier gauge and measure the ID of the headtube but i guess it's immaterial now.

The seatpost shim?, I had trouble finding a shim in the correct size so i got in touch wi Lynksey who made the frame for Cove and they agreed with me that it should not have such a short shim installed and they couldn't figure out why it had such a short shim in the first place so they machined me a new shim of the correct depth and sized down to 27.2mm to structurally strengthen the area due to increased shim size and i can now use a dropper post 😀 , so as soon as the 27.2mm Thomson appears i'll be removing the existing shim and fitting the new shim (see pic below) along with a Thomson dropper.

[img] [/img]

FWIW : Lynskey (Don) were amazing, fantastic level of communication and they machined me a shim to whatever ID size i desired free of charge and couriered it to me free of charge as well so top marks and a big thumbs up for their level of customer service, nice to see that a company that has absolutely no obligation to deal with my problem went to such lengths to sort me out with a shim.

Very happy with the bike and current build, extremely nice to ride and so quick it just puts a smile on my face, my current fitness does not do the bike justice in any way shape nor form but i can work on that.........i can't use the old excuse that "my bike's not up to it" can i? 😳

Is that the standard middleburn spider on there? Have you ditched the pauls chain keeper?

clobber - Member
Is that the standard middleburn spider on there? Have you ditched the pauls chain keeper?

POSTED 9 MINUTES AGO # REPORT-POST

Looks like a hope ring with intergrated bash plus chain guide. 8)

So the original question still stands... 🙄

Is that the standard middleburn spider on there? Have you ditched the pauls chain keeper?

Sloggo's got it right, Hope IBR and Hope chain guide on original Middleburn spider to replace the original Renthal ring and Pauls chain keeper, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the Renthal and Pauls set-up as it worked perfectly fine without issue but being a bike tart i wanted to try out this setup.

[img] [/img]

Thought so. how is the wear compared to the rental one?

Reading your post i was sure to ask Merlin to fit headset before posting. Silverfish confirm that Lynskey do not provide longer shims and waiting on feedback from Lynskey / Cove re retrospective modification of seat tube cluster, on a new frame and in the absence of any crack like indications - I don't expect much on this to be honest. They have confirmed by email that they would mend anything free of charge in or out of warranty, which I have kept in a safe place, just in case. Have almost completed build and looking forward to riding it!

new hummer is going to be 650B apparently ! 😯

[url= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8358442304_9afbd273d3.jp g" target="_blank">http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8326/8358442304_9afbd273d3.jp g"/> [/img][/url]
[url= http://www.flickr.com/photos/jimbosussexmtb/8358442304/ ]Cove Hummer[/url] by [url= http://www.flickr.com/people/jimbosussexmtb/ ]www.sussex-mtb.com[/url], on Flickr

I love my Hummer!

Mint

We sure are showing the love for a [url= http://jokebeast.com/slang/Hummer.html ]Hummer[/url] with this thread 😆 , i do like the battleship grey of superfinlays.

The final saga in the tale of my Hummer : I bought a 27.2mm KS Lev dropper post so i took the bike up to a local specialist race engine machine shop to get them to remove the old seatpost shim which wasn't as straightforward a job as originally planned, their first idea of using a slide hammer and diesel injector reverse thread remover tool screwed into the soft alloy shim wouldn't shift it so we decided to carefully machine it out .1mm at a time, 30 mins later the shim was thin enough to enable us to peel it out of the seat tube, the titanium seat tube is surprisingly thin as the pics show but there is no deformation or blown welds in the inner tube where the top tube and seat stays are welded so thumbs up to who ever at Lynskey did the welding.

[img] [/img]

The shim is out

[img] [/img]

I used a brass brush in a dremel to clean the inside of the seat tube

[img] [/img]

Much tidier and you can see the welds of the top tube and seat stay inside the seat tube, nice neat welds with no blown areas.

[img] [/img]

On advice from the machine shop i used a liberal coating of Double Bubble inside the seat tube to bond the new shim in place.

[img] [/img]]

[img] [/img]

And Voila!, a 27.2mm dropper post fitted to my Hummer that originally took a 30mm seatpost, so if anyone needs a [url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/30mm-x-330mm-thomson-elite-seatpost-40-35mm-chromag-qr-25-posted?replies=1#post-4943867 ]30.0mm Thomson Elite seatpost or a 34.9mm Chromag QR in as new condition then click here[/url]

So i now have to remember to change gear, drop my post and use the CTD remote for my Talas fork...and avoid trees. It was so much easier when i rode a rigid singlespeed 😉

Whats the mountain king Protection like?

Terrible, they took weeks to seal properly despite me degreasing the release wax from the inside of the tyre - they would piss sealant and lose pressure mid ride from the sidewalls and tyre carcass on a daily basis despite using the Conti Revo sealant and they were very sketchy on roots, rocks and utterly useless when their was a bit of mud on the trails - i tried pressures from 20psi up to 30 psi. I now have Schwalbe Hans Dampf trailstar on the front and Schwalbe Nobby Nic pacestar on the rear and they are far superior, popped onto the Stans Crest rims without any hassle and with 100ml of sealant in them i've not had any probs or lost pressure in over a months use.

I've always used Schwalbe tyres but thought i'd give the Conti's a chance as everyone was raving bout' them, but i've avoided Conti's for the past 20yrs+ for a reason - they're crap!.

Oh, that sounds pretty crap. might have to try specialized butcher control and purgatorys instead...