Latest Custom Builds — All Mountain

AB has been riding our wheels for a while and needed a new pair to suit her new frame. She has moved to Cannondale and their new Ai (Asymmetric Integration) frameset. The Cannondale concept requires specific rear wheel dish to sit properly in the rear triangle of the frame, but all in an effort to ensure greater lateral wheel stiffness and better wheel reliability.  Cyclinic, the local Project 321 distributor contacted us with this project and we agreed the Zelvy RBL 29er rims would be perfect for this build. They are super duper light, and still quite stiff under a...

If you are running a Specialized MTB dually from a few years ago, you may have a proprietary "142plus" hub. More details in a recent post, but essentially, if you have one of these, it makes sense to keep using it. The idea was a good one (a wider flanged hub), but came along just as the Boost standard emerged, and was thus eclipsed. Only certain Specialized frames can use these hubs, and these hubs cannot be used in normal 142mm spaced frames. Another retailer approached us to help out one of his customers. The customer hadpurchased a Light Bicycle...

Hernando rides a Trek All Mountain 29er. It's a fine bike, and he's decided that he'll keep it for a good few years yet. Being a 29er, he felt that the standard Bontrager Rhythm Comp alloy wheelset was a little too flexy for his liking. They are also a little narrow at 21mm wide internal. He felt this to be the only issue with the bike. So, after a couple of years abusing the alloy wheelset, he came to us looking for advice on a wide carbon wheelset to breathe a bit of new life (and lateral stiffness ) into...

We performed a Specialized Roval DTSwiss 240s 142+ hub rebuild for Ben - disassembly, internal and external clean, new bearings, springs, grease(s), and she's back in action and ready for another 5 years of abuse! Then we do what we seem to be doing to a lot of Roval wheels lately - replaced the rim. We replaced the cracked Roval with a Nextie Asymmetrical 25mm internal width rim, to match the width of his surviving front. We used DT Swiss Competition double butted black spokes and black brass nipples on this rebuild, and of course setup the tubeless tape for...

Elite riders are no stranger to XLR8. Listed as repeat customers are plenty of Ironman competitors, an ex-German National Champ, National level road and MTB racers, and over the last few years a very vocal Aussie MTB racer. She's ridden both MTB Marathon XC Worlds and more recently UCI MTB Worlds in Cairns. She's been riding our hoops for several years now, quietly. Not like her really, but I suppose that's what happens when you are sponsored by a multinational bike company! Driven in all aspects of her busy life, she has a "take no prisoners" riding style, and recently cracked...