In my case I have 3 bikes - a cheap (free) aluminium MTB in shopping guise (slicks, mudguards etc), my Giant Defy which is the Winter and commuting bike and my Focus Cayo which is my Summer and "best" bike. Three is realistically the most I can justify and I hove no desire to be a mountain biker - so its a town bike, Winter bike and Summer bike. So the N+1 would be a N-1+1 leaving me 3 bikes. The -1+1 part would be the Focus - the Giant is a good bike, has some upgrades to make it better than it was when I got it and seems to take all that I throw at it year in year out (over 10000 miles so far) without complaining.
The plan would therefore be to replace the Focus. However to replace the Focus like-for-like would be about £1500 or so, so I'd need to look at something around £2500 to be a worth while step up, and even then I'd need to be careful that the newer machine was actually "better enough" to justify to myself the spend. The potential new bike would be funded by the sale of the Focus and some of my 2013 Performance Bonus. Despite this I am still careful with money so while I was looking I was not actually looking that hard and was quite happy with the Focus.
Unfortunately I then saw a thread on the Bikeradar forums called The Scott CR1 SL Thread. A few pages in was a link to this:
Actually it was not quite this as the image shows the 2012 Scott CR1 Pro (not SL) but looking more carefully this was a £1300 frame/fork for £500. I dithered and thought about it but fortunately they sold out really quickly. This was good for 2 reasons - 1 - it showed that it must be a good deal and - 2- it saved me spending any money.
However unfortunately they came back in stock and they also added the Pro model for £450 as shown above. Reading the specification the difference was the type of Carbon fibre and the bottom bracket type (pressfit on the SL and threaded on the Pro) - everything else was pretty well the same. Frame/fork weight was quoted as 950/390g. I tried to find the equivalent weight of my Focus but couldn't. A Google search of Scott CR1 Pro bikes (assembled) shows they varied between £2000-3500 depending on other components fitted. In summary this was a serious bargain, and could actually mean that I could move nearly all the Focus components to this frame and build a seriously good bike for probably ~£600 (I knew that I'd need some other parts like a seat post, new cables etc.) but by doing this I could get close to a £2500 bike for £600. Many of the parts on my Focus are pretty reasonable - its got Shimano RS80 C24 wheels, a mostly Shimano 105 5700 drive train, 105 5700 brakes so its not too bad. If I got the Pro I could move my FSA chainset across (whereas with the SL I'd probably need a new chainset).
So after some further pondering I bit the bullet and ordered a Pro in 54cm. Great service from Westbrook Cycles (who I have not used before) - ordered on a Saturday - arrived 10am Tuesday with about 3 texts to keep me informed of progress.
On opening the box and lifting the frame out my first thought was - wow! It was really light. The box was probably 3 times the weight of the frame. In the box was frame (with derailier hanger, , bottle cage bolts, seat post clamp and some self adhesive patches to prevent cable rub on the frame), the fork and the Ritchey headset. No instructions included either for the frame or the headset. I didn't do anything more that evening other than wonder how I might assemble the headset.
Headset Assembly
In fact the headset was the bit that worried me the most. I have never actually cut a steerer and pressed in headset bearings before. I understood the process and theory but had never put it into practice, and to try for the first time on a £1300 frame and fork was not something I was keen on. I saw a number of potential pitfalls, the following 3 being the worst case:
- getting steerer length wrong
- cutting the steerer not square
- pressing the bearings in wrongly and damaging the frame
For the steerer length challenge I could measure and check lots of times, so this was a lower risk. I could also make the first build with a longer steerer length so I could have a go at one length and have scope to have a second go to get to the right length. Risk - LOW
Cutting the Steerer not Square
For cutting the steerer not square I know from using a hacksaw that however hard I try I always seem to drift off and ideally I'd like to use a cutting guide that I don't have, like this:
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Cyclus Fork Steerer Cutting Guide |
Headset Bearing Pressing
For pressing the bearings in wrongly - the bearings I knew would only go in with a tool. This type of tool at around £35:
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Cyclus Headset Press |
An alternative is something like this from eBay for about £4:
This tool I could make myself as I had some studding and washers.
I would also need some sort of Crown race fitting tool at around £25:
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Cyclus Crown Race Fitting Tool |
Therefore I was looking at about £60-80 worth of tools for a possible 1 off job and I was nervous of all 3 major operations.
Therefore for the first time I rang a couple of Local shops to see what it would cost. If it was over £50 then I'd look to do it myself, if less I would have it done.
Firstly I tried Red Kite - price was very reasonable at £12 but they couldn't have a look until September - so 6-7 weeks away - I was not in a great hurry but I wanted it sooner than that! They aimed to have 2.5 mechanics and only had 1 apparently hence the problem
Secondly I tried Cult Racing - a little further away but their web page did identify a fully warranted job. I rang them and was asked to ring back as the mechanic was out on the club ride. Ringing back later the response was "it's £12 and bring it round after 4 when we're less busy and we'll do it". So that's what I did.
So the current state is I have my Scott with the head set fitted and steerer cut (with a temporary steerer fitted) and its now awaiting me to start swapping bits over from my Focus.
