wicked wrenching customs

After my accident on the Ventana (see the Ventana build page for that story...) it was time to decide on the next exotic build project. I was spoilt for choice working in Cycleworld, Dave had many top brands to choose from. I called around some of our vendors, and found the Santa Cruz importers were heavily discounting their XC frames. Apparently they were not a good seller, everyone wanted the larger travel trail bikes. That suited me fine as I have always felt more at home on short travel XC bikes and hardtails anyway. I had a choice of a few colours, and decided on the hot cherry Superlight. 

I had a couple parts left over from the Ventana, and began filling in the rest. I wanted this bike to be a solid XC race and marathon build, so the group was XTR, but went back to V brakes instead of disc. I had a ultralight Titec Ti bar and stem, so that was used also. I really wanted a set of wheels that stood out from the rest, so after a few phone calls found these extremely cool gold coloured DT Swiss titanium spokes, Ringle hubs and DT rims. The front I laced radially (one of the advantages of not running disc brakes) and the rear non drive side was radial as well. It was an insane wheel set, the gold and red really set it apart on the racetrack. It really completed the bikes overall look and appeal. I raced this bike for a couple of seasons, until I was offered a price I could not resist by another racer, so we parted ways sometime in 2007 just before I left for Darwin. I still miss it though and sometimes kick myself for having sold it.