I’ve been racing SOCAL xc races going on 5 years now, I’ve had a ton of fun and have one more season before I graduate. I’ve been racing and training on a gen 1 supercaliber. Now this bike is absolutely perfect for racing, but I don’t plan on doing many xc races after this upcoming season is over. I also don’t see myself riding this bike very much afterwards. It’s fast, but it’s sketchy, uncomfortable, and I’ve broken 2 wheels. We ride hard on my team and a lot of us are switching to 120-130mm bikes. I’m aware bikes like the transition spur exist, but I had an idea to build a propain Hugene into a down country/light trail bike. Still light enough to get through a season of racing, but it’s also a rad trail bike I can see myself riding afterwards. I already have a propain tyee and love the suspension design and handling, and I’d do most of my hard riding on that. This bike would see mostly cross country miles, I’m not trying to build this into a mini enduro . A hugene frame +shock is less than 2lbs heavier than an epic 8 frameset, and they’re on sale for $1800. Assuming I did my math right I could build a trail bike that weighs as much as my supercaliber with two water bottles in the frame.
TLDR: am I stupid for wanting to build a weird half xc trail bike. But I’m also saving $1k-$2k compared to most XC frames.
by Left-Ad1576
4 Comments
Yolo
I don’t think it’s weird, it’s about you balancing the desire to win races with the desire to have fun on a bike that suits your terrain and riding style. I think tyre choice will be the biggest thing that makes this bike feel more XC or trail, though I’m not really familiar with the parking characteristics of this particular frame.
No its not weird, I’ve basically done the same with my merida one twenty 3000, although it was already a 120/130 bike, but stock it weighed 15.1kg with pedals in a XL, now I’ve knocked it down to 12.7kg with pedals, all with alloy parts (excluding the carbon front triangle) I’ve swapped everything on it except for the suspension, but I still used DH rated rims for strength (spank spike race 33) and its great, it handles bike parks well, and it does XC well too, and more importantly its really fun to ride
Sounds like it would be a lot fun. I say do it.