First up sorry for the wait on this build thread, but lets get into it.
This was a fairly excited build for us so me and Jodes ended up at work early on this Saturday, fairly pumped to build our first Scalp for team rider Luke Ball, at first look, everything was in boxes ready to go so after ripping everything out to check, Carine Cycles looked like Christmas had come early!
We were lucky enough to score all new parts from the SRAM group to get this steed running like it should and a lot of P&A from Nukeproofs own shed, after talking with Luke, this build was going to be a simple silver build.
Attention to detail on the frame was nice to see, especially the welding!
Once we got it in the stand having a proper look we were all excited to finish, a few small issues with the wrong parts led to some stress, luckily we had everything we needed in stock any way, we were determined to have Luke race this at Wellington Mills the next day.
Had to throw the back wheel in to get a look and I have to admit, the bearings are super smooth, have to see how the whole wheelbuild holds up with riding as the season progresses.
The man himself setting up a nice low stack height on those Boxxer World Cups. Originally we were thinking raw coloured Boxxers but this sandy colour looked awesome on the finished build.
Next up was getting the driveline sorted, with a chainguide from MRP to keep the chain where it should be, and was nice and easy to set up for a dead straight chain line, which was a relief as some guides I’ve put on have been near impossible to get right!
By this point the build was looking close to finished and the Decendant cranks were next on, after putting these on a few builds now we’re fairly confident in the strength and you can’t argue with the weight.
After a busy day, the bike was finished, and looking awesome, as far as the first build went this one looked awesome!
Now between us we decided the first person to ride it should be Luke himself so it sat in the stand waiting for collection. Needless to say we all wanted to try it but once Luke got here we realised, the lack of mountainous terrain in the Carine Glades shopping centre wouldn’t be the most thrilling tests, so we went into the car park to let him play with some drifts in the dirt and make sure everything was tight.
The rain meant we were quick but Luke seemed to like the first test and was pumped to race the next day, we also had a look and realised the bike should be pretty easy to keep clean which is always nice, and overall the build wasn’t to difficult. Originally aiming for a really light weight bike with the parts issues it wasn’t the as light as we hoped, but a few small changes would easily counter that.
Cheers Luke for giving us the opportunity to build this bike for you.
All Photos © Luke Reed
