After weeks of driving around the metro, my parts collection business is finally over. Thus, Bikenstein is finally completed. The last few parts I bought for my mountain bike are the shimano non-series hydraulic brakes, Dabomb Tribal Riser bar, DaBomb Minime stem, and the saddle. My brother-in-law accompanied me to Cartimar, Manila to source for the last few parts and a good bike assembler. He also bought pedals for his mountain bike too. After sourcing for a good shop, we ended up at Ross Bike Shop which I heard good stuffs from them. So we immediately went there and have my bike assembled. There’s this nice bike mechanic named Mang Jim who assembled my bike. He even advice us how to adjust parts and even told me to return my newly bought items (alivio) and have them replaced with a good one (Deore). It took us around 2-3hrs of waiting for my bike to be completed. After the assembly, the testing begins. The first thing I inspected was the weight of the bike. It was surprisingly light. As for the mechanical concerns, the Cranks and Derailleurs was in top condition and doesn’t need to be re-adjusted. All I can say is that Mang Jim rocks! I’ll definitely go again at Ross for future upgrades of parts…Below are some of my bike pics after the assembly…Bike on!

Bikenstein Begins…rollin’

Another Side Shot!

Blacking and my Bro-in-Law White Merida XC!

I never really thought that I would invest to this new hobby. Badminton is my favorite sports. My first racquet was priced below a thousand pesos and took me a year to upgrade to a more expensive equipment. But this new hobby of mine took more than 20 grand (and still considers it and entry level bike…to some “expert bikers”) which I never thought of spending! I mean, I would just spend this money to my kid instead of things like this…but I guess I already just did hehehe. Some starters would just buy those assembled mountain bikes which can be seen at the malls and other bike shops. But expert bikers advice newbies not to get those ones as the parts included in the package are cheap and heavy. They would recommend you assemble and personalize your own mountain bike. Another alternative to get a cheaper bike but with branded parts is to get these items to other expert bikers selling their old stuffs and this is what I did. Buying used parts from other bikers is really exhausting. Buying parts here and there, wasting precious gas just to get those parts for my bike.

The first thing I bought is a bike fork. which I got it for a good price. It’s a 2008 Suntour Axon RLD 100mm travel fork with Remote Lock-out so you can just stop the bouncing action of the fork with a flick of a switch. I really can’t believe the brand new price of this fork which cost around 10 Thousand at a bike shop in quiapo. If that’s true, then this is a steal!

The second part that I bought was the wheelset that really is a steal! Many thanks to sir Carlo Clemente that he gave me a huge discount for this nice pair of wheelset. He gave it to me for the price of a brand new DT Swiss spoke (tiny strings) plus 1 rims… you do the math! The specs is a 26″ Mavic 321 Disc rims 32H, a shimano Deore XT front and rear hub plus shimano skewers, 2007 XTR Disc rotors, Maxxis 2.1 Tire, brand new Continental Inner Tube, and DT Swiss spokes which cost P50pesos per spoke/string.

The third was the bike frame. I got it brand new. It’s a 2008 model Merida Matts TFS X-Edition frame. This is the last and top model frame of the Matts TFS frames. The color is matt gray and matt black. It comes with a seat clamp and an FSA headset with sealed bearing. Thanks also to sir Pete which I got it at a discounted price.

The fourth was an SRAM SX4 model rear derailleur with Front and Rear trigger shifters and and 8-speed 11-32 teeth SRAM Cogset. which i bought for 1,500 pesos. Thanks sir Jericho. He said that this was the same as the Shimano Deore’s Derailleur set.

Last item I purchased as of Today is a Truvativ Crankset with 3 Chainrings with a BB (Bottom bracket) which I got for 1,000 pesos. Still more parts to buy, money to earn… will keep you posted guys for the completion of Bikenstein (corny name)…Oh well!