After damaging my Massi Z7 hardtail a few months ago whilst racing the NPS at Thetford and undergoing much pain in the wrists after using Pace rigid carbon forks for the past five years, I decided I needed a new frame and some suspension forks. Being a self confessed weight weenie I was on the lookout for something fairly light, but being on a limited budget of £300 I headed to ebay.
After a bit of searching for a second-hand Principia MSL Pro (to compliment my Principa Pro road bike) and having no luck I spotted this rather nice VooDoo Scandium SOBO. Bought it for £230 and bought some nice RC39
C-Type forks from my long time sponsor (Ben Hayward Cycles) for a good discounted price.
A bit of stripping and rebuilding gave me my 19.75lb VooDoo SOBO. Built up with a selection of KCNC parts (from my other sponsor KCNC.co.uk) like the XC-1 chainset and Scandium seatpost and some other choice cuts like Xpedo pedals
XC SLR saddle, X.O Gripshifts (always have liked gripshifters) and my lovely Hope/Mavic/Ti spoked wheels which I rebuilt myself after the original rims eventually wore out because they were 10 years old!
The bike is really responsive and because it’s light it climbs soooo well (could be just me though!). I’ve taken it to a few podium places already and it’s held up well so far at National and local level.
Soon to be added to the bike will be a KCNC scandium bar and stem along with the KCNC VB-1 brakeset so it may just be a bit lighter. I like the VooDoo as it’s a bit different from your run-of-the-mill bikes at the races and the racing red frame stands out well. I usually race on Schwalbe Racing Ralphs but I did a very wet race recently and used my Panaracer Mud Pro tyres (only been used a few times) and they are without doubt the best mud tyres made – ever!
I’ve never bought an off-the-peg complete bike as I just don’t think they are good value for money as I always end up changing everything. I find it’s best to buy a good frame and build it up yourself. You then have the satisfaction of knowing that if you ride well and if you race well then it is all your own work that’s put you there.
Over to you
Got an interesting bike that you’d like to tell the world (or that subset of the world that reads BM) about? We’re not too bothered whether it’s singlespeed, geared, hardtail, rigid, FS or whatever – it just has to be something unique. We’re looking for bikes that have had a lot of time invested in them by their owners. Send us a pic and some words about what it is and why it’s like that and we’ll run the best ones here…
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