So here it is – the bike I’ve been meaning to get round to building after years of just dragging out whatever test bike was in the kennel at that moment.

The idea is a sort of informal fly-on-the-wall bike build up, explaining how to fit various bits and also why we chose to fit those particular bits. We’ll explain from the start that we’re deliberately avoiding Shimano gear where possible. This isn’t because we don’t rate Shimano gear – quite the opposite – but primarily because Cullen is building a full 9 speed Shimano upgrade onto his veteran Klein which you’ll hear about shortly, but also because we want to see how the alternatives shape up over time.

Because bike and component choices are subjective and personal I reckon a few details about the subject personage might be useful.

In the months since I passed 30 it’s suddenly becoming clear that I’m not the pup I once was. Skin tears off rather than just scuffs, ribs crunch rather than bounce back and even those ‘not really a crash’ ejections suddenly leave you with a loud bang and a severely sprained ankle. Add to that a back that’s now remebering previous archaeological and rowing abuses and it had basically become clear that I needed some sort of orthapaedic soothing.

However as a skinny (sub 11stone) rider who never hucks (not on a first date anyway) and who wanted to still feel and cope with the terrain themselves rather than just watch it flow smoothly underneath, plush full suspension just seemed to take too much challenge out of the biking equation. It’s not that we don’t love, Truths, Superlights, Whytes, Visions, Sub 5s, Fuels, Sugars, FSRs, Tracers or all the other well sorted suspension rigs out there they just take away a lot of the sense of achievement that makes me ride.

This led me into the small often ignored family of softails – a strange, semi sprung lightweight breed lurking somewhere between full suspension and hardtails.

What?

Having ridden hundreds of different bikes from mainstream manufacturers and small scale specialists alike there was one that had grown on me more everytime I’d tested it. The Trek STP.
Designed to ease the back pain of Fisher team XC queen and double Olympic gold medallist Paolo Pezzo the OCLV carbon frameset had been gifted back to sister brand Trek (the spritiual and technological home of OCLV carbon) as Fisher already had the Sugar to launch that year (2000) while Trek were still making do with the VRX.

Trek are the only major manufacturer still producing complete carbon bikes (Giant are only doing framsets now) and they’ve been handmaking their OCLV (Optimum Compaction Low Void – basically all the bubbles are squeezed out) frames for over 8 years now. They’re superlight, they’re highly shock absorbing and we only know of one that’s broken and that was because a car ran over it.

If you want a full ride review go look here but there’s some key points under the picture captions.

What? Trek STP 400 frameset

From? Trek 01908 282626

How much? £1,299.99

So that’s the frameset we’re building onto, now keep watching this space for the rest of the week as it goes from exotic towel rack to fully functional push bike.