The pleasure in building your own bike is in selecting each component, constructing the machine piece-by-piece in your head and seeing the finished article come to fruition.
Ride, an independent bike shop in Dorset, is the scene for our build. We made a detailed inspection of the Kinesis GF_Ti V2 frame, and installed the bottom bracket, in part one of this series, and now it’s time to for the steering components and brakes to take shape.
We’ve opted to dress the frame primarily in SRAM’s mid-range Rival groupset (more on that in part three) and, subsequently, finishing kit from Zipp, a subsidiary of the American component manufacturer. Kinesis UK’s distributor, Upgrade Bikes, have supplied TRP’s new RG957 long drop brakes to provide the stopping power.
“I try and get it looking like a bike as quickly as possible,” says Ride mechanic Jon Hayes when he explains his method for building a bike. There is no exact order in which to turn a pile of components into a complete bike, he says, but, with, the Zipp Service Course SL seatpost already in the frame and clamped by the workstand, Jon turns his thoughts to installing the fork, headset, stem, handlebar and brake calipers.
