Andira's Origin-8 Scout29 29" MTB

Whew! Such a delay between posts. To (re)start things off, we'll show you this behemoth of a mountain bike that belongs to Andira Pramanta. An old friend, a radio announcer, and co-conspirator behind Sumvelo.

The brief was to create a simple, no-nonsense mountain bike that would stand out of the pack. Oh, we have to keep the budget short, too. The result is this singlespeed 29”-wheeled rigid framed rig built from a mixture of brand spanking new and previously owned parts.

The frame is a steel Origin-8 Scout 29 with Origin-8 Black Ops 29 rigid carbon fork. Acclaimed as the first Scout ever to land in the Indonesian soil, it was not a big problem for Andira to obtain them since Sumvelo carries most of the Origin-8 stuffs. Although not qualified as a true lightweight frameset, the Scout delivers perfect balance between performance and value.

Should you decided to run multiple gears on this frame, the rear dropout have an integrated derailer mount.
It's also equipped with neat derailer cable mounts that we removed on this build since they're unused anyway.

Carbon forks gives smoother ride compared to their aluminum counterparts, but if you tend to thrash your bike
you might want to go with chromoly forks anyway. Or suspension forks for that matter.

Singlespeed hubs means more equal distance between left and right flanges to the hub centerline,
resulting in equally tensioned spokes and stronger wheels. But then you're stuck in one gear option only.

Well of course the wheels are built by yours truly. A pair of silver Velocity Blunts supplied by Sumvelo, laced in three-cross pattern to Novatec D711SB front hub and DMR Bikes disc-ready singlespeed rear hub via black electrodeposited Richman double butted spokes and brass nipples. The meaty WTB ExiWolf 29 x 2,3 tires are balanced compromise between weight, traction, and riding comfort. It’s better to have fat tires if your bike have no suspension at all.

To cope with the large-sized wheels, wider handlebars helps a lot. We go with Kore Torsion downhill flatbar, trimmed down to 720mm. We chose flatbar over riser to give the cockpit a lower stance. One thing to be noticed on this frameset is even though we slammed the 80mm Amoeba Borla stem all the way to the Token cartridge bearing headset and inverted them, we still haven’t managed to get the cockpit to be lower than the saddle. Tektro carbon brakelevers complements the carbon fork, while ODI Crosstrainer grips finished the setup.

Nope, this is not Charge Spoon saddle. This is a generic Velo saddle, reupholstered in Spoon design (besides, that’s what you’ll do if the only saddle remained on your LBS’s stock that suits your design is colored pink). We chose red stitching to match red details on the frame, and the white details complements the white flatbar and front hub. The saddle rest on an extra lengthy 400mm BBB seatpost.

These Avid BB-7 calipers are some of the previously-owned parts on this bike, along with the headset and the grips. Worn-out pads are replaced by a pair of new Gatorbrake sintered pads. Since they didn’t came with rotors, it’s kind of luck when we stumble upon a pair of second-hand Gatorbrake waved rotors on a good condition with a bargain price on a local bike shop. The track ends and long-slotted rear caliper mount on the Scout frame keep things simple, although this means you have to adjust the caliper position manually everytime you adjust the chain tension.

The simple drivetrain consists of a Shimano FC-M545 crankset with its granny gear stripped off, a KMC Z710 BMX chain and a 20T freewheel. The 36/20T ratio might be a little bit tall, but we feel it’s a good compromise between urban environment and singletrack use. It still munch up immediate climbs like a mountain goat despite of my mediocre athleticism. This bike originally came with Xpedo flat pedals, but on a bike like this I can’t help myself to put my own beaten-up Crankbrothers Eggbeater MXRs and take it for a spin before (and after) the photoshoot on our local woods.