What's my ride (by Sven)?

So when I was still competing my bike of choice was a 2010 Trek 8500. Back then, for the grand sum of £1500, it was considered a very high end competition hardtail. Shimano XT 770 groupset and hydraulic brakes (although weirdly, but actually not that weird for Trek, a SRAM cassette), carbon seat post, Fox 32 forks, and Bontrager XXL components all around. With its Bontrager XR1 tyres, it was one very light aluminum bike. I loved it.

My Trek 8500, kept original except with XR2 tyres rather than the XR1 I mostly used at the time.

When I first got back on a bike after all these years off, I actually started again on my 2007 Trek 6000. Bought new for £550, It had been a good bike, with Deore groupset, and again hydraulic brakes (although all spec sheets I looked at show mechanical disk brakes, so not sure why mine was different). I had given it to my father in law years ago, who had used it for commuting to the train station. He no longer needed it, so as it was the only bike I had in the UK, I took it back off him and quickly returned it to some sort of XC specs. Back to nice tyres, better pedals (although still flats), bell and lights off, new grips, new brake pads, and a general service. This served me very well for a few month, but as I got back into it all, I changed the pedals back to SPDs, replaced the chain and cassette, new bottom bracket, fixed some broken spokes. It was becoming clear however that some aspects of the bike were starting to become unserviceable (Mostly the wheel hubs), and I needed an upgrade, luckily my 8500 had just made its way back to the UK from France. I did one final full strip down and service on the 6000 including new grips, complete change of brakes, including levers and pistons, changed the wheels to some spare wheels I had for the 8500 and sold it on for £150.

My 2007 Trek 6000, before being sold, with spare wheels from a 8500, with sealed bearings which original wheels did not have.

So after nearly 15 year I was back on the 8500 for the first time. New tyres and inner tubes to replace the perished ones, a service, and off I went. It felt as awesome as ever, and again served me well, including entering a couple of long events (Gorrick MTB Cool Challenges). It also went through a full strip down and rebuild including a full front fork service. But as I wanted to keep it original, repairs were starting to get expensive. First, just new grips that perished, New SPD pedals that had rough bearings, new cassette, new chain, broke spokes, sealed bearings failed in the rear wheel (hence why I ended up with a spare set of wheels from ebay, as I did not have time to replace the bearings before an event). I broke a gear shifter, which cost me a fortune to get an original replacement. Front rings where no longer shifting well (even with correct adjustments). Not only that, it was a bike of it's time. 26 wheels, inner tubes, 3 front rings, spindles rather than through axles, narrow handlebars, and very different geometry. So it was time to move on.

My very first time back on the Trek 8500 after nearly 15 years.

I knew the basics of what I wanted; Hardtail, super light, no carbon (I know non of this makes real sense, but this was already enough of a jump from 26 to 29). Also, having gone from 10 stone to 16 stone in the last 15 years, the weight of the bike was really not the issue here! I also hate mixing groupset components (again, I know this does not make any real sense). The only hardtails that took my fancy and matched my criteria were KTM, but impossible to get in the UK, so I would have to build my own; the lightest hardtail alloy MTB possible. Search started for a frame. New, high end, hardtail alloy frames are hard to come by. I decided to go for a 2018 Trek Procaliber 8 alloy frame - the last time Trek offered a high end alloy frame, and completely different to the later low end Trek Procaliber 8 frames. Groupset and brakes would be XT M8100 (I find XTR a bit to race focused). I found the lightest new Alloy XC wheels I could find which were Hunt XC wheels. Front fork are 2025 Fox 32 Stepcast (the lightest forks available at the time). I know I said alloy only, but as a nod to my 8500 carbon seatpost stem, I got Bontrager Race carbon seatpost (no dropper post to save weight) and carbon handlebars. Saddle and stem were Bontrager Pro, XT SPD pedals, and finished it all with Bontrager XR1 tubeless tyres using Muck-Off sealant and valves. Threw it all together, and, as far as I am concerned, the greatest ever XC marathon bike was created. Now, I just need to go back from 42 years of age to 21, lose 6 stones and this bike makes complete sense!

My custom XC marathon MTB