2011 Transition TR450 Parts List

I’m trying to build this up as a bit of a dream bike. I’ve always wanted a “perfect” downhill bike, so this year it’s happening. Funds are tight at the moment so we’ll see how far I take it.

As you would have seen in bubble wrap in my “Stoked on Transition Bikes” post, I have a medium 2011 Transition TR450 in green. I bought the bike complete, but I want to tweak it a bit before building it up. If you want to see the standard spec, check out the Transition Bikes page on the TR450.

A definite change is the brakes. The bike comes standard with 2011 Avid Codes – a pretty sweet brake set. I ran Avid Elixirs last year, and while they would have been fine for the trails at home in Australia, riding from the top of Una Moss to the bottom of the Whistler Bike Park non stop really takes it’s toll on the body and the bike (yeah, I’m probably braking too much). I’d made the decision late last year that I would run Shimano Saint brakes for 2011. According to a few different websites, it’s going to cost me an extra 73 grams to make the change – something I’m not too concerned about.

Since I’m a sucker for bike bling and we get such a good hookup with Race Face, I’m probably going to change the chainring, stem and bars to Race Face units. The plan is to run a blue 36T “Single” ring, blue Atlas FR bars, and an Atlas FR SL. Changing these parts will save around 94 grams off of the standard kit – so already the added weight from my Saint brakes has been absorbed. That and I get to rep an awesome local business.

I’m pretty hooked on slim pedals, so I’ll be changing over the Transition Stepdowns for something else. It’s not that I don’t think the Stepdowns are a good pedal – for the money they are great, and I’m sure they will last. I’d just prefer something lighter and with a lower profile. My wife ran some Superstar CNC Nano Tech Flats last year. I know they are just China pedals, but for the money they are hard to beat. I’m not sure if that is what I will be running this year but I’m willing to bet they will end up being on my bike.

I am running the new 2011 Truvativ Descendant cranks. I had planned to change them to Saints as well, but considering the Saints weighed and cost more I figured I’d give them a try. They are getting plenty of hype and although we haven’t seen a good Summer on them yet, I haven’t seen any complaints. I’m not convinced that the bottom bracket will last, in which case I will probably change in a super expensive Chris King unit.

The final change is the wheelset. I’m confident that I will end up with Hope Pro II hubs, but my choice is rim is getting me a little nervous. I’ve never been a particularly rough rider. Either I ride smooth or not hard enough. I would really like to run some Stans ZTR Flow rims, and run them tubeless. Reports are so inconsistent for downhill use – some have ran them for two seasons without needing to true them once, while others folded them on their first ride out there.

On top of that, being a Whistler Bike Guide, I get Maxxis Minions 2.5 60a’s for free. While a Super Tacky or a 3C is much better for the front, when money is tight, they are a damn good free tyre! I have heard stories of the non UST Minions burping off of the Flow rims without a rim strip. While I can run the rim strip, it will cost me that difference in weight that will make that wheelset less worthwhile. I will probably end up going down the Hope Pro II/Stans ZTR Flow road and just seeing how it goes. Even with sealant in the tires it will save around 930 grams from the standard wheelset.

As it all starts to happen I’ll post some updates.