I’m an industrial designer and entrepreneur from Valencia, in Spain. I’ve been mountain biking since 1991 riding pretty much anything and everything on the Mediterranean Sierras and a bit from the Pyrenees as well. Lots of XC at the beginning but lately gravitating more towards enduro-style tracks after a short downhill phase. I also caught the bug of mountain bike touring, and once or twice a year we normally organize a several days bike trip on some of the historical routes in Spain, like the Camino de Santiago or La ruta del Cid.
This bike is very special to me because it is the “salary” of my first job ever… When I was 16, I spent a summer helping as a bike mechanic on a bike shop and in exchange, I got the frame and a few parts… BEST DEAL EVER!!!. Since 1996 the bike went thru many iterations to get to its final form that you see today. Did many XC races in it back in the day and she even hit a podium once. She spent more than 10 years in the garage until on a trip to Tokyo I got really inspired by the urban mountain biking scene and I was determined to do a neo-retro build with the old Kula.
Now I use the bike to commute, run errands across my hometown, and occasionally I hit some gravel roads as well. In a true garage rat style it has a mix of original parts spanning from 93 to 97 Kulas like the P2, the Bontrager titanium handlebar, and some other classic parts from the era, like the first-ever Shimano XT V-brakes, the Machined EDR stem, and the Flite titanium Transalp saddle (this one has A LOT of miles in it).
On the drivetrain, I have a Hollowtech SLX with a 36 x 13 combo, great for sprinting in traffic when combined with the Crank Brothers pedals. The special flair is there because of the brown Oury grips and the cruiser-style brown Schwalbes. Rack is a custom gold anodized Elburro that I decided to order for this particular build, it is made by a small family company from Valencia, actually, this rack is designed for full suspension mountain bikes, but it matches the bike so well that I couldn’t resist… it is super useful to carry stuff around the city and I think is a great addition to the build.
The wheelset is a ’99 Mavic Crossland, super smooth to ride… the whole thing is 10.8 kg, mainly because of the fat tires… Super light and sooooo rigid! You can really feel how each kick gets transferred to the ground pushing you forward. It’s an amazing bike that has given me so many smiles over the years. I will never get rid of it!
WANT MORE RETRO DREAM BUILDS?
