1993 MERLIN Titanium retro MTB build-up thread with much Syncros and Ringlé

[fguki]

And ... a surgery on the SYNCROS powerlite fork. The steerer was too small. So I had to replace it. And wanted to repaint it (yes I do have all my own correct decals for it in white and black!). The current decals werent originals anymore anyways. Wait a minute ... For a Merlin Titanium, the polished and clear coated steel could look killer, too! Might as well have some titanium tubes milled for me so that would make SYNCROS Titanium fork #4 that ever existed :-D After Syncros had 3 of them made in Titanium but dumped them eventually!

 

[rjsdavis]

And ... a surgery on the SYNCROS powerlite fork. The steerer was too small. So I had to replace it. And wanted to repaint it (yes I do have all my own correct decals for it in white and black!). The current decals werent originals anymore anyways. Wait a minute ... For a Merlin Titanium, the polished and clear coated steel could look killer, too! Might as well have some titanium tubes milled for me so that would make SYNCROS Titanium fork #4 that ever existed :-D After Syncros had 3 of them made in Titanium but dumped them eventually!

View attachment 671779

View attachment 671780

View attachment 671781
View attachment 671782

View attachment 671783

View attachment 671784

View attachment 671785

View attachment 671786

View attachment 671787

Hello there Fguki

Very interested in what you're doing with your Syncros forks. I've been on the hunt for a pair with a longer steerer forever, and even made the horrible error of giving my forks to a clown on here to press-fit a new (longer) steerer into them, only to get a box of bits back in the post some weeks later...

What are you doing to your steerer on these, and are you doing it yourself?

 

[fguki]

Hi RJ!
Well. Quite easy. I do have a retro bike workshop and do stuff like that all the time. Pressing the old steerer out was not possible since the aluminium / steel connection was already too tough. So I used the specific and shown sawing method to remove the stomp of the steerer.

Since I needed to change the steerer for a little longer one anyways I simply decided to cut it out. Any new one 1" inch will do (in my case). The steerer tubes on SYNCROS powerlite forks are non tapered! So, basically you can buy any new RST steerer and cut it to length on the lower part! Keep the constant 25.4mm tube with the thread and press it back in.

 

[pw_pw_la]

Wow!

That's a really cool approach.

Have you installed them?

Eager to see how they look against the frame.

 

[fguki]

I hope I will get around to finish it after this coming weekend.

 

[rigidftw]

Neat project!

I hope I will get around to finish it after this coming weekend.

How do you plan on fitting the crown race? Iirc neither JIS nor ISO 1" crown races fit on a 25.4mm tube.

 

[fguki]

Syncros Powerlite forks always come with a machined shim to fit the crown races! Same type of aluminium shim that Manitou used at the beginning of the 90s. Just a little bigger.

You can still see the shim in post #11 on page 2 of this thread. Cheers!

 

[PhilJ87]

Looking forward to seeing the end result on this!

 

[rigidftw]

Syncros Powerlite forks always come with a machined shim to fit the crown races! Same type of aluminium shim that Manitou used at the beginning of the 90s. Just a little bigger.

You can still see the shim in post #11 on page 2 of this thread. Cheers!

Cool! I did not know that. Thanks

 

[fguki]

The latest update here my guys! Last week was crank and pedal week. I took my SYNCROS Revolution set and gave it some new color by re-spraying it matte black and applied a 2k semi gloss clear coating. Only matte was too matte and semi gloss was a little too shiny So I took some very super fine steel wool to dull it up a little again. Looks great now! Some New Decals and theyre good to go again!

Very last thing to do on this MERLIN will be fitting in the SYNCROS Powerlite Fork wit the new longer steerer tube. Coming up soon ...