This is probably a bit low-spec for some people's liking, but what did you have when you were 21?! :roll:
About a month ago, a mate of mine bought two bikes on eBay - a Raleigh Max, that he kept, and a second bike he didn't want, this Saracen Forcetrax.
I don't like flatbars, Acera cranks are made of cheese and got recalled, the gears didn't shift, the front wheel was badly bent, the brakes hardly work, the shifters were both stuck, and the front ring went down one whenever you turned left. :facepalm:
It wasn't a bad bike (well, what of it worked), but it just wasn't all that special, and I certainly didn't need it.
But winter is coming, and out of the three working bikes I have, I wouldn't use any of them for general duties, so I needed something, I had an old Peugeot road bike but it did my back in so I gave it to a mate.
After it just sitting outside for a while, and my mate learning a bit of spannering on the brakes etc, I decided to do something with it.
~wavy lines~
A few years ago I was sitting in the train station in Manchester and someone wheeled past a wonderful looking skinny tube hardtail MTB, with what seemed to be a blue anodised finish, big knobby tyres, lots of shiny bits and I'm not sure what else.
~wavy lines~
As soon as I saw the colour of this thing, that was brought right back to the front of my memory, as was the desire I've had for a while for a more traditional style MTB with a suspension fork and singlespeed, for blitzing around in all weathers without a care. The Cinder Cone I have is great, but I love that thing just how it is, and besides, I need gears sometimes.
So we went off to collect them, and I found myself with this:
Yeeeah. Not great.
So come this week I scrabbled together the parts I had lying around, and cash for some more bits and bobs.
In stock, I had a set of cables and outers, a chain tensioner (I need that this time), pair of silver 500LX cranks from my '89 Tufftrax, a a pair of new and unused metal pedals, Easton EA30 riser bar, the bike has wheels so I'll use those (I replaced the front one for a fiver), a slightly better seat than the one it came with (Dunlop BSO!), and, er, I think that's it.
Which, as it turns out, isn't as much as you'd expect.
Parts are mostly in the post at the moment, after a session on eBay trying to find the cheapest possible decent quality parts, I have on the way:
-a RockShox Indy S
-some blue anodised chainring bolts
-rear hub spacers (I really like the ones VeloSolo do)
-a 12 tooth rear cog (planning for 36/12)
-a Titec stem
-Tioga headset
-blue anodised headset spacers
Er, I think that's it. I'm left needing grips, a 36 tooth chainring, tyres (Schwalbe Blackjack 2.1, I'm thinking) , and some V brakes and levers.
Anyway, let's start taking the thing apart.
Last Monday:
Headset away (I'm being a bit brutal as most of the parts are junk/rusty)
That's that off. Not using the fork, or the bearings. Or the bars, grips, shifters, stem...
Chain off. Chain is junk, cassette is junk, mechs are savable but worthless, wheel will be reused. That's the original tyre on there.
Everything off - I got the cranks off with a hammer and put them in the bin because you can't change the chainrings, the pedals are junk and probably seized in, etc.
The BB has been replaced with a cheap cartridge with a plastic shell, but it's pretty rough so I'm binning and replacing that with a UN55.
After that I took the decals off with a hairdryer, because they were a bit rough around the edges (literally!), and besides, without them there you're more drawn to that lovely blue colour. It might also make the bike look a bit better than the vague collection of average spec parts that it is
Very vague mockup, only one crank, wrong fork and everything. The wheels and old fork are being used just to keep the frame vaguely upright while I was using the hairdryer.
I'll post some more when some of my eBay parts start arriving...
About a month ago, a mate of mine bought two bikes on eBay - a Raleigh Max, that he kept, and a second bike he didn't want, this Saracen Forcetrax.
I don't like flatbars, Acera cranks are made of cheese and got recalled, the gears didn't shift, the front wheel was badly bent, the brakes hardly work, the shifters were both stuck, and the front ring went down one whenever you turned left. :facepalm:
It wasn't a bad bike (well, what of it worked), but it just wasn't all that special, and I certainly didn't need it.
But winter is coming, and out of the three working bikes I have, I wouldn't use any of them for general duties, so I needed something, I had an old Peugeot road bike but it did my back in so I gave it to a mate.
After it just sitting outside for a while, and my mate learning a bit of spannering on the brakes etc, I decided to do something with it.
~wavy lines~
A few years ago I was sitting in the train station in Manchester and someone wheeled past a wonderful looking skinny tube hardtail MTB, with what seemed to be a blue anodised finish, big knobby tyres, lots of shiny bits and I'm not sure what else.
~wavy lines~
As soon as I saw the colour of this thing, that was brought right back to the front of my memory, as was the desire I've had for a while for a more traditional style MTB with a suspension fork and singlespeed, for blitzing around in all weathers without a care. The Cinder Cone I have is great, but I love that thing just how it is, and besides, I need gears sometimes.
So we went off to collect them, and I found myself with this:
Yeeeah. Not great.
So come this week I scrabbled together the parts I had lying around, and cash for some more bits and bobs.
In stock, I had a set of cables and outers, a chain tensioner (I need that this time), pair of silver 500LX cranks from my '89 Tufftrax, a a pair of new and unused metal pedals, Easton EA30 riser bar, the bike has wheels so I'll use those (I replaced the front one for a fiver), a slightly better seat than the one it came with (Dunlop BSO!), and, er, I think that's it.
Which, as it turns out, isn't as much as you'd expect.
Parts are mostly in the post at the moment, after a session on eBay trying to find the cheapest possible decent quality parts, I have on the way:
-a RockShox Indy S
-some blue anodised chainring bolts
-rear hub spacers (I really like the ones VeloSolo do)
-a 12 tooth rear cog (planning for 36/12)
-a Titec stem
-Tioga headset
-blue anodised headset spacers
Er, I think that's it. I'm left needing grips, a 36 tooth chainring, tyres (Schwalbe Blackjack 2.1, I'm thinking) , and some V brakes and levers.
Anyway, let's start taking the thing apart.
Last Monday:
Headset away (I'm being a bit brutal as most of the parts are junk/rusty)
That's that off. Not using the fork, or the bearings. Or the bars, grips, shifters, stem...
Chain off. Chain is junk, cassette is junk, mechs are savable but worthless, wheel will be reused. That's the original tyre on there.
Everything off - I got the cranks off with a hammer and put them in the bin because you can't change the chainrings, the pedals are junk and probably seized in, etc.
The BB has been replaced with a cheap cartridge with a plastic shell, but it's pretty rough so I'm binning and replacing that with a UN55.
After that I took the decals off with a hairdryer, because they were a bit rough around the edges (literally!), and besides, without them there you're more drawn to that lovely blue colour. It might also make the bike look a bit better than the vague collection of average spec parts that it is
Very vague mockup, only one crank, wrong fork and everything. The wheels and old fork are being used just to keep the frame vaguely upright while I was using the hairdryer.
I'll post some more when some of my eBay parts start arriving...
