1997 Litespeed Owl Hollow

[RicoMack]

Re:

Some major progress made since I last posted. Parts were either hard to find or took a long time to arrive. I decided to go with a SID XC instead of the Manitou, mostly because I thought it looked better on the Owl. I got a good set of retro decals for the SID from no other that Gil at retrodecals. Thank you very much. The progression of the fork can be shown as in the following image. What it doesn't show is the red paint was stripped down to bare metal before priming.

I finally found some decent wheels and mounted them matched pair of WTB VelociRaptors. Would have preferred a Smoke & Dart, but I thought nobody was never going to get them in stock in the US. But they did after I pulled the trigger on the VelociRaptors. I don't mind the VelociRaptos as it is what we rode on at the turn of the century when Panaracer's Smoke/Dart became scarce (at least in my part of the world).

Another problem was finding a decent pair of V-brakes and levers. Every time I found something someone else got them, but I did finally find a great set of Avid Arch-Rival at my bicycle recycling shop and then found some Avid Speed Dial 5.0 on fleebay

The final build list is:

'97 Litespeed Owl Hollow frame
'00 RochShox SID XC
Wheels:
Mavic MX 719 Rims
Deore XT M752 rear hub
White Industried Racer X front hub
WTB VelociRaptor tires

Cockpit:
Thomson Elite stem (old style)
Bontrager Race Lite 9deg

Deore XT M783 10speed rear shifter with modified matching rear derailleur

Avid 5.0 Speed Dial Levers with Avid Arch Rival brakes

Drive train:
Raceface Evolve chanks
Raceface BB
Raceface Wide/Narrow 30T chainring
Sunrace 11-42 cassette

Chris King NOTHREAD headset
Thomson 27.2 330mm setback seatpost
WTB Rocket saddle

After putting all these things together I ended up with the bike I always wanted to have in the late '90 but could never afford it.

 

[Prodigal Son]

Can you fit 2.3 tires? How does it ride?

 

[RicoMack]

Can you fit 2.3 tires? How does it ride?

It rides better than I thought it would. The SID needless to say is very old technology but surprised me in how well it handled on the trails. It's an 80mm travel, but I've never had a bike with more than a 100mm travel, so I'm OK with 80. Being an old dog who started riding mtn bikes in the early 80s, the geometry, travel, narrow bars is what i grew up with and like. I did try platform pedals, but I like being clipped in for a number of reasons. Old dogs and new tricks, I guess.

I had some 2.3 conti mountain kings which worked on the bike stand but there was so little clearance on the frame I was afraid once I sat on the bike they would be rubbing. Not sure about the SID never tried the 2.3 on it. However there did work well with the Manitou fork I had.

 

[Paul R]

Great work

 

[ibbz]

Lovely work and dedication. And you’ve got her looking super sweet ! Everything goes together so well - the blue and the yellow text

 

[RicoMack]

Thanks for the compliments and feedback ibbz & Paul R.

 

[prezza]

Re:

That looks great! It looks fast!

What type of paint and colour of blue did you use? I’m after renovating a set myself and that looks a decent paint match.

Did you laquer them or not?

Spot on mate.
Andy

 

[RicoMack]

Re: Re:

That looks great! It looks fast!

What type of paint and colour of blue did you use? I’m after renovating a set myself and that looks a decent paint match.

Did you laquer them or not?

Spot on mate.
Andy

Unfortunately the bike isn't too fast because the motor 's pretty shot.

I looked at many different paints. And I received the CMKY color code from gil@retrodecal for the blue in the SID decals but couldn't match it exactly, close but and not exact. Someone suggested an OSHA or safety blue was a good match but I noticed a difference between the main rattle can paint companies here in the US. So I decided to use an automotive engine paint from Dupi-color. The color was Ford blue DE-1601 high temp engine enamel followed by a clear coat made by the same company. I used Dui-color instead of Rustoleum or Krylon because I think it's a better paint and when I've used their paint on engine blocks I found it very tough and resistant to oil, etc.

With that said it you want a perfect I think you're should take the color code to an automotive paint supply and have them mix it up for you. Hope this helps

Hasta

 

[ibbz]

Had another read through and you’re inspirational mate!
Beautiful machine!

How did you reanodize? Curious to know how much it cost to electroplate (if that’s what anodising is)

 

[RicoMack]

I didn't re-anodized the parts that were de-anodized. Probably should have, but just polished them up. I found in the past that this process hold up pretty well if you take normal care of the bike. With that said I did have a '98 Santa Cruz Heckler frame anodized at shop here in town and it turned out to be cheaper than power coating and looked better (IMHO). When I did this, the guy who ran the process told me ALL steel parts had to be removed from the frame. In my case that meant removing the steel bosses that that were used to hold the H2O cages. If I had wanted to do this with the King HS that would have meant removing the bearings which I had no clue as to how to do.

From my days of working I should point if you do have multiple parts to be anodized in color do them at the same time. Different runs can turn out slightly different colors.