designer485
Retro Newbie
1999 Manitou X-Vert Ti Restoration
A buddy gave this fork to me after seeing it burried in the back of his garage collecting dust. It was in really rough shape, paint peeling, sitting half way through its travel due to the elestomers missing, dirt, grime, etc.
I took it home with the intention of doing a fairly significant restore without spending a ton of money. For the most part, everything was in tact. I had no intention of putting it on a bike, I wanted this one for wall art.
I started by scouring the web for a technical diagram, fortunately it was available so I know what the fork was supposed to look like inside. I took everything apart, cleaned, degreased and sorted through the internals. The only parts missing were the elastomer MCU units that sit about the ti springs. I was also able to figure out the dimensions of the mcu springs and order those from mcmastercarr. Once those arrived, everyhting went back together easy. I used a little slick honey to put everyhing together as I did not want to refill with oil and have leaks...I'm not going to ride this one. I wish I took photos of all the internals laid out...oh well, I may have to take it apart again to do that.
Before Images:
I did not want to redo the OEM finish on this fork and have always loved the later generation of the x-vert carbon, especially when fitted to a Specialized FSR team DH. My goal was to re-create graphics and have this fork be the little brother to the x-vert carbon.
New paint and clear on the crown and lowers (to show off the carbon fiber). Brushed axle mounts, cut steerer, and all new hardware. If I were to take it a step further, I would figure out a replacement steerer (the bottom is chipped) and smooth, polish and re-anodize the crowns...but no need for that now.
I think the results speak for themself.
After Images:
A buddy gave this fork to me after seeing it burried in the back of his garage collecting dust. It was in really rough shape, paint peeling, sitting half way through its travel due to the elestomers missing, dirt, grime, etc.
I took it home with the intention of doing a fairly significant restore without spending a ton of money. For the most part, everything was in tact. I had no intention of putting it on a bike, I wanted this one for wall art.
I started by scouring the web for a technical diagram, fortunately it was available so I know what the fork was supposed to look like inside. I took everything apart, cleaned, degreased and sorted through the internals. The only parts missing were the elastomer MCU units that sit about the ti springs. I was also able to figure out the dimensions of the mcu springs and order those from mcmastercarr. Once those arrived, everyhting went back together easy. I used a little slick honey to put everyhing together as I did not want to refill with oil and have leaks...I'm not going to ride this one. I wish I took photos of all the internals laid out...oh well, I may have to take it apart again to do that.
Before Images:
I did not want to redo the OEM finish on this fork and have always loved the later generation of the x-vert carbon, especially when fitted to a Specialized FSR team DH. My goal was to re-create graphics and have this fork be the little brother to the x-vert carbon.
New paint and clear on the crown and lowers (to show off the carbon fiber). Brushed axle mounts, cut steerer, and all new hardware. If I were to take it a step further, I would figure out a replacement steerer (the bottom is chipped) and smooth, polish and re-anodize the crowns...but no need for that now.
I think the results speak for themself.
After Images:
