1999 Psycle Werks Wild Hare

[karloff70]

Right.

I have aquired a Wild Hare. Here starts the resurrection of the old beauty.

Have been looking at these from afar for a while, thinking 'that thing should ride well'. So now I own one and I shall find out if it will indeed become my retro 'wannabe Blur 4X'.....or something like that. Either way should be fun!

The ol' Hare arrived with a couple of issues, as the bolt in the main pivot has wear from the bushes, so is wobbly. But luckily a friendly forum member is going to machine 3 new bolts for not too much cash, copying the old worn one, so then I'll have a lifetime's supply. Also managed to locate a source for bushes that fit, so will be ordering some of those.

Also the old Vanilla R 165mm shock is at the moment seized. Maybe I'll get him loose and try him out, but he'll need new bushings and reducers too, so not sure whether to see if I can get a better shock first, which might have 22mm reducers already.....

The goal is to get a reasonably light but sturdy bike with Reba's running at 115mm on the front and 4.5 travel on the rear and V brakes + reasonably sturdy mavic XM719's on Hope Bulbs built by cannondale king. Thought being that it should stomach more foolery than me, so therefore stretch the border into jumpery sillyness and such.....

Here he is on arrival. Like a caterpillar......





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[trxrincon]

They are an awesome bike, I built one back in 2001-03. Built it with 125mm fork single chain ring (44T) it went really well, then I put a triple chainset on it and it just did evbery thing so well. Enjoy your frame!

 

[karloff70]

Nice to hear! Reba 115 front, some sort of something for 4.5" in the back and 1x9 is the plan.....can't wait!!

What shock did you run on him? Air or coil?

 

[trxrincon]

It just had the standard fox vanilla R rear shock. Heres a pic of it

Sorry for the rubbish pic as taken from a very old mobile phone!

As I say it was an awesome bike-wish I still had it.

 

[karloff70]

Nice! What happened to him?

Maybe I'll try and get the old Vanilla working first instead of going air straight away.

 

[trxrincon]

yeah the vanilla is a nice shock. My wildhare, I stupidly sold it to buy my Marin attack trail. :roll: :cry:

 

[karloff70]

Ah, I see......

Right, need some assistance with the Vanilla R.

Trying to get the coil off to clean/spray it for now, but ultimatelly to swap it as its a 650x196 and I weigh 77kg. Seems like it'll be mighty stiff, we'll see....

But I can't get it off. Reading the Fox manual on how to, but it still doesn't work. It says to just unscrew the preload ring and slide it and the coil off, but the body on the preload side is bigger than the ring (unlike the pic in the manual...), i.e. no coming off possible. Then I read the Vanilla RC verison where it says to remove the slotted spring retainer on the other end of the spring to slide the spring off that way, but the thing will not leave. No idea how it's going to come off.......anyone?

 

[cyfa2809]

yeah it should be the spring plate bit
if that wont move, get a mallet onto it?

if not, you may have to take the hard ware (bushes/mounts etc.) out of the threaded end. then unscrew the coil and it should come off


(but reading your post i could be wrong)
erm i think keitht has the same shock for sale in 1998>
if thats any help

 

[karloff70]

See I'm lost here.

The reducers are long out already, but that's not the issue at all. The inner shock bpody is a lot wider than the preload ring, so the ring can't come off.

And on the other end there's the 'slotted spring retainer', which is a ring with a gap in it, which will spin but I can't see how you would get it off....???

Lost. Get a mallet onto what??

 

[cyfa2809]

the slotted plate bit is notmally just hel in under the preload of the spring
so should just slot off
:?
i see what you mean with the different sized bodies