'92 Marin Team Issue: Building Your Own Donor Bike (Finished Build: Page 8!)

[pw_pw_la]

i found where/when i sold it. it was sold together as a Cirrus frameset. oddly the rack mount point is near the dropout on the legs, as opposed to being on the dropout itself.

The plot thickens! Thats still good to see though, for sure. Thanks for following up with it.

personally i wouldn't strip repaint it. it looks to be in fairly decent original condition, and especially since you have the original decals at the top. are they on both sides?

the lower leg Syncros decals weren't obligatory so i wouldn't really be bothered not having those unless you really like having them.

Just the sort of feedback I was after! Yeah, decals on both sides at the top. One of them is peeling off quite badly on one corner, but nothing that can't be corrected. When I first got them I planned only to clean them up, and maybe polish the crown a little. But you know how it is; the longer you have something and the more time you spend looking at other examples and thinking about it, the more you start second guessing yourself!

I suppose the seeming rarity/high demand for these complicates those feelings further.

Anyway, it's very helpful to know someone else sides with keeping them as is. And also good to know the lower leg decals weren't always present. I kind of assumed that, based on seeing plenty of examples without online. But I go back and forth with whether I personally like them there or not. They definitely feel a little more race-y with them, but I also worry I'll end up with an abundance of white decals everywhere based on some of the other parts gathered. Might be overkill; might tie it all together! I guess we'll see.

I'll probably try to purchase a set of decals, just to have the option. I can always take em right back off once the rest of the bike is built up. My gut says they'll end up staying just as they are tho...

 

[ibbz]

Enjoyed this and man what lovely work you done - looking at the stuff you guys do makes me feel pretty inadequate and my builds pretty shit
Waiting for updates

 

[pw_pw_la]

Ha! Don’t be silly mate.

For one, this is still just a collection of parts in a box, not an actual bike!

Hopefully a proper update on this one soon tho.

I now find myself trying to find time and funds for two concurrent builds, as an actual dream bike sort of fell into my lap*.

That has definitely slowed the process of getting this one in ridable shape. Although hopefully the Z Max purchase, which I believe you just made too, will help solve one of the few remaining problems. Not much left standing in the way of putting the bike in the stand and getting it built now!

Cough, Suntour XC Pro Headset, Cough.







*I sort of hunted it down.

 

[ibbz]

Ha! Don’t be silly mate.

For one, this is still just a collection of parts in a box, not an actual bike!

Hopefully a proper update on this one soon tho.

I now find myself trying to find time and funds for two concurrent builds, as an actual dream bike sort of fell into my lap*.

That has definitely slowed the process of getting this one in ridable shape. Although hopefully the Z Max purchase, which I believe you just made too, will help solve one of the few remaining problems. Not much left standing in the way of putting the bike in the stand and getting it built now!

Cough, Suntour XC Pro Headset, Cough.







*I sort of hunted it down.

Hehe yes the Z Max will be going on the Venturi - Which has turned into a bottomless money pit
A dream bike? Which one? All seem like dream bikes!!

 

[pw_pw_la]

Hehe yes the Z Max will be going on the Venturi - Which has turned into a bottomless money pit
A dream bike? Which one? All seem like dream bikes!!

All will be revealed in good time...

Well, however long it takes to dig myself out of the hole buying it made, and actually put some of the missing parts on it!

 

[pw_pw_la]

Shall we have a little photo update?



This took a while, but I went for the collect-it-all-first approach this time around.

With the last few things showing up over the past couple of weeks it's pretty much all there now for a 1.0 build.

I've always wanted to do one of those a-bike-laid-out-in-parts* shots, but I also didn't want to give the game away completely. So I've tried to give a hint of what's to come without hopefully spelling it all out!

You can see where this is going at least. And hopefully the rest will be revealed in good time as I start the build proper.

I'm going for a very clean Craiglist-barn-find meets build-you're-own-donor-bike concept here, as I've already said.

But the thing is... two of those someday bikes are now somehow already in my possession. So I sort of, sadly, expect this bike to exist in the form above for a relatively short period of time, as quite a lot of it will now shuffle over to two other builds.

Unless, of course, I love it so much I make the insane decision to just buy everything again for those?

Gulp.

More updates later this week hopefully, as the build itself finally commences.

*Wheelset not included, and saddle subject to change.

 

[pw_pw_la]

Right then, I've been busy building but have been procrastinating getting this thread updated...

Too many photos to sort through!

This particular build is actually nearly there now. Looks like a bike and everything! A nice one, too. I think.

And short of a few small finishing touches, it's now pretty much ready to be cabled-up.

Before that, I'll share a few little updates from along the way, so you don't have the shock of suddenly seeing a finished bike!

I know I hate that ; )

The main thing for this build was always going to be deciding on and finding a groupset. This was alleviated in two ways: 1. The decision to build this as a donor whip for other, fancier projects. This meant I already knew I wanted to try a full Suntour XC Pro group, because of the Grease Guard/WTB connection, and because, well, I've never ridden it before and have always been curious. 2. Someone posted a near full group on eBay in excellent condition and was happy to figure out an offline deal.

The seller was amazing, happy to receive a deposit and let me pay the rest off over a couple of weeks before he shipped.

Sidenote: I just want to make a special mention to all those fine and understanding bike folk out there, both on here and IRL, who are happy to work with other builders/collectors when it comes to pricing and payment. Getting into this thing with such limited funds, and having to scrimp, save and scramble to get stuff together for bikes, it really makes the world of difference. Especially right now with prices so high; it's such a pleasing antidote to the flippers and chancers, charging astromincal pricing because of, well, demand. This bike has had a few different components from people who have been both fair and understanding regarding payment, and I can't thank them enough.

Okay, so back to the group. Pretty much everything except the headset, pedals, brakes and levers came from that one seller. Very low, if any, miles, and it all cleaned up really nicely:





Really nice to have the matching WTB Grease Guard Bottom Bracket (the original M900 one the frame came with took three LBS employees and a very long wrench to get out. Threads chased and the new one slipped in perfectly though).

Mech's were both in fantastic shape, and like the MicroDrive cassette still had all their stickers perfectly intact:




The hubs came laced to some nice Campagnolo Atek rims, which needed some cleaning and polishing, but came up just fine.




And although my original idea had been to find some black rims, I'm really glad I abandoned that. The silver looks great against the black Syncros fork, and the black American Classic/Kingsbury skewers used throughout:

 

[benjabbi]

That's definitely coming together nicely! The crankset especially looks immaculate. I love Suntour thumbies but have never tried a full group. Might have to be next on the list I think. Looking forward to the full bike reveal. I suspect it's going to be good!

 

[pw_pw_la]

Tires, which you may have already spotted, came courtesy of @kiwideturin. A lovely set of Ritchey Megabite Z-Max. Martin was another seller who was a pleasure to deal with.



Anyway, those arrived in great shape, but I couldn't resist giving them some TLC with a new patented old tire refresh, that I've been developing thanks to a bulk purchase of old tires from Craigslist (from an ex-Bontrager racer, apparently)!



I'm joking, of course. I just scrubbed the crap out of them with Muc Off, followed by a warm soapy soak, followed by more Muc Off, then rinsed with cold water, dried in the sun, and finally sprayed with some auto tire shine.

Which brings me to the headset:




It took a while to track this down in the 1 1/8" size, but patience and eBay alerts paid off, and in the end it came from a seller I was already doing some business with for another build. So that worked out nicely! I really like this thing, actually. And have a little adjustment I'm planning to make of the red/orange persuasion. Hopefully it'll be another nod to some of this bike's influences and a future home for some of the parts, as well as a nice way to link a couple of other components together, as I need some extra, orangey/earthy tones, and I think this should hopefully help.

And lastly, for now, the pedals:




Again, very lucky here. Martin from Second Spin was looking to purchase a lovely Ibis Ti Mojo from some old doctor in Marina Del Ray, and was put in touch with me as someone who might be able to collect and ship it out to him. It came with some unreal kit, all in great shape (I'm sure you'll see the finished thing on one of Martin's channels eventually), including a perfect set of XC Pro pedals, in the lovely champagne finish. Luckily Martin wasn't planning to use these, and probably has about thirty NOS sets stashed away somewhere besides! ; ) So a deal was made to keep the pedals as payment for getting the bike over to the East Coast for him. Cheers Martin! Massively appreciated.

Nice bike people doing nice things for other nice bike people.

Makes the world go around.

I'll save the brakes, cockpit, and all the other bits for another day.

 

[pw_pw_la]

That's definitely coming together nicely! The crankset especially looks immaculate. I love Suntour thumbies but have never tried a full group. Might have to be next on the list I think. Looking forward to the full bike reveal. I suspect it's going to be good!

Cheers Ben!

I'm enjoying staring at it in the living room for now at least.

: )

Hopefully not long now for the first ride and final reveal. It has a long, slack look about it, so I'm curious how that will translate on the trail.

Just a shame I don't anticipate much, if any, of this kit will stay on this particular bike for very long...

She's a designated test pilot at this point!