MSYT
Retro Guru
Just found the photos of this one on my phone of when I bought it so here’s the start of a build.
Scrolling through FB marketplace something caught my eye. A Pace fork and a blue headset. On closer inspection the headset was a Chris King but it also had a Syncros stem. The rest of the bike was ‘junk’ though or so I thought. Spoke to the seller and I think I ended up picking it up for about £70. Maybe
When I got it home, that’s when the fun finds started…. The fork wasn’t functioning, had a missing brace and a snapped bolt in the crown. It also had the star nut hanging out the top! Oh and no crown race for the CK!
I still thought the rest of the bike was junk. The components were base level and mostly extremely worn. Still hadn’t dawned on me about the frame until a bit of research. Although I did pull the BB and find it was an UN72 so it hinted at a once decent spec.
It’s a bit of a rarity. From what I’ve learned it’s made of 6061 aluminium, locally sourced and made in good old Canadia. I’ve emailed Devinci themselves and they unfortunately don’t have any records that far back but they said they didn’t really have any imports to the UK until the 2010s or so (I’ll have to check the emails to confirm).
All my searches have turned up no matching bikes until recently one popped up for sale on eBay. Same frame design. Same dropouts. Just a different colour. Unfortunately the seller wouldn’t get back to me about my serial number enquiry but it looks spot on and the components match my theory it’s a mid to late 90s bike.
So now I know it’s say around 1997 and it’s a bit of a rarity, at least in the UK, I’ve decided to do a Canadian special build. I’ll clean down the frame and polish it up. Potentially replace the decals. The drivetrain will be XT but the rest of the components I can find will be Canadian. RaceFace, Syncros, whatever era specific I can find.
Should be a fancy pants build when I’m finished
Scrolling through FB marketplace something caught my eye. A Pace fork and a blue headset. On closer inspection the headset was a Chris King but it also had a Syncros stem. The rest of the bike was ‘junk’ though or so I thought. Spoke to the seller and I think I ended up picking it up for about £70. Maybe
When I got it home, that’s when the fun finds started…. The fork wasn’t functioning, had a missing brace and a snapped bolt in the crown. It also had the star nut hanging out the top! Oh and no crown race for the CK!
I still thought the rest of the bike was junk. The components were base level and mostly extremely worn. Still hadn’t dawned on me about the frame until a bit of research. Although I did pull the BB and find it was an UN72 so it hinted at a once decent spec.
It’s a bit of a rarity. From what I’ve learned it’s made of 6061 aluminium, locally sourced and made in good old Canadia. I’ve emailed Devinci themselves and they unfortunately don’t have any records that far back but they said they didn’t really have any imports to the UK until the 2010s or so (I’ll have to check the emails to confirm).
All my searches have turned up no matching bikes until recently one popped up for sale on eBay. Same frame design. Same dropouts. Just a different colour. Unfortunately the seller wouldn’t get back to me about my serial number enquiry but it looks spot on and the components match my theory it’s a mid to late 90s bike.
So now I know it’s say around 1997 and it’s a bit of a rarity, at least in the UK, I’ve decided to do a Canadian special build. I’ll clean down the frame and polish it up. Potentially replace the decals. The drivetrain will be XT but the rest of the components I can find will be Canadian. RaceFace, Syncros, whatever era specific I can find.
Should be a fancy pants build when I’m finished
