An Improper Use of a Manitou Stem. ‘95 Merlin Extralight/XLM

Corduroyboy

Corduroyboy

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Picked this up earlier this year for a surprisingly reasonable sum. Inspired by Boyburning’s renegade Amp, when looking for a stem with a decent reach and rise, tried a Manitou stem. The chunky aesthetic then led to Machine Tech cantis, hubs, levers and TNT cranks. An experiment with an Answer carbon bar, stripped and polished seemed to work nicely with the Pace RC35 MXCs, so the same treatment was given to a Superstar seatpost, long enough to make the ever-so-slightly-smaller-than-I-prefer frame workable. It’s badged up as an ‘Extralight’ but I can only find a single reference on the net for such a beast (other than the road bikes). I reckon it’s a ‘95 model. A few jobs still to do - the bottom Chris King cup is untidy, the front cantis need pads and it obviously needs pedals!






The offending stem:



 
Re:

Blimey - I've inspired someone?

I'll have to sit down and take that in!


Looks great, love the build. :)
 
Re: An Improper Use of a Manitou Stem

Nice, a great choice on parts :cool:
 
Re:

Thanks for the comments so far. A few updates:

I don’t know how a headset cup manages to get worn like this:


Suitable replacement found:


That’s better:


Now for the missing Pace ‘Welder’ decal:


As luck would have it, I dug out a pair of MCXDs with a similarly lonesome torch-wielding Yorkshireman:


And after a few minutes with the hairdryer:


Paired up:


I wasn’t sure about the Smoke/Dart combo, so tried some Ritchey WCS Mud-Max. I probably ought to have baked these but the truth is, I dare not! Popped some tidy M737 Spuds on, brake blocks fitted on the front and ready for a shakedown:
 
Re:

Oh, and in case anyone was wondering (I know, they weren’t) the spacer under the headset too cap isn’t there because the steerer protrudes. There is actually a lip on the top of a Manitou stem which prevents this:


That lip also prevents a King too cap seating flush with the stem:


So the neatest solution was to use a thin spacer above the stem.
 
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