An Unusual Formula 1 - final pictures on page 3 and 4

[pete_mcc]

Gotta say, I have always loved Formula 1 bikes, partly their cutting edge F1 inspired carbon, partly their British steel rear end, partly as they were made a mile down the road from me.
My F1 guru has always been @uno-speedo , another Surrey boy who knows more about F1 bikes than anyone. Years back, I collected an F1 he’d bought for him and was instantly smitten, but finding one for me has always proved harder. I’m a bit OCD, I like things that are fresh and new looking, F1s were race bikes and tended to be ridden, hard… But a little while back Nik contacted me about a rather special bike that someone had contacted him about through his website. See if you can spot the unusual bits, there’s two or three things that make this stand out from other F1 (all differences are from factory, not later amendments). Ignore the non-drive chainstay tab, more on that later, that is a later addition)

 

[raidan73]

Super Pete! Look forward to seeing more of it

 

[pete_mcc]

Well, I wasn’t going to let this one slip through my fingers so Nik put me in touch with the frames owner. A lovely guy now approaching his 80s. His wife had decided that he wasn’t allowed to hang the frame on the wall of their new house in Spain so time had come to move the frame on to a new owner.
He bought the bike from new, direct from the factory, and made some very specific requests.

First up, he specced cantilevers front and rear. F1 normally come with Magura, but he wanted cantilevers as they were cleaner and lighter.
Second, no bottle cage mounts
Third, no decals. He wanted a clean looking bike, in stealthy black. Instead he’d had ‘negative decals’ installed at the factory, decals cut into the top coat:

Finally the frame had 130mm dropouts rather than the standard 135mm of the time

 

[pete_mcc]

Over the years the bike had had many forms. The owner went from cantilevers to Hope discs briefly, but he disliked the noise so then went to V brakes, the original F1 forks were converted to but on the shift to V brakes were put aside in favour of RC31s, and finally the bike had a Rohloff Speedhub added (hence the little tab on the chainstay). Throughout this, the owner spent more time looking at the bike than riding it, he had a real keen eye for design but too many bikes and not enough time to ride them so this remained relatively untouched over the years.

Sadly, many of the original parts were lost in the various rebuilds and house moves so when the bike arrived it was essentially a frame only and so that’s where the fun started!

 

[Tsundere]

Over the years the bike had had many forms. The owner went from cantilevers to Hope discs briefly, but he disliked the noise so then went to V brakes, the original F1 forks were converted to but on the shift to V brakes were put aside in favour of RC31s, and finally the bike had a Rohloff Speedhub added (hence the little tab on the chainstay). Throughout this, the owner spent more time looking at the bike than riding it, he had a real keen eye for design but too many bikes and not enough time to ride them so this remained relatively untouched over the years.

Sadly, many of the original parts were lost in the various rebuilds and house moves so when the bike arrived it was essentially a frame only and so that’s where the fun started!

Looks like a plasma cannon from Warhammer 40K.

Looking forward to seeing this one develop.

 

[pete_mcc]

So. First issue. This is an older bike, but worse, it is an older bike with carbon and alloy. Things break. The original owner was taller than me and used, albeit briefly, a USE suspension seatpost.
USE Seatposts are great for poor tolerance fits and for generating stress points. Sadly this frame didn’t escape.

From the outside, the frame looked mint:

However, when I removed the seat clamp there were two tiny cracks running from the stress relieving hole (the irony) in the seat tube slot.
The big issue is, unlike Kleins and Yetis which also suffer from this, you can’t drill and weld a carbon/alloy bike, you’d just melt the resin. Fortunately Retrobike is awash with expert willing to help output. Long standing member and all round great guy @elite504 knew what to do. The man is an engineering wizard. Having run dye through the cracks to see the extent, he drilled the cracks.

Next he machined, within a gnats pube width, a stepped collar to sit over the old seat tube and bonded it in using space aged epoxy glues (I am told):

Finally, after a bit of fettling and hand finishing a new seat collar to match the factory one, you’d never know anything was wrong:

 

[uno-speedo]

I love the storytelling, Pete, even though I know the story already

Nick is such a brilliant engineer.

You will all be blown away when Pete shares his finished photos. Such a great build.

 

[Rod_Saetan]

Is it too late to send the bar?



(Sorry!)

 

[longun]

Wow, pulling up a chair and a brew

 

[pete_mcc]

Is it too late to send the bar?



(Sorry!)

You’re a disgrace. Never too late!