Awesome Foursome Pt4 Fe: Bonty DeKerf Fuquay Yo Eddy DOGS
- Thread starter mheywoo1
- Start date
Re:
So the chameleon Yo was not long of this parish. I could not get over the dent in the top tube and was not willing to Invest in a post-repair respray so I moved it on and bought a (dented - see separate thread) Indy Fab Steel deluxe to build and MKOnes ‘92 Team Marin to ride.
The Team Marin was in very good original order and the only thing I did was to fit Hope wheels with new tubeless tyres from the Yo. Ok I oiled the chain and adjusted the seatpost and fitted my choice of grips and saddle but I didn’t even need to tune the gears before taking it on its maiden voyage
I was keen to see how this bike, which cost 1/8th what I sold the Yo for would be like in the same trails.
And the difference was......
..... well bugger all. I really could not note anything of any significance other than the fact i had more fun on the Marin as I wasn’t terrified of scratching it. The steering was a bit barge like due to its very long top tube and 135mm Stem, but the frame itself actually felt a bit more zingy and the longer headtube gave a better more heads up riding pidition
So the chameleon Yo was not long of this parish. I could not get over the dent in the top tube and was not willing to Invest in a post-repair respray so I moved it on and bought a (dented - see separate thread) Indy Fab Steel deluxe to build and MKOnes ‘92 Team Marin to ride.
The Team Marin was in very good original order and the only thing I did was to fit Hope wheels with new tubeless tyres from the Yo. Ok I oiled the chain and adjusted the seatpost and fitted my choice of grips and saddle but I didn’t even need to tune the gears before taking it on its maiden voyage
I was keen to see how this bike, which cost 1/8th what I sold the Yo for would be like in the same trails.
And the difference was......
..... well bugger all. I really could not note anything of any significance other than the fact i had more fun on the Marin as I wasn’t terrified of scratching it. The steering was a bit barge like due to its very long top tube and 135mm Stem, but the frame itself actually felt a bit more zingy and the longer headtube gave a better more heads up riding pidition
Re:
And post (very thorough) clean up
And post (very thorough) clean up
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Re:
Since that first 3hr ride on the Marin, I’ve since taken it out twice more, for 4 hours /70km each. The only change was to fit a shorter, 110mm Marin lite quill stem. It was a bit of a challenge to get the brake cable hanger on with enough threads to engage the headset locknut but by using a Tange nut with a thread which went all the way to the bottom it just worked
And the result was a revelation. The same pingy ride quality remained the same but now the steering was razor sharp. I loved riding it.
I keep intending to fit fatter tyres and an in-line seatpost but to be honest, the bike is so good as it is I can’t really be bothered. Sure the mismatching wheels bug me from an aesthetic point of view but get it muddy enough and I don’t notice.
I’m not sure where to go with this bike now. It’s not really “premium” enough for my collection but it’s a great (and cheap) rider. I’ve just re-purchased my old candy red Dekerf and thanks to Jez, I’ve got a dekerf Ti Bar-Stem combo to go on it, and some nice/nos m900. But then will I be trapped the same way I was with the Yo of it being too nice to ride?????
Nice problems to have I guess. And at least I can ride this bike unlike the dozen “nicer” project bikes which are filling my loft.
Since that first 3hr ride on the Marin, I’ve since taken it out twice more, for 4 hours /70km each. The only change was to fit a shorter, 110mm Marin lite quill stem. It was a bit of a challenge to get the brake cable hanger on with enough threads to engage the headset locknut but by using a Tange nut with a thread which went all the way to the bottom it just worked
And the result was a revelation. The same pingy ride quality remained the same but now the steering was razor sharp. I loved riding it.
I keep intending to fit fatter tyres and an in-line seatpost but to be honest, the bike is so good as it is I can’t really be bothered. Sure the mismatching wheels bug me from an aesthetic point of view but get it muddy enough and I don’t notice.
I’m not sure where to go with this bike now. It’s not really “premium” enough for my collection but it’s a great (and cheap) rider. I’ve just re-purchased my old candy red Dekerf and thanks to Jez, I’ve got a dekerf Ti Bar-Stem combo to go on it, and some nice/nos m900. But then will I be trapped the same way I was with the Yo of it being too nice to ride?????
Nice problems to have I guess. And at least I can ride this bike unlike the dozen “nicer” project bikes which are filling my loft.
Re: Awesome Foursome Part 4 - Yo Eddy
Loving the team, I owned an earlier one which was a beauty to ride, found the Yo more robust feeling and intuitive but a lot of that may have been the fork and perceived ‘super bike’ feel.
Great to see a muddy bike
Loving the team, I owned an earlier one which was a beauty to ride, found the Yo more robust feeling and intuitive but a lot of that may have been the fork and perceived ‘super bike’ feel.
Great to see a muddy bike
Re:
So over a year on from the previous post it came as no surprise that the Team Marin was replaced with something more special.
I’d always regretted selling my DeKerf but I managed to buy it back. That was going to be my only steel bike joining my carbon Firmula One, titanium Bontrager and aluminium Pace.
It soon became apparent that just one steel bike was not going to be enough so a Bontrager OR and another Yo Eddy Soon joined the fleet. I then thought it would be fun to add my fourth favourite steel bike which was a Fuquay. I had an idea to build them all up to a similar spec and do a back to back “MTB Pro” style test report on them.
I’d sold a Fuquay To Tomas during a clearout as I didn’t like the paint. It was a bit dumb on my part as how often do you see them come up for sale? Tomas was not keen to sell it back (understandably) so the search was on but with no luck. Then a nice white Chas Roberts Genesis cropped up so I bought that. However I could not get overit’s top-tube dent and since the paint was immaculate I could not justify getting it fixed. I was looking for a Dogs Bollox but could not rationalise the cost vs the others and then out of the blue, kermitgreenkina88 of this parish kindly tipped me off about a Fuquay for sale on Facebook for a good price.
It turned up today and is the right size, in the same paint as my previous one. It’s got even more small rust patches and worming but did come with a colour matched P2 fork and a Syncros headset. As it’s a ‘97 frame, it does not have a rear Canti-hanger so the poor paint is a blessing in disguise as I have no compunction in getting it stripped, having a Canti hanger added and repainted in a Walkers Crisps packet-esq colour.
The Bontrager OR had a top-tube dent which was expertly filled by Lee Cooper. The paint on the main triangle was good so I asked Gil to make me some new decals and I’ve finally got around to running down patches of the rear triangle and re-painted with black gloss Hammerite today.
The Roberts itch has not gone away and I won the White Spider that MKone added to the eBay section so we’ll see how long that hangs around.
I’ve been busy swapping parts around to try and get them all looking right. Once I’ve got my mock-builds sorted I can then build them properly. The most complete is the DeKerf which was to have Middleburn RS3 cranks and Hope Hubs. These may have to go in one of the other bikes so whilst in the photos below it still has the Hope hubs, I’ve added a White Industries crank to see how i ike it. I’ve got the matching hubs and am thinking this will have XTR M900 cantis
It’s been a while since I added photos so I’ll have to try and remember how...
So over a year on from the previous post it came as no surprise that the Team Marin was replaced with something more special.
I’d always regretted selling my DeKerf but I managed to buy it back. That was going to be my only steel bike joining my carbon Firmula One, titanium Bontrager and aluminium Pace.
It soon became apparent that just one steel bike was not going to be enough so a Bontrager OR and another Yo Eddy Soon joined the fleet. I then thought it would be fun to add my fourth favourite steel bike which was a Fuquay. I had an idea to build them all up to a similar spec and do a back to back “MTB Pro” style test report on them.
I’d sold a Fuquay To Tomas during a clearout as I didn’t like the paint. It was a bit dumb on my part as how often do you see them come up for sale? Tomas was not keen to sell it back (understandably) so the search was on but with no luck. Then a nice white Chas Roberts Genesis cropped up so I bought that. However I could not get overit’s top-tube dent and since the paint was immaculate I could not justify getting it fixed. I was looking for a Dogs Bollox but could not rationalise the cost vs the others and then out of the blue, kermitgreenkina88 of this parish kindly tipped me off about a Fuquay for sale on Facebook for a good price.
It turned up today and is the right size, in the same paint as my previous one. It’s got even more small rust patches and worming but did come with a colour matched P2 fork and a Syncros headset. As it’s a ‘97 frame, it does not have a rear Canti-hanger so the poor paint is a blessing in disguise as I have no compunction in getting it stripped, having a Canti hanger added and repainted in a Walkers Crisps packet-esq colour.
The Bontrager OR had a top-tube dent which was expertly filled by Lee Cooper. The paint on the main triangle was good so I asked Gil to make me some new decals and I’ve finally got around to running down patches of the rear triangle and re-painted with black gloss Hammerite today.
The Roberts itch has not gone away and I won the White Spider that MKone added to the eBay section so we’ll see how long that hangs around.
I’ve been busy swapping parts around to try and get them all looking right. Once I’ve got my mock-builds sorted I can then build them properly. The most complete is the DeKerf which was to have Middleburn RS3 cranks and Hope Hubs. These may have to go in one of the other bikes so whilst in the photos below it still has the Hope hubs, I’ve added a White Industries crank to see how i ike it. I’ve got the matching hubs and am thinking this will have XTR M900 cantis
It’s been a while since I added photos so I’ll have to try and remember how...
