br0qn
Retro Guru
I had planned to post a follow up to my just created '92 marin team issue thread with a just purchased (soon to arrive) '92 orange clockwork. If you read the marin thread you'll know that bike will be my first as an adult and the first I've owned since ~2000. It's a frameset sitting next to a box of parts that I will build up with the help of a friend in the next couple of weeks.
Well, having been thoroughly bit by this sick, sick, bug (thank you retrobike) I became interested in the early clockworks for several reasons but specifically the first three years, the decals are my favorite. I was scrolling (uk) ebay late one night (in bed, on my side, using one eye) and saw a good looking project, paint stripped but clean early clockwork with a nickel plated f7. I wrote the seller to inquire about general info and shipping stateside and found the bike was originally black. Immediately I had to have it as it would be a same year negative to the marin (nickel frame black fork.) The kind seller accepted the starting bid offer which made it worthwhile to me as courier fee was the same as the frameset.
This project is supposed to show up to my door tomorrow but in anticipation, as I was searching local craigslist for components an xtr search turned up an ad for a merlin titanium for not crazy money.
That got my heart pumping enough and as I clicked trough the listing images -
Avid tri aligns. whoa, those are cool and usually a couple hundred bucks
Very cool hub! mavic paris dakar
There's the XTR that brought me here, rear hub on a mavic rim. Also I think those are ringle skewers, people seem to go ape for them.
Clean condition on the XT mechs, that I'm into.
Nice looking crankset / rings. These weren't on my shopping list, I was really wanting some xt m737 cranks or unobtanium syncros revolution. Odd pedal choice
Things got a little weird here with the paul v brake levers (they do very little to stop the cantis) and the budget bars but I can figure that out easy enough
At this point I'm trying to "buy it now" but I've got to write the seller...if you don't know, craigslist is full of flakes and I've little hope that someone didn't beat me to the punch.
Then my eyes about popped out of my head
An Igleheart fork! and that headset aint bad either.
At some point after the marin purchase I started looking for a second project because I fell in love so many times over with other bikes and in trying to justify it I started looking for maybe something already together and serviceable for the mrs (I have a fantasy that we'll ride together, we'll see!) that wasn't going to run up like the marin project. In my search I kept finding a lot of front suspension stumpjumpers and not caring much for the look of them (purely cosmetic and subjective reasons, baseless really but a certain few have since come to grow on me) I started looking at forks. Somehow I became locked onto segmented forks (the aforementioned clockwork was also hastily bought in part for the segmented f7 attached) and in my quest I found a few makers that were supposed to be masters of such things. Igleheart was one of them and his mountain fork goes for $550+ though he's not taking any orders right now, I imagine he's slammed. From what I gather he is/was responsible for the Fat Chance forks too though someone please chime in with the facts.
Somewhere along the way another obsession formed for Syncros, everything they did was stunning. I have a wtb thread coming for some wish list parts for this and the orange.
A meet was set and I paid the man asking price, no haggle.
Well, having been thoroughly bit by this sick, sick, bug (thank you retrobike) I became interested in the early clockworks for several reasons but specifically the first three years, the decals are my favorite. I was scrolling (uk) ebay late one night (in bed, on my side, using one eye) and saw a good looking project, paint stripped but clean early clockwork with a nickel plated f7. I wrote the seller to inquire about general info and shipping stateside and found the bike was originally black. Immediately I had to have it as it would be a same year negative to the marin (nickel frame black fork.) The kind seller accepted the starting bid offer which made it worthwhile to me as courier fee was the same as the frameset.
This project is supposed to show up to my door tomorrow but in anticipation, as I was searching local craigslist for components an xtr search turned up an ad for a merlin titanium for not crazy money.
That got my heart pumping enough and as I clicked trough the listing images -
Avid tri aligns. whoa, those are cool and usually a couple hundred bucks
Very cool hub! mavic paris dakar
There's the XTR that brought me here, rear hub on a mavic rim. Also I think those are ringle skewers, people seem to go ape for them.
Clean condition on the XT mechs, that I'm into.
Nice looking crankset / rings. These weren't on my shopping list, I was really wanting some xt m737 cranks or unobtanium syncros revolution. Odd pedal choice
Things got a little weird here with the paul v brake levers (they do very little to stop the cantis) and the budget bars but I can figure that out easy enough
At this point I'm trying to "buy it now" but I've got to write the seller...if you don't know, craigslist is full of flakes and I've little hope that someone didn't beat me to the punch.
Then my eyes about popped out of my head
An Igleheart fork! and that headset aint bad either.
At some point after the marin purchase I started looking for a second project because I fell in love so many times over with other bikes and in trying to justify it I started looking for maybe something already together and serviceable for the mrs (I have a fantasy that we'll ride together, we'll see!) that wasn't going to run up like the marin project. In my search I kept finding a lot of front suspension stumpjumpers and not caring much for the look of them (purely cosmetic and subjective reasons, baseless really but a certain few have since come to grow on me) I started looking at forks. Somehow I became locked onto segmented forks (the aforementioned clockwork was also hastily bought in part for the segmented f7 attached) and in my quest I found a few makers that were supposed to be masters of such things. Igleheart was one of them and his mountain fork goes for $550+ though he's not taking any orders right now, I imagine he's slammed. From what I gather he is/was responsible for the Fat Chance forks too though someone please chime in with the facts.
Somewhere along the way another obsession formed for Syncros, everything they did was stunning. I have a wtb thread coming for some wish list parts for this and the orange.
A meet was set and I paid the man asking price, no haggle.
