Brodie Libido

[walleater]

I got lucky and picked up this Brodie Libido for $100 off Pinkbike this morning! The owner was very honourable and held it for me despite a long queue of people wanting it and offering more money.

There seems to be precious little info on these on-line and hardly any photos of them. There's no denying that the suspension design was 'of it's time', but there are plenty nice features and of course top notch welding. So far I've given it a once over, including pulling the Syncros cranks and the bottom bracket out of the frame, and too my relief nothing was broken or seized.

The fork is blown and the front rim pretty worn out but otherwise the bike is in pretty good condition. I plan to swap out the Z2 Bam for a black Z2 Flylight that I have. I've got an XTR / Araya RM395 Team wheel that I built up recently that will go on. Matching wheels will be on the cards for the future though. The Syncros stem is quite funky with it's length and reach but I'll probably find something a bit lower and shorter (anyone local want to do a swap? I'd also probably want something with a shorter stack height).

The immediate plan is to get the bike rolling without threat of it killing me for now

 

[Mike E.]

Ahhh....so you won the 'buy of the week'

I was in line for it, but I knew that by the time I got home at 6PM that there would be no chance....sigh. Didn't torture myself too much with "this will probably be your only chance at ever landing some Revolution cranks" sort of thoughts knowing the local 'crew' would have been all over it. Not surprised to hear more $$ was offered, and good on Tim for not succumbing.

Glad it's gone to a good home!!

Enjoy.

The stem I believe was the DH model....gotta love the rise.

 

[shamobius]

Very cool, I like the colour of the frame. Good score!

 

[walleater]

Thanks guys. I'm surprised that I got it Mike. Someone posted the Pinkbike link up on NSMB in a vintage MTB thread. The advert had been up for a few hours but I thought 'what the hell' and just fired off a PM on the off-chance that it'd still be available. If Tim had put it on CL it'd have sold in 30 seconds. He just wanted it to go to a good home.

I was wondering about the stem, not just because of the rise (WTF) and colour, but it also seems to be a slimmer profile than normal. I may keep it one and look for a wider bar. There's something about high rise stems and narrow riser bars that screams 'commuter bike'!

 

[walleater]

I've had a bit of a play with this today. I planned on swapping the rims on the front wheel as I realized that I had a silver 217 which would take the same spoke lengths, and I'd get to keep the snowflake effect. Alas, many of the nipples were totally seized and couple just broke apart. It went beyond the point of no return, so I stripped the hub out of the wheel and rebuilt the wheel with a NOS Sun CR18. I have two so now I'll be rebuilding the rear wheel too I guess

The blown Z2 Bam is now replaced with the Flylights. The stem replaced (for the short term at least.....) with a NOS Kore stem. I'll still look for something a bit shorter and higher but this was free, along with the Race Face Air Alloy flat bar.

 

[yeti_bomb]

Sweet jesus!! Good grab! Been trying to find one myself. Look forward to updates!

 

[BerttheWelder]

Re:

Any close ups of the stem? And specs? Are you selling it?

 

[Ferghus]

Nice transformation - looking great ! It obviously fell into the right hands.

I would be interested to hear how they ride. cheers.

 

[walleater]

Thanks all.

I think I'll keep the stem, although if anyone local has a decent mid to late 90's black stem with a shorter stack height and a bit higher / shorter reach than the Kore stem currently on the bike, then I might be interested in trading. The steerer on this fork is too short for a Syncros.

As to how it rides? My 'XC' hardtail has a 66 degree head angle, 50mm stem and 760mm wide bars so it's safe to say that the Brodie can't really compete on the descents! I was pleasantly surprised by it's climbing ability. The suspension being active when sat down probably helps, and the bike does not bob up and down too much. Descending would certainly be helped with a different cockpit. Maybe I'll go with a mid length stem and a riser if I can find something period correct. I'd never ridden a URT suspension bike before, and it's certainly pretty comfortable sitting down. Standing up still leaves the suspension slightly active as far as I can get, but nothing like a normal suspension bike.

A couple of snaps from todays ride somewhere north of Squamish:

 

[yeti_bomb]

epic stuff