Dmr trailstar 1998 blue dirt spec

[perry]

Have you ever built a bike by accident ?

I have . I never really intended this bike to be this bike . I just happened to have all of these parts lying around . the frame was a moral spare to my cream one I cut bits off . It appeases the mind to know of at least one original . The forks are just as good as it gets , the wheels were from another bike and all the other parts were spare or off other bikes I decided to strip down due to lack of use .

One day a few mates mentioned chicksands and I figured , yeah , I reckon I can throw a bike together in an evening , the day before . It was a sound theory based on having at least two whole bikes worth of parts that I knew of .

So happened the blue trailstar

Single ratio and only a rear brake makes it a dirt bike . Little to bend or break when you need to bail off quickly .

Everything except the tyres , chainring and grips were available in 1998 . not intentional , just the way it went . The end of the 90s were a good time for me

Frame - early disc mount spec original trailstar in blue , with mtb bb and horizontal dropouts
Forks - 1998 z1 bombers , 110 travel , desperately need a service
Headset - fsa
Stem - xlite , steve peat signature dho
Bars - world force in 2" rise , black
Wheels - dmr revolver hubs , 36 dt revolution spokes , mavic ex721 rims ( exactly the same as d521 ) bolt on
Tyres - front spesh purgatory 2.2 . rear spesh fast track 2.0
Cranks - middleburn rs7 , polished but could do with a buff
BB - shimano un something , I think 113mm
Chain - 1/8 kmc
Freewheel - acs 16 tooth
Chainring - surly stainless 36 tooth
Grips - gusset . will change for odi longneck when they turn up
Lever - cheap tektro . I think it came off my kona smoke
Brake - tektro rbp
Cable - nokon . polished . will never polish a cable again
Pedals - original dmr v8 in orange
Seatclamp - cheap black quick release
Seat post - dmr
seat - dmr

 

[markwashington]

Loving it mate.

I lusted after a pair of those Z1's when I was about 15, I still think they're about the best looking forks made.

The orange DMR's are also very nice to see, they certainly did better pedal colours in those days.

 

[perry]

Yeah , I couldn't afford the forks either , I had some shitty zokes things on the silver trailstar I had back then . Got those bombers on ebay before the prices rose . Even with leaky seals and not much oil left they still ride better than a lot of stupidly priced new forks . No , I mean new forks are great and you should all come to the shop and buy some

Grabbed a copy of mbuk off the sales guys yesterday and saw a selling point of some new fox ( I think it was fox could have just as easily been rockshox ) forks was the warranty turn around time . Says it all really doesn't it .

The pedals I've had for many , many years and have been on many , many bikes .

 

[markwashington]

I'm not surprised the forks are so good, I've got a pair of 1999 Sids, and they ride far better that the 2007 Fox forks I also have, it should be said that the 63mm travel suits me much better that 120

I've got a set of yellow DMR V8's, they were the first upgrade I bought for my 1999 Kona Hahannah, went very well with the green, I've pretty much transferred them over to every bike I've owned since.

 

[perry]

Brilliant Part of me wants to get a set of each colour . I also have some blue v12s that are now mostly raw . The other part of me sees all the stuff I already have lying around and gets a headache at the thought of collecting pedals It's one thing were missing now , lairy colour schemes . If you bought a part you got the colour you wanted , it didn't matter if it didn't match any other part of the bike .

I'd sweat my nuts and snap someones hand off if a pre disc mount yellow trailstar were to appear . Have no use for it , just want

and I've spent the best part of 10 years avoiding the giant atx 1 dh and pretending I'm warner

 

[Neil G]

That's a really nice bike, would like one of them.

Bikes built from old parts and stuff scavanged from other defunct builds are always good

 

[Aeronaut]

That looks really great especially sporting those Z1's which totally suit the frame. It's an unusual frame colour too, something you don't see many of if any. I do recall you buying this one off of ebay some time back... i may have had my eye on it too at the time. It's cool seeing it built up just how it deserves.
Well, you inspired me for my first build and now you're doing it all over again with this one!

By the way, if you see that yellow Trailstar be prepared to fight of for it I wouldn't mind one too but i guess it's a pretty rare colour now. Only seen pics of one on the net, and i say one because it always seems to be the same bike. It would be a cool find though... assuming there are more than one!

yellow shmellow

I managed to find me a nice '98 in white last month local... (ebay pic)

and this interesting one in silver bought at the weekend after a chance poke around on ebay. Just waiting for it to arrive.

It's good to see you around again matey

 

[perry]

Thanks . looking at that awful seat on the yellow one it's quite possibly the same one I have photos of

your white one is early , has a sticker headtube instead of the far more common plastic badge .

I had a satin silver one years ago , mine was american bb though but the same colour , it wasn't like paint , it had a texture to it :?

my cream one is broken up . Frame is sat beside the sofa , forks in a doorway and I gave the rear wheel to a mate . I expect the other parts ( of which there were few ) are kicking about somewhere . It might find it's way on the turbo trainer . Could do with doing some over geared pedaling to build strength . One of my bikes has gears and I don't want people to think I'm getting weak

 

[markulatus]

Hi

I've been reading this thread and obviously you guys know quite something about trailstars. That's why i hope that you can most likely help me with a problem.

Can i tell the age of my trailstar by the frame number? as far as i remeber it starts with 99... does this mean that it's a frame from 1999?

 

[perry]

I've never gone as far as to look at the frame numbers . I was riding before the trailstar existed so can tell roughly when each one changed and I refer to the earliest it could be . The first was non disc in 97 , then it got a disc mount in 98 , aps turned up around 2001 , etc .

both of mine start ST . I can read the blue one as ST99010107 . so could well be made in 1999 . Show us a photo and I could give a good idea of lineage .