Final build for the year, or ever... 1998 DeKerf Team SL

[TOMAS]

After a year of many restorations and builds, I thought I'd document my final build of the year, or possibly final retro bike (unless I can bring myself to part with some of my overly large collection). I think it will also help as a reference to anyone building similar wanting advice.

Frame was bought from Patrick, a member off here who I've dealt with many times recently in sourcing parts for builds, top guy and quite reasonably priced. It's an honest, true and well kept 1998 DeKerf Team SL in Tangerine. It arrived very clean and tidy, however I couldn't resist an initial polish/wax before we start, some may say waxing a frame is excessive, however now I've come to realize the difference it makes in removing 70mph fly splats off the front of my car, waxing is most definitely a good idea. Some of the chips have been touched in with red by a previous owner, these do stand out, but again, shows it's honesty.

Frame weighs in at 1830g with an alloy bolt set.

 

[TOMAS]

Re:

BOTTOM BRACKET FITMENT

This was an ebay find, along with a Raceface tripple chainset. Unfortunately I cannot find a great deal online about Raceface 1998-2002 and took a pot luck buy on this being correct year (or there abouts). The bottom bracket is described as 'Titanium', which I assume refers to spindle. Having checked it a magnet, it IS magnetic, however not as magnetic as I would come to expect with steel, therefore I assume this to be Titanium. It's 110mm in length with Enduro sealed cartridge bearings that slip over each end and then the threaded cups over these, the whole lot comes in at 220g.

Thankfully I couldn't feel any play in the bearings, I am always very dubious over 2nd hand parts like this, especially where I can't try before I buy but thankfully this looks to have paid off. The bearings felt a little dry, I pried off the inner seals and gave them a good blast with GT85, dried out and then re-packed with grease. The BB sleeve describes it as fitting both 73 and 68mm shells, I assume the latter would require 2.5mm of shell protruding either side of the shell to maintain the chainline?

Copperslipped the threads and installed, interestingly the Drive side cup is marked 'Left' and non-drive marked 'Right', which I found a little odd, also I found that the cups shouldn't be torqued in hard as the design causes the bearings to bind and not run freely, this will also lead to their premature death.

 

[mk one]

Love the colour and my size too

the left right is the thread direction

mark

 

[TOMAS]

Love the colour and my size too

the left right is the thread direction

mark

Cheers for that Mark, never thought about it meaning thread direction! Its all double dutch, anyhow its now fitted in More details to follow as it gets built...

 

[TOMAS]

Re:

CHAINSET & HEADSET

Having decided early on that a Canadian and also orange/ grey/ green theme would be the way forward, when these appeared on ebay with the accompanying BB, I had to snap them up, even if they were quite highly priced. The rings look to be good order & 690g, they are also marked 9spd, which leads me to believe these maybe a 1999 or even 2000 chainset, however I anticipate the 9spd rings won't cause me too much aggro with a 8spd setup, i'm thinking a 9 speed chain might be in order, I also think an 8 would also be totally fine due, only difference being the outside plates on a 9spd being slightly narrower, but any comments welcome (regarding a complete 8 spd build with 9speed front rings)?

Then came the Chris King headset at 118g, again bought from local guy Patrick, bought as part of a job lot of parts and again very reasonably priced. Bearings feel about as new as you get, this is my first King product and now appreciate why people rave about them so much!

 

[k-rod]

Re:

looking pretty tasty, so far

 

[stevet1]

Re:

Very nice. Now you'll have to find the matching hubset
You'll have no probs with the 9 speed rings and an 8 speed chain BTW. Chainset looks great.

 

[PeterPerfect]

Re: Colour

Love that colour and the co-ordinating green makes it pop.

 

[TOMAS]

Re:

FORKS, DRIVETRAIN & BRAKES

I was really stuck for which fork to use on this build, go with a shocker or keep it nimble, rigid and light. In the end I opted for the latter and turned again to Patrick for advice on this, he suggested a fork with A-C of around 430mm to keep the geometry right. Having looked through his stash, he turned up with this Independent Fabrications number (860g weight), I know next to nothing of I.F, however looking at the quality of the workmanship in the fork, I could clearly see it's top notch and fairly light too (**edit, this is the I.F No Travel Fork, released in year 2000).

I absolutely do NOT intend to keep them yellow, after a few rides, if i'm happy with the way they performs then my intention is to whip them to the paint shop to have repainted in a gunmetal grey, similar to that of the chainset and the grey in the frame decals. Again I welcome peoples views on this and also would appreciate any info anyone has on the fork, I presume like the frame, it's hand-made?

Having been really impressed with the XTR M950 groupset on a previous Fuquay build I did, I again decided with this for brakes and drivetrain, grey looks cool, matches up well & it's fairly top-end. V-brakes sourced from Matt Haywood (weight 372g) on here, after a teardown & cleaning out those tiny bearings and rebuild with a light grease they run like new. The front FD-M950 (weight 112g)/rear RD-M950 (weight 209) mechs are essentially fit/forget items, cleaned well and a quick lube of the pivots. Only niggle being the front mech clamp needs to be 28.6 and is actually 31.8, I shall run this with a shim and expect it shouldn't cause too much issue but do wonder if I need to adjust chainline as as result, my thoughts are that you don't.. if anyone needs a trade on front mechs just shout

 

[mk one]

Some nice parts going on, i have the same cranks, matching stem too but im keeping that nice choice with the headset colour. Not sure about the grey forks, maybe a darker grey, like the xtr, or green or colour matched to the frame maybe?

mark