Fam Allen
Retro Guru
Setting the Scene
Back in 1997 (slap bang in my personal golden age of mountain biking) I was fortunate enough to pick up a 1996 Zaskar LE frame from my local bike shop in Chelmsford (my Uni town at the time) at a very reasonable price (about £150 I think). I studied and rode with a couple of the guys who worked at the LBS (in Duke Street) and they did me a reasonable deal a few components I needed and getting it built up. Frame, parts and build cost me around £625 if I remember correctly. I ended up trading my lovely Technics 1200 turntables for it (which I always regretted!).
Rode the Zaskar exactly as intended, riding street trials to XC and everything in between on it during that time. It accompanied me to several Malvern Classic events and it served as my main ride from 1997 to 2005. That Zaskar gave me some great memories!
Until a few years ago I had the frame safely stored at home, but it became increasingly difficult to justify storing it with limited space and I ended up selling it on on eBay. Sad times!
The Build
Over past months, I’ve been considering what new build to invest some time into. I wanted it to be something nostalgic and iconic of its era, so a Zaskar made a lot of sense.
Today my Zaskar build project arrived (or rather I collected it).
Collected this morning from a really nice guy based down near Bristol. Here is my new-old 1998 Ball Burnished Zaskar frame. Owned since new, it was originally bought from Avon Valley Cyclery in Bath.
It has been stored for a few years and was most recently used as a commuter. You can see from the pics that over the year’s most parts have been replaced to suit its commuter purpose, and those weather exposed years have paid their toll on a lot of the componentry which probably just needs throwing, but the frame is really what I’m after and I intend to restore it to as much of its former glory as possible.
I’ll be starting by stripping it down and giving it a good clean and polish before hopefully equipping it with new decals and some reasonably period correct kit.
Excited to get started!
Back in 1997 (slap bang in my personal golden age of mountain biking) I was fortunate enough to pick up a 1996 Zaskar LE frame from my local bike shop in Chelmsford (my Uni town at the time) at a very reasonable price (about £150 I think). I studied and rode with a couple of the guys who worked at the LBS (in Duke Street) and they did me a reasonable deal a few components I needed and getting it built up. Frame, parts and build cost me around £625 if I remember correctly. I ended up trading my lovely Technics 1200 turntables for it (which I always regretted!).
Rode the Zaskar exactly as intended, riding street trials to XC and everything in between on it during that time. It accompanied me to several Malvern Classic events and it served as my main ride from 1997 to 2005. That Zaskar gave me some great memories!
Until a few years ago I had the frame safely stored at home, but it became increasingly difficult to justify storing it with limited space and I ended up selling it on on eBay. Sad times!
The Build
Over past months, I’ve been considering what new build to invest some time into. I wanted it to be something nostalgic and iconic of its era, so a Zaskar made a lot of sense.
Today my Zaskar build project arrived (or rather I collected it).
Collected this morning from a really nice guy based down near Bristol. Here is my new-old 1998 Ball Burnished Zaskar frame. Owned since new, it was originally bought from Avon Valley Cyclery in Bath.
It has been stored for a few years and was most recently used as a commuter. You can see from the pics that over the year’s most parts have been replaced to suit its commuter purpose, and those weather exposed years have paid their toll on a lot of the componentry which probably just needs throwing, but the frame is really what I’m after and I intend to restore it to as much of its former glory as possible.
I’ll be starting by stripping it down and giving it a good clean and polish before hopefully equipping it with new decals and some reasonably period correct kit.
Excited to get started!
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