Info re Ti project frame

[IbocProSX]

I picked up this TI hardtail frame a few weeks ago and have been tracking Retrobike and the bay for parts for the build. However, I dont know much about the frame itself. Does anyone here recognise this frame?

It was advertised as a '93 Answer Products frame, anmd has a head tube sticker to match that. But I really bought it because it lookes tidy and well made and the size and geometry suit me. This is not intended to be a garage queen. 'Nough talking, pictures please:

side-on

head tube detail

head tube detail 2

3/4 rear

dropout detail

Enjoy!!

 

[pete_mcc]

Looks like quite a tidy frame that, although I would suggest that the answer sticker is not original.

Looks like the sort of frame that was used by all number of companies and bike shops stateside (Supergo, Cambria, jansen etc). It has a butted head-tube which may suggest a better quality than most though but the welds are fairly average. Looks to me like the down tube is a little more polished than the rest of the bike which suggests that there may have been other decals there which were removed and buffed out.
It's also got an alloy seat-tube insert which again should mean a better quality of frame rather than the cheap Taiwanese ones that often didn't.

How you gonna build it up?

 

[newsboy]

the dropouts look like merlins without a the hole...
but the rest?! do they have a serialnumber?

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

DNA?

That looks quite a lot like a frame I had for a while. The back end especially! It was a DNA welded in Russia. The story went that with the end of the cold war, Russia had lots of highly skilled Ti welders who were no longer needed to weld missiles etc so they built bike frames instead! Mine had no stickers or badges on it and when I moaned I was sent some with an excellent selection made up of male/female biology symbols on them. A mate who used to weld professionally said he had never seen better welding. The bike rode very well but was sadly stolen.

 

[IbocProSX]

Thanks for the feedback, I'll look up a frame number tonight and post it. Most observations are correct:

The alloy sleeve for the seatpost leaves a 27.4mm dia post. A previous owner fitted some Spesh decals (sponsorship?) and removed them again for the sale. The lettering on the top tube has a very authentic "feel" to it, the adhesive sticker on the head tube could have come at any time.

The build could still go any number of ways: mid 90's Pace RC36 and a Cook's-Ringle-Onza-SRAM-Sun-Ritchey anodised bonanza. Or modern with a Pace rigid, Thomsons, XO, Mavic and Hope disc up front. The latter was my original plan, it is this board that inspired plan "B".

Enjoy!

 

[IbocProSX]

There's no frame number that I can find, that limits the number of options I guess. I did find a nice detail when I partly pulled out the aluminium seat post shim. It is shaped and machined like a machined head tube so it clears the busy junction of seat stays seat tube and top tube, and then supports the post in the frame again below that.

And I've been fooling around a bit with the build options and took some pictures. I firmly join the crowd of bike addicts with pictures of bikes in the kitchen. The builds are part assembled only to help me make a decision.

Here's the original idea, I call it plan A:

It gets a silver 07 Hope mini up front. The Uno is an option but triple Deus and XO is more likely

This is what happened to it after spending more time here, plan B:

The Cook Bros post needs another size shim, and the red rims look better in the metal. Does this build need a red stem?

The riser bar with barends is a big NoNo for the style police, but handle just ike I want it. I've been using this set-up forever (it shows too)

I must admit I still like plan A a lot, though not very retro.
Choices, choices ......

Enjoy!!

 

[ededwards]

Plan A looks very clean and simple (this is a good thing for me) compared to Plan B which is fine bar the risers and barends (lots of debate previously, some feels it's fine but from an aesthetics point of view I'd have to say I'm not in favour).

Either way it looks a really lovely frame and by the sounds of the seatpost shim detail very well made.

The proof, as always, will be in the riding

 

[SeeingisBelievingGTMuseum]

Looks to me like something that came...

Based on the seat and chain stays it looks to me like an earlier Ti-Sorts G-man frame that may have been done by Sandvik/Ti-Sports but the alloy seat post shim (there to prevent galling caused by unlike metals) along with the 27.4mm seat post size suggests to me that it came from Asia.
Likely source is the same company that made the GT Lightning frame which was also alloy sleeved and accepts a 27.4mm seat post.

 

[sylvain]

. Does this build need a red stem?

That's a real nice frame. I have a 120mm red Kore Elite stem if you fancy it.

Looks like this (stock photo):

 

[Agency_Scum]

It's a far eastern produced 3/2.5 ( the nice ones, not the crap Russian ones ) ti frame that went all over the place badged as Merlins ( Lancashire ), Answers and whatever. Light, springy and all-day riding frames. This was mine...

Good choice, well done.