Feels like it’s been 99% ready for ages now, finally had the time to finish the remaining 1% this weekend...
After going for the raw finish, I took inspiration from patinaed hot rods and vintage salt flat racers, another retro area I’m into. Some pointers are; the naturally rusty spring, the traditional splattering of sponsor logos and the Airlines tank, which has a
Moon fuel tank look about it. The end result is a kind of fictitious prototype ex-team barnfind. I'm really pleased, it's turned out way better than I could have imagined at the start (yep, that was a while back!
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Why Maguras? I hear you ask. Discs would indeed be more appropriate on this build, but I’ve always loved the neon-yellow of Magura Racelines. Palmer also ran them on his early M1s, which ups the cool stakes a few notches in my book.
Took it for a first run out today and spent most of the time fine-tuning the Airlines. When they’re balanced right it’s hard to beat the crisp shifting, and how sexy is the ‘Psssst-CLUNK’ of the gear change! The slack headtube took a bit of getting use to (never really ridden a proper DS bike before), but on a quick blast of a prime piece of singletrack it came into its element! Quick and responsive, and fools you into thinking it’s lighter than it actually is.
Anyway, enough chat, here’s the first batch of pics….
