Ionic Steelhead - my new steed

[pstake]

Greetings all,

Here is my new-to-me and recently built up Ionic Steelhead. I am not sure on the year but I believe it's from between 1998 and 2001.

Ionic was a Boise, Idaho-based frame builder that was purchased by Boulder, Colo.-based Dean (of titanium fame) in the early 2000s and Ionic's name and manufacturing moved to Boulder, Colo.

First, some pictures:

 

[pstake]

I'm posting to parade my newly built darling but also to attract attention from any other Ionic owners out there, who might have more info about the older Boise-built bikes.

I contacted Dean and they said they did not have any info on Ionics from Boise but could confirm that Dean changed the geometry when production moved to Boulder.

There is not a lot of information online about the older Ionics. Many references to its geometry being honed in the hills of Idaho but no references in the form of empirical data. I can say that the frame is Reynolds 853 and weighs 4.3 pounds or about 1950 grams (17.5in frame size).

The tube diamters are: 34.9 dt; 31.8 tt; 28.6 st

I have fallen in love with the ride quality and handling. I'm an old school cross-country rider and have a penchant for vintage and retro (hence my membership here). I grew up riding lower level rigid Specialized bikes, drooling over the Parkpre Pro 825. I later owned a Karakooram with a Judy, which was a fine ride as well, but I digress...

I recently had opportunity to ride the Steelhead on Mary's Loop and Horse Thief Bench at Loma/Fruita in Colorado, and part of the Noble Canyon trail at Laguna Mountain in California.

It climbs like a billy goat, carves on fasty and flowey single track and rolls fast downhill over rocks and roots almost as well as a full suspension (ok maybe not but a very supple and forgiving ride.) I'm running an 80mm fork but I think 100mm would work as well even though it would slacken the HT angle a half a degree.

 

[pstake]

The Build

I bought the frame on ebay after much teetering back and forth, should I, shouldn't I.

It had some scrapes and scratches, which I covered over with finger nail polish. I also treated the frame with frame saver prior to building.

Total weight as pictured is 26 pounds.

Manitou Mars Comp Coil 80mm fork (3 lbs)

Deore XT m785 (modern) double cranks, size 165

Titus/Maxm vintage 25.4 90mm stem, Easton bars, Ergon lock-on grips

Sunrace 9 speed thumb shifters

11-32 HG70 9 speed cassette

Rear wheel: Mavic x517 ceramic rim laced to Deore XT hub. 32 3x (adapted for tubeless)
Front wheel: Bontrager Mustang ceramic rim laced to a WTB Grease Guard hub 32 3x (standard clincher)

Rear tire is tubeless Continental Mountain King 2.2
Front tire is clincher Continental Mountain King 2.2

V-Brakes: XT rear; Avid Arch Rival front
Brake levers: Avid single digits

Derailleurs: Rear, XTR 9 speed; front: LX 9 speed.

Thanks for looking.

Cheers,
Phil

 

[novekili]

nice!

 

[ridevintagemtb]

Horse Thief Bench at Loma/Fruita in Colorado

You cleaned it, right?

Here's a memory lane trip about Ionic: So when we were all racing on the US NORBA circuit in 2000, then junior TT world champion Danny Pate showed up racing for Zoic in baggy shorts on an Ionic. Being world champion was a big deal, and here he was in baggies on some steel bike. In 2000, no one wore baggy shorts unless you were at the beach. Looking back, it kind of suited his personality, but there were a lot of sideways glances on the start line.

Second Ionic story I have is a year later, one of the team members switched from that Zoic team to a smaller team, and he needed a custom bike to be built for him. He took his Ionic frame to Chris Herting @ 3D racing to copy, and Herting told him, "dude, you realize you have a 73.5 deg head angle on this right? I guess he had been going over the bars quite a bit.

Cool bike.

 

[pstake]

Horse Thief Bench at Loma/Fruita in Colorado

You cleaned it, right?

Yep, except the sections I walked down, and dismounted, for.

That first section at the Mary's Loop transition to Horsethief is in the impossible realm for me.

Thanks for the stories and info! That's crazy about the HTA.



I used an angle finder and the seat tube angle is 73 degrees and the HTA is 70 with the pictured 80mm fork. For accuracy, i calibrated on my road bike with known angles (73HTA/75STA).

Chainstays on the Ionic are 42.5cm(16.75in). Wheelbase is 42inches/106.5cm; ETT is 56.5cm (~22.25in)