Lava Dome ATB

[originsoundd]

My second build thread on here! When I first joined Retrobike I asked about building a bikepacking bike, here it is. I originally bought a 14" Brodie Energy for this build and it turns out that's way too small for me. I was measuring frames wrong this whole time and it skewed my perception of frame sizes drastically. Luckily, I spotted a 16" Lava Dome (unknown year) on FB for £90 that I also picked up in the case that the Brodie wasn't right, which turned out to be the case! There will be some photos of the Brodie here so that should clear up any of that confusion. This bike is being built for my trip from London to Croatia this summer. The route I've picked is a mix of everything really, so thats reflected in the build. I'd also like to say a big thanks to @Mr Scruff , who supplied me with an XTR M950 wheelset for this build, free of charge. If anyone can ID the year on this bike please mention it! I think its a 95 based on my research.

Here's some pics from the FB advert for the Lava Dome.


Unfortunatley, this bike seems to have been stripped for its good parts and built up on the cheap, probably by a bike shop. The drivetrain was a 1x7 with Raleigh Truebuild wheels, "one-piece" cranks where the chainring was integrated into them, a Tourney RD and cheapo Shimano thumbshifter. I probably overpaid for this in hingsight. Anyways, I stripped it down of all it's rubbish and gave it a clean. It turned out ok, looks like someone had a lock on the toptube which caused a bunch of paint chips and the decals are slightly cracked, but nothing major. Luckily, the original stem, bars and fork were all there and it came with a nice Charge Spoon. More posts/pics to follow.

 

[originsoundd]

Here is (half) the wheelset. XTR M950 hub laced to a Mavic 217 ceramic. I went for the modern Acera 11-36 cassette as it was lighter than the oldschool ones. After many hours of tire research I settled on the Continental RaceKings with BlackChilli compound. I figured that if they were good enough for the atheletes of The Great Divide they'd be good enough for me.

Also got these lovely KORE skewers, also courtesy of @Mr Scruff .

 

[originsoundd]

First problem - crushed seatpost. Was super satisfying to fix this with a 1 1/8 quill stem. Now the intended 27.0 seatpost diameter is restored!

 

[originsoundd]

Next up I had an issue with fitting my cranks. The BB was obviously swapped for one with a narrower axle to sort the chainline out and to harvest the better, more delicious BB inside. It was quite overwhelming trying to figure out what the right size BB was to get and even with some measurements I couldn't figure it out. I went for a 68x122.5 as that's what I found on Sheldon Browns site. Turns out it was the right call, as the cranks now fit perfect. Just found a thread on getting replacement decals for em too!

 

[originsoundd]

A headset service was next. The Brodie I intially bought was a threadless headset and I'd bought a new silver Tange one to fit, but now I'd settled on this I wasn't sure what to do. I've contemplated swapping the fork, but I don't really want to use the Brodie fork for aesthetic reasons and finding a new fork is either expensive or time consuming so I think I'll just stick with threaded Joe Murray Impact headset for now and use a stem converter. This was the most horrible headset I've ever felt on a bike, really lumpy and gritty feeling. There was a LOT of old grease inside which took a lot of soaking in mineral spirit to dissolve. All the bearing races seem good apart from the top cup which has some mild pitting and the bearings in the bottom are also a bit pitted, but it seems okay. I'm yet to regrease it but I'm pretty confident it will work fine.

I wanted to take both headset cups out just to give them a proper clean, and the bottom one had a bunch of rust on it. This turned out to be a bit of a nightmare and the bottom cup took probably 100~ mallet blows. I had to precariously hold the bike on the floor with my body weight, braced with a bit of wood so I wouldn't bend the deraileur hangar. The top cup wouldn't even budge after about 30 hits so I didn't bother.

Happy I bought the proper tools to do this with too. It was only £20 on Ebay for both a headset press and a removal tool! Saved me a lot of hassle or a trip to a LBS.

 

[bikeworkshop]

Nice looking bike.

Looks like a 95, the best graphics and colour combo to me, although I know this is age-related.

The frameset is easily worth what you paid.

And this period kona had natural touring geometry and the sweetest ride.

I can't believe a bike shop would hang all that crap on it, it would only cost a few pounds more to make a much more valuable bike.
You could do a better job out of our scrap bin!

Plenty of idiots out there mind, and some own bike shops.
I know this for a fact

Worth popping the ball bearings out of the races and replacing as it will only cost a couple of quid.