So in between deciding what to do with my second Straight 6 build, I chanced upon another of my dream bikes, an AMP Research B5 on the 'bay for a reasonable price and picked it up because it was in my favourite colour of yellow:
Knowing the amount of bespoke parts that accompanied those early full suspension and disc braked bikes, I also picked up a 1999 Mercedes Benz MB4 that would serve as a donor for the important components - such as the brakes, brake mounts, hubs, and possibly the fork. The MB4 I got was an interesting bag of bits - it looked to have been ridden only on pavement, suffered a bunch of chips that looked like they came from bike rack and handling rather than trail riding. It wasn't completely factory spec, some of the original bits, as best as I could tell, have been swapped. But the important parts remain, as I intend to make it look like the catalog bike:
And here's now the MB4 looks like. The B5 is in the mail......
Looks like it had a fairly easy life pounding pavement instead of dirt.....some parts, like the M755 rear derailleur, as well as LX crank, look like they've been switched out. No matter, M95x XTR bits will go on there. The saddle has to go.
The seat mast has more sheetmetal than the AMP version - I prefer AMP's.
The AMP brakes use a fairly small rotor, and is a 3 bolt pattern. They bolt onto a standard Shimano XT M737 hub. How, you may say?
A disc brake mounting ring is secured to three of the spoke holes, and the spokes themselves are laced onto this ring as well. Viola! Disc brake hub.
This is the F3 fork, but for the B5, I hope to be able to get the F4BLT to match the longer rear travel.
A lot of CNC machine work
Knowing the amount of bespoke parts that accompanied those early full suspension and disc braked bikes, I also picked up a 1999 Mercedes Benz MB4 that would serve as a donor for the important components - such as the brakes, brake mounts, hubs, and possibly the fork. The MB4 I got was an interesting bag of bits - it looked to have been ridden only on pavement, suffered a bunch of chips that looked like they came from bike rack and handling rather than trail riding. It wasn't completely factory spec, some of the original bits, as best as I could tell, have been swapped. But the important parts remain, as I intend to make it look like the catalog bike:
And here's now the MB4 looks like. The B5 is in the mail......
Looks like it had a fairly easy life pounding pavement instead of dirt.....some parts, like the M755 rear derailleur, as well as LX crank, look like they've been switched out. No matter, M95x XTR bits will go on there. The saddle has to go.
The seat mast has more sheetmetal than the AMP version - I prefer AMP's.
The AMP brakes use a fairly small rotor, and is a 3 bolt pattern. They bolt onto a standard Shimano XT M737 hub. How, you may say?
A disc brake mounting ring is secured to three of the spoke holes, and the spokes themselves are laced onto this ring as well. Viola! Disc brake hub.
This is the F3 fork, but for the B5, I hope to be able to get the F4BLT to match the longer rear travel.
A lot of CNC machine work
