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Alpinestars cro-mega EOS - My ultimate alpinestars cro-mega!
Background:
In 1992 I got my first proper mountain bike, an alpinestars cro-mega LX in dazzling alpine white. It is the one bike that has stuck in my memory ever since and was indeed the reason I found Retrobike in the first instance. Like all mountain bikers back then I upgraded and changed the bikes spec at every opportunity my piggy bank allowed, thus removing the 500LX groupset and the standard alpinestars parts. Here’s a picture of it in 1993 sporting the latest Deore LX groupset, Tioga Power-Stud bar ends, Velo Jet titanium saddle, XT thumb shifters, XT brake levers and a mixed tyre selection of Smoke/Porc. It later went on the boast SPD’s, Local Motion saddle bag and other upgrades.
Project:
This project is going to take that thinking onto another level. I’m trying to get back into the mind of that 13 year old in 1992 and build my ultimate alpinestars cro-mega. I’m looking to build this into a stylish, period bike that bitd would have been my upgraded dream. Bling isn’t really my thing so simple retro elegance is the brief here. With my favourite era of mountain biking being ‘91 to ‘93, all the parts for this build will be sourced from this period with a few small exceptions. The bike will be a rider, as I’m not really one for garage queens. The parts will almost entirely be reconditioned with a few NOS parts where I’ve decided to ‘treat’ myself.
The bikes title is the ‘Alpinestars Cro-Mega EOS’. A strange name you might think? Why not a cro-mega XTR, or a cro-mega XC Pro, etc you might ask. Well back in 1991/92 alpinestars sold framesets separately so they could be built up into one off custom bikes to the customers specification, these were given the names of ‘ti-mega EOS’, ‘al-mega EOS’, etc at the factory and thus were decaled as such. ‘EOS’ being the abbreviation used by alpinestars to describe their ‘Elevated Oversize System’, a style of bike design that we know generically as the E-stay.
The project begins:
The spine of this project was bought this back in November from Ebay as a full bike. Ebay wasn’t working properly that night, you couldn’t search anything and Auction Watch was coming up with no results also. Luckily I was watching the bike on MyEbay, when I checked it had no bids and had just hours to go, so I made a bid of the minimum £100 and went to bed. Next morning I discovered I was the sole bidder and the bike was mine. Only one problem, the bike was in Southampton and collection only, so I used ‘the bike and parts collection thread’ to see if any willing Retrobikers were local and could possibly save me a very long round trip, fortunately Jonnyboy666 was that man and did me a fantastic favour in collecting and posting the bike. What a fantastic place Retrobike can be thanks to people like Jon who give up their spare time without a second thought to help another Retrobiker.
I only wanted the frame so sold off the remainder to finance the build and cover my initial investment. The parts on the bike were of good quality and through selling off the bits I recouped close to £200, which after costs gave me a round a £60 profit, a few parts towards the build and a free frame!
This build was to be my big build of 2010, but it looks as though ‘Project No. 8’ was stolen its thunder. So for the time being this project is on hold. But to bring you totally up to date I’ll post up the completed frame and forks in a few moments.
Background:
In 1992 I got my first proper mountain bike, an alpinestars cro-mega LX in dazzling alpine white. It is the one bike that has stuck in my memory ever since and was indeed the reason I found Retrobike in the first instance. Like all mountain bikers back then I upgraded and changed the bikes spec at every opportunity my piggy bank allowed, thus removing the 500LX groupset and the standard alpinestars parts. Here’s a picture of it in 1993 sporting the latest Deore LX groupset, Tioga Power-Stud bar ends, Velo Jet titanium saddle, XT thumb shifters, XT brake levers and a mixed tyre selection of Smoke/Porc. It later went on the boast SPD’s, Local Motion saddle bag and other upgrades.
Project:
This project is going to take that thinking onto another level. I’m trying to get back into the mind of that 13 year old in 1992 and build my ultimate alpinestars cro-mega. I’m looking to build this into a stylish, period bike that bitd would have been my upgraded dream. Bling isn’t really my thing so simple retro elegance is the brief here. With my favourite era of mountain biking being ‘91 to ‘93, all the parts for this build will be sourced from this period with a few small exceptions. The bike will be a rider, as I’m not really one for garage queens. The parts will almost entirely be reconditioned with a few NOS parts where I’ve decided to ‘treat’ myself.
The bikes title is the ‘Alpinestars Cro-Mega EOS’. A strange name you might think? Why not a cro-mega XTR, or a cro-mega XC Pro, etc you might ask. Well back in 1991/92 alpinestars sold framesets separately so they could be built up into one off custom bikes to the customers specification, these were given the names of ‘ti-mega EOS’, ‘al-mega EOS’, etc at the factory and thus were decaled as such. ‘EOS’ being the abbreviation used by alpinestars to describe their ‘Elevated Oversize System’, a style of bike design that we know generically as the E-stay.
The project begins:
The spine of this project was bought this back in November from Ebay as a full bike. Ebay wasn’t working properly that night, you couldn’t search anything and Auction Watch was coming up with no results also. Luckily I was watching the bike on MyEbay, when I checked it had no bids and had just hours to go, so I made a bid of the minimum £100 and went to bed. Next morning I discovered I was the sole bidder and the bike was mine. Only one problem, the bike was in Southampton and collection only, so I used ‘the bike and parts collection thread’ to see if any willing Retrobikers were local and could possibly save me a very long round trip, fortunately Jonnyboy666 was that man and did me a fantastic favour in collecting and posting the bike. What a fantastic place Retrobike can be thanks to people like Jon who give up their spare time without a second thought to help another Retrobiker.
I only wanted the frame so sold off the remainder to finance the build and cover my initial investment. The parts on the bike were of good quality and through selling off the bits I recouped close to £200, which after costs gave me a round a £60 profit, a few parts towards the build and a free frame!
This build was to be my big build of 2010, but it looks as though ‘Project No. 8’ was stolen its thunder. So for the time being this project is on hold. But to bring you totally up to date I’ll post up the completed frame and forks in a few moments.
