Raleigh M-Trax 1500 - Bitsa build!

[sherlylock]

So....a few years back I got given this frame - a Raleigh M-Trax 1500 from around 1994/1995, because the previous owner couldn't get the knackered bottom bracket out. It's nowt particularly special (Reynolds k2 cro-mo frame) but it was free so I took it on, managed to remove the BB and built it up using the groupset off my old '93 Marin Bear Valley (which died from a damaged frame!) and got it on the road for a year or so. I painted it really badly too - nice hand-painted hammerite

Fast forward to this year and I completed the London to Southend bikeride on it after a few years of it being stored in the shed - everthing seemed to work as it should. However I ended up buying another bike soon after - which is now my commuter - so this frame is once again redundant.

Itching to do some sort of rebuild I thought I'd attack the frame and build it up into a clean & simple bike using all the bits out of my expanding bits box......with a white/black theme. I've just got the frame back from the powdercoaters and I'm now starting to build it up.....pics to follow

Here's the frame, freshly removed of components and awaiting the powdercoaters.....

 

[sherlylock]

Been searching around to try and find out more info on the 1500 MTrax and to confirm what year it is but I'm struggling to find any info on it......presumably it was a bit crap?

Anyway this is the style of graphics that the frame had, apart from it was 1500 and in purple/silver 2 tone paint (found this image whilst searching the forum - apologies if it's your bike....).

Anyone know what year this is? The only info I can find is the 1995 MTrax brochure but the graphics are slightly different.....so I'm guessing '94?

 

[sherlylock]

....and here it is this morning, post-powdercoating.

All I've done so far is to install the bottom bracket (and put the headtube badge on!)

The quality of the powdercoating is pretty good..... It cost me £30 at a local engineering firm that we work with occasionally and for the money it's not a bad job!

So - now starts the fun bit of sourcing a few bits and pieces and cleaning up all the spare bits that I already have.........

 

[KermitGKona88]

That looks like it is going to be very nice are you sticking with the black and white theme or putting some more colour in :?:

 

[coomber]

Powdercoat looks good!

 

[sherlylock]

That looks like it is going to be very nice are you sticking with the black and white theme or putting some more colour in :?:

Was thinking predominantly white/black but I might add a few coloured highlights in......just not sure where yet. Will continue to have a browse around the site for some inspiration!

 

[sherlylock]

Powdercoat looks good!

Thanks! It's certainly not an A1 perfect job but for £30 it'll do nicely! Not sure what the going rate is for a top quality powdercoat job on a bike frame?

 

[sherlylock]

I've been playing around with graphics to go on the MTrax frame - bit of searching on the forum and on eBay and a few other sites has got me most of the images suitable for a 94 M-TRAX 1500 (although I struggled until recently to find the "1500" font)

I've drawn up the decals in an artwork package ready for printing so I thought I'd print out a set on paper just to check sizes and font styles actually on the frame (blu-tacked in place!) before committing to getting them made.....

I've decided to go for the later fork graphic (rather than the M T R A X running vertically down the fork legs) and just go for the seat tube and downtube graphics - the original had a crosstube graphic "cro-moly" too I think.

 

[sherlylock]

Looking a bit more like a bike now - wheels bought from Foz (cheers!) turned up this week and are a great match for what I had in mind for the style of the bike. I wanted to go for dark wheels to complement the white frame and these also have the bronze-ish colour hubs to match the STX cantis that I'm using - perfect! Also the spare Fatboy and the "recently acquired from eBay" Fatboy slicks are on the rims......just need to pick up the inner tubes for these tonight.

Single-speed tensioner is ready to go (cheers MikeyS)......just need to source the single speed cog/spacers for the rear wheel.

 

[sherlylock]

Been buying the odd little bits to get the bike back on the road in it's single-speed guise.....cheap ebay riser stem turned up last week so the handle bars/brake levers are on. Chain is on with the tensioner.....the cassette is still on in these pics but I've since fitted a 16t single speed kit, bought off the forum (cheers Ken!). STX canti brakes and new cables have also been fitted. Will update with latest pics when I remember to bring my camera into work.....! Just need a black (tall, 27dia) seatpost and a decent saddle to finish off.....oh and some graphics printed up.