MuchAlohaNui
Senior Retro Guru
:Intro:
Aloha and mahalo for checking in.
This build has been a long time coming which started its journey about 12 years ago. Originally purchased as a frame only on evilBay and shipped across the entire continental United States and half way across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. To my amateur knowledge at the time and only armed with a handful of photos found online, I set out in building this bike. However, amateur-me didn't catch that in the late 90's Shimano kept the M950 looks to virtually all relevant XTR parts but had developed M952 Mega 9. In that, I ended up buying M950 parts exclusively. Also loooong after the fact if acquiring the frame and parts did I find an actual catalog spec sheet which clearly stated M952, doh! We're talking maybe 8 years later or so. You can't win them all.
Fast forward over a decade with this bike moving with me back and fourth around the world four times, this past Spring of 22' was time to do the bike more proper. This build has absolutely been a test of patience, ignorance, stupidity, learning, a finanical pit in some aspects, disappointments, a bit of frustration and hopefully soon, I'll experience some relief. Slowly the pieces have come together.
:Trials and Tribulations:
Up until late last Summer of 2022 I had everything but the 9-spd shifters. Examples for sale were either poorly cared for or the polar opposite- too expensive than what I wanted to pay. After searching nightly for four months, in November 22' I found a seller in Germany who had the brake/shifter units for a decent price, matching +/- a few euros of other sellers but his were in better condition. I paid and waited... and the parts never showed up; I got the shaft. I then turned to RetroBike members for help by placing a 'Wanted' listing. My wanted thread did garner a few responses, but every single member who had something for sale never followed up even though I was read to pay. This happened about six times. FINALLY two days before Christmas @The Bat contacted me who had a very nice pair of shifter pods and his price was very reasonable. We agreed on a price with shipping and he promptly mailed them out. He was outstanding to deal with.
I waited for the parts to arrive. January went by. We checked with each other on who had sight of the shifters. There was no movement. Perhaps they went MIA? DHL Germany for whatever reason never issued a Customs request for payment or notified me of the arrival of the package within Germany or even made an attempt to deliver in-person. The shifters sat for over a month in Southern Germany before DHL returned the package back to @The Bat in the UK. Strike two on the last parts I needed to finish this build. Maybe this build just wasn't meant to be? More time goes by and a few more members here reach out to my wanted thread asking if I want to buy their parts only to drop communication.
Similarly with the front derailleur I ran into buyer issues that spanned about six months as well. The first FD I bought on eBay, but the seller shipped me the wrong clamp size advertised as 34.9, but refused to honor the return. My second attempt was a purchase in Germany on Kleinanzeigen where the seller sent me the right size, but took pictures in such a way that didn't show one part of the parallelogram mechanism where a small component was broken. This hinge still kind of worked, but not smoothly. I pointed this out once I had the unit in-hand, but the seller also refused to honor the return even though he feigned this weird ignorance of 'yeah its clearly broken but I didn't catch that when I sold it to you so better luck next time, not my problem I've been paid'. I finally procured the THIRD one on eBay from a seller located in Spain and that went a-ok.
To briefly recap those two aspects; the FD and SL/BL's: the front derailleur has cost me about 300 euros and the shifters have cost me about 400 euros. These prices reflect the scams, wrong part sizes I am stuck with, and partial costs from donor bikes.
After searching daily, five different online platforms spanning the U.S. & Europe from early February just for the m952 shifter pods, a donor bike popped up last week which was located two hours drive away. The bike was upgraded from factory by the previous owner with Race Face, Shimano and Mavic components. I got the bike at a very fair price and yesterday stripped that sucker down to the frame. Thanks for the proper shifters, donor bike. This Schwinn build has taken buying a few spare parts here and there plus three donor bikes to get at the Titec Titanium bits and m952 shifters.
Is it catalog spec? Mmm...yeah? Depends on which catalog variant you are familiar with! At any rate, the finished build of this dramatic 1999 Yeti-built Schwinn Homegrown Factory Team has come to a close. Just in time for Spring and Summer to flog the papayas out of it.
:Build:
Frame: 1999 Schwinn Homegrown Factory Team - handmade by Yeti in Durango, CO. 7005 Easton Elite full-butted aluminum tubes, Epicenter Seat Stays, forged chainstay yoke, forged dropouts.
Fork: 1999 Rockshox SID SL, 80 mm
Headset: Cane Creek sealed-bearing alloy Ahead Set SID Blue 1-1/8"
Stem: Titec Titanium Fat Head, 0-degree, single-bolt
Stem Cap: Schwinn Homegrown
Handlebar: Titec Titanium, flat 6-degree
Grips: Lizard Skins MOAB
Barends: N/A
Brakes: Shimano XTR M950
Brake Pads: Shimano XTR M950
Brake Cables: Shimano XTR M950/ Dura Ace 7700 NOS
Cantilever cable hangers: N/A
Brake Levers: Shimano XTR M952
Shifters: Shimano XTR M952
Front Derailleur: Shimano XTR M952, 34.9 mm
Rear Derailleur: Shimano XTR M952 SGS
Derailleur Cables: Shimano XTR M950/ Dura Ace 7700 NOS
Cassette: Shimano XTR M952 12-34
Chain: Dura Ace CN7700
Cranks: Shimano XTR M952, 175 mm
Crank Bolts: Shimano XTR M952
Chainrings: Shimano XTR M952, 46/34/24T
Chainring bolts: Shimano XTR M950
Bottom Bracket: Shimano XTR M952
Pedals: Time ATAC Alium Clipless
Hub Skewers: Shimano XTR M950
Rims: Mavic X517 SUP, 32H
Hubs: Shimano XTR M950
Nipples: DT Swiss Alloy
Spokes: DT Revolution 15/17 gauge SS, straight (0x) laced
Tyres: Michelin Wildgripper Sprint, 26 x 1.95
Tubes: Michelin
Saddle: Giro Fizik Titanium
Seatpost: Titec Titanium Micro Adjust
Seatpost Binder: USA Alloy
Extras: Lizard Skins chainstay protector, black anodized cable ends, purple anodized valve caps, yellow Avid brake cable sweepers, Bontrager/Titec bar-end caps (original), decals that were not clear coated have been removed.
Weight: 11 kg
Aloha and mahalo for checking in.
This build has been a long time coming which started its journey about 12 years ago. Originally purchased as a frame only on evilBay and shipped across the entire continental United States and half way across the Pacific Ocean to Hawaii. To my amateur knowledge at the time and only armed with a handful of photos found online, I set out in building this bike. However, amateur-me didn't catch that in the late 90's Shimano kept the M950 looks to virtually all relevant XTR parts but had developed M952 Mega 9. In that, I ended up buying M950 parts exclusively. Also loooong after the fact if acquiring the frame and parts did I find an actual catalog spec sheet which clearly stated M952, doh! We're talking maybe 8 years later or so. You can't win them all.
Fast forward over a decade with this bike moving with me back and fourth around the world four times, this past Spring of 22' was time to do the bike more proper. This build has absolutely been a test of patience, ignorance, stupidity, learning, a finanical pit in some aspects, disappointments, a bit of frustration and hopefully soon, I'll experience some relief. Slowly the pieces have come together.
:Trials and Tribulations:
Up until late last Summer of 2022 I had everything but the 9-spd shifters. Examples for sale were either poorly cared for or the polar opposite- too expensive than what I wanted to pay. After searching nightly for four months, in November 22' I found a seller in Germany who had the brake/shifter units for a decent price, matching +/- a few euros of other sellers but his were in better condition. I paid and waited... and the parts never showed up; I got the shaft. I then turned to RetroBike members for help by placing a 'Wanted' listing. My wanted thread did garner a few responses, but every single member who had something for sale never followed up even though I was read to pay. This happened about six times. FINALLY two days before Christmas @The Bat contacted me who had a very nice pair of shifter pods and his price was very reasonable. We agreed on a price with shipping and he promptly mailed them out. He was outstanding to deal with.
I waited for the parts to arrive. January went by. We checked with each other on who had sight of the shifters. There was no movement. Perhaps they went MIA? DHL Germany for whatever reason never issued a Customs request for payment or notified me of the arrival of the package within Germany or even made an attempt to deliver in-person. The shifters sat for over a month in Southern Germany before DHL returned the package back to @The Bat in the UK. Strike two on the last parts I needed to finish this build. Maybe this build just wasn't meant to be? More time goes by and a few more members here reach out to my wanted thread asking if I want to buy their parts only to drop communication.
Similarly with the front derailleur I ran into buyer issues that spanned about six months as well. The first FD I bought on eBay, but the seller shipped me the wrong clamp size advertised as 34.9, but refused to honor the return. My second attempt was a purchase in Germany on Kleinanzeigen where the seller sent me the right size, but took pictures in such a way that didn't show one part of the parallelogram mechanism where a small component was broken. This hinge still kind of worked, but not smoothly. I pointed this out once I had the unit in-hand, but the seller also refused to honor the return even though he feigned this weird ignorance of 'yeah its clearly broken but I didn't catch that when I sold it to you so better luck next time, not my problem I've been paid'. I finally procured the THIRD one on eBay from a seller located in Spain and that went a-ok.
To briefly recap those two aspects; the FD and SL/BL's: the front derailleur has cost me about 300 euros and the shifters have cost me about 400 euros. These prices reflect the scams, wrong part sizes I am stuck with, and partial costs from donor bikes.
After searching daily, five different online platforms spanning the U.S. & Europe from early February just for the m952 shifter pods, a donor bike popped up last week which was located two hours drive away. The bike was upgraded from factory by the previous owner with Race Face, Shimano and Mavic components. I got the bike at a very fair price and yesterday stripped that sucker down to the frame. Thanks for the proper shifters, donor bike. This Schwinn build has taken buying a few spare parts here and there plus three donor bikes to get at the Titec Titanium bits and m952 shifters.
Is it catalog spec? Mmm...yeah? Depends on which catalog variant you are familiar with! At any rate, the finished build of this dramatic 1999 Yeti-built Schwinn Homegrown Factory Team has come to a close. Just in time for Spring and Summer to flog the papayas out of it.
:Build:
Frame: 1999 Schwinn Homegrown Factory Team - handmade by Yeti in Durango, CO. 7005 Easton Elite full-butted aluminum tubes, Epicenter Seat Stays, forged chainstay yoke, forged dropouts.
Fork: 1999 Rockshox SID SL, 80 mm
Headset: Cane Creek sealed-bearing alloy Ahead Set SID Blue 1-1/8"
Stem: Titec Titanium Fat Head, 0-degree, single-bolt
Stem Cap: Schwinn Homegrown
Handlebar: Titec Titanium, flat 6-degree
Grips: Lizard Skins MOAB
Barends: N/A
Brakes: Shimano XTR M950
Brake Pads: Shimano XTR M950
Brake Cables: Shimano XTR M950/ Dura Ace 7700 NOS
Cantilever cable hangers: N/A
Brake Levers: Shimano XTR M952
Shifters: Shimano XTR M952
Front Derailleur: Shimano XTR M952, 34.9 mm
Rear Derailleur: Shimano XTR M952 SGS
Derailleur Cables: Shimano XTR M950/ Dura Ace 7700 NOS
Cassette: Shimano XTR M952 12-34
Chain: Dura Ace CN7700
Cranks: Shimano XTR M952, 175 mm
Crank Bolts: Shimano XTR M952
Chainrings: Shimano XTR M952, 46/34/24T
Chainring bolts: Shimano XTR M950
Bottom Bracket: Shimano XTR M952
Pedals: Time ATAC Alium Clipless
Hub Skewers: Shimano XTR M950
Rims: Mavic X517 SUP, 32H
Hubs: Shimano XTR M950
Nipples: DT Swiss Alloy
Spokes: DT Revolution 15/17 gauge SS, straight (0x) laced
Tyres: Michelin Wildgripper Sprint, 26 x 1.95
Tubes: Michelin
Saddle: Giro Fizik Titanium
Seatpost: Titec Titanium Micro Adjust
Seatpost Binder: USA Alloy
Extras: Lizard Skins chainstay protector, black anodized cable ends, purple anodized valve caps, yellow Avid brake cable sweepers, Bontrager/Titec bar-end caps (original), decals that were not clear coated have been removed.
Weight: 11 kg
very nice. Always wanted to try one of the frames when they first came out.
