Silverfish 1992 Another Yeti ARC

[Silverfish]

I LOVE building ARC’s.

Picked this one up a few months back. Was collecting another bike and asked the guy if he had any other retro bits kicking about. Turns out he had an ARC, some Ringle bits and some wheels. Always worth checking and one of the reasons I generally prefer to collect rather than get stuff posted.

It’s super clean - remarkably so. But it’s a 92 and inevitably it’s cracked. Not badly though so I’m pretty sure either FTW or Dan can work their magic on this and it only needs a repair rather than a a replacement HT. ST is absolutely fine. Actually bought this ARC because I knew someone who was looking for one and I figured this would have been perfect for them, but the timing wasn’t right for them so I decided to keep it, do another ARC build, rescue it myself and avoid 3DV.

It’s quite an early ARC - I need to dig the serial number out. Was on display in Bromley Bike for a long time in 92 - then bought early 93. The guy also had a FRO. He said the frame is exactly as he bought it so it looks like Yeti/Bromley were selling some custom painted ARC’s back then - it’s got the painters name on there so will update when I get it back.

This is how I received it.

 

[Silverfish]

Bike is currently with Dan Chambers for the HT repair.
Then will need to go to Al at FatCreations to get the HT repainted.

But I’ve already started pulling some bits together. I think I’m going to go classic black with this one…

 

[7Speed]

Lovely - but that’s one hell of a HT crack. How do you repair/mend that? Do you replace the whole tube or do some clever welding and filing? Asking out of genuine interest as not that experienced with Alu repairs.

 

[Silverfish]

Clever welding on this occasion, tho you can also replace the HT if you wanted to. I wanted to keep it original so was keen to repair rather than replace. I’ll share some pics at some point

 

[27motorhead]

Bromley Bike Co. became my local bike shop in 1994 as I went to college in Chislehurst just down the road. That bike shop had so many amazing trick bits and bikes (it was also Evolution Imports) and none other than Dave Hemming was spannering there for a while. Was always funny seeing the mechanics bombing around urban roads in Greater London on these Durango built Yeti's... seemed really out of place, but super cool.

 

[7Speed]

I think they had a shop in Gravesend? Maybe it was someone else. My first look at a FRO was in that shop window.

 

[Silverfish]

So Dan has worked his magic

We wanted to ‘save’ the headtube - and avoid interfering with the TT/ST/HT weld junction.

Looks like we managed it

Dan stripped the paint, apparently there was some seriously solid primer under there
He then traced the cracks, v-cut, prepped, welded and finished.

Now it’s off to Al at FatCreations for some touch up work.

 

[Bike Hoarder]

That was a hell of a crack!

 

[Rog]

So Dan has worked his magic

We wanted to ‘save’ the headtube - and avoid interfering with the TT/ST/HT weld junction.

Looks like we managed it

Dan stripped the paint, apparently there was some seriously solid primer under there
He then traced the cracks, v-cut, prepped, welded and finished.

Now it’s off to Al at FatCreations for some touch up work.

Dan to the rescue once again!

 

[racer x]

Was that the magic of King headsets lol looks like a nice welding job