Ten year ambition finally completed, Tout Mavic Pace
- Thread starter Rich
- Start date
Rod_Saetan
Old School Grand Master
- Feedback
- View
Zut alors!
Re:
So okay, the journey for me and my Pace started a long time ago, further than ten years, spin back the clock to 1990, my buddy was a work horse, and at 15, managed to save enough money from his paid job to buy himself a Pace RC100 with Suntour goodness. That bike was awesome and he guarded it like a jealous lover. Still, we were friends enough for him to let me have a go on it around the paddock. There was this steep section there which I thought I'd give a go up. Blimey, that bike could climb, much better than the Trek 970 I had at the time lol.
From then on, I always wanted a Pace. I spent many times watching my MTB videos of the National Series watching riders like Richard Thackray and Steve Worland aboard their bikes, never really thinking I'd ever get one (I was a Trek head at the time anyway) so for the meantime anyway it was s pipe dream.
Speed forward a few years to 2005. I was married and living in Kent. I still had my Trek 8500 which I'd purchased in 1991 after some theiving git had nicked my 970. We were emigrating to New Zealand and needed some extra cash. I'd purchased a Kona Hei Hei whilst at Uni and sold it for extra funds. For some reason I knew my Trek was no longer doing it for me and I'd discovered a crack in the chainstay which ended its long life.
eBay was my go to and I got scanning the classifieds for something relatively cheap that wasn't going to break the bank. I saw this Pace frameset on there, painted a fairly grubby mustard yellow colour, it came with the Pace stem/steerer, a pair of RC35's and a Mavic front mech.
I put a punt on the frameset and got it for £220.
It arrived a short time later and I had some spare bits which I chucked on. I noticed that there was a hole in the Monostay on the back of thd bike which was threaded. Some research revealed I had one of the first F1 framesets, quite rare apparently only 50 odd framesets having been made.
The bike was awesome, a new set of elastomers and I was set. We emigrated to NZ, the bike needed a resort, of course the only paint scheme I could come up with was Pink. The legend and RIP Ross Bee painted her up, probably the only Pink Pace in existence at the time, it looked wicked.
A few more years down the line, the bike gained a crack in the seatpost junction, gutted...but luckily the aluminium used by Pace and their heat treating process meant it could be re welded, woohoo!! This meant sadly that the Pink had to go, and a more conservative White was adorned on her.
I'd been thinking a while about the Groupset on the bike, it had a mixture of Mavic, Shimano and UK bits (xlite etc). It was at this stage I became a little obsessed about Mavic kit. I'd had the front mech already and then scored a rear mech. Dibby on here was kind enough to send me a set of under bar shifters which are very cool by the way and I scored a Macic chainset incredibly cheaply off eBay. All that remained was the Seatpost. It took the best part of five years sourcing one in 27.0, there just weren't any out there. I eventually located one in the UK, road length, but again, a little research and when it arrived I spoke to a local fabricator about the possibility of increasing the length of the post with some sort of extension. I had a custom made billet of the correct external and internal ID made, 100mm inserted inside and industrial glued into place and 150mm external making the post 350mm overall. Never been a problem and IMO the best part of the bike. More recently I scored the pedals and a Rholoff chain which topped off the bike along with a set of Magura brakes.
Phew, well that's it folks as they say, nothing more I can do with her, an age of taking bits off and putting bits on, yellow, pink and white, have to think of another colour now lol
Thanks for reading, onto my next obsession
Rich
So okay, the journey for me and my Pace started a long time ago, further than ten years, spin back the clock to 1990, my buddy was a work horse, and at 15, managed to save enough money from his paid job to buy himself a Pace RC100 with Suntour goodness. That bike was awesome and he guarded it like a jealous lover. Still, we were friends enough for him to let me have a go on it around the paddock. There was this steep section there which I thought I'd give a go up. Blimey, that bike could climb, much better than the Trek 970 I had at the time lol.
From then on, I always wanted a Pace. I spent many times watching my MTB videos of the National Series watching riders like Richard Thackray and Steve Worland aboard their bikes, never really thinking I'd ever get one (I was a Trek head at the time anyway) so for the meantime anyway it was s pipe dream.
Speed forward a few years to 2005. I was married and living in Kent. I still had my Trek 8500 which I'd purchased in 1991 after some theiving git had nicked my 970. We were emigrating to New Zealand and needed some extra cash. I'd purchased a Kona Hei Hei whilst at Uni and sold it for extra funds. For some reason I knew my Trek was no longer doing it for me and I'd discovered a crack in the chainstay which ended its long life.
eBay was my go to and I got scanning the classifieds for something relatively cheap that wasn't going to break the bank. I saw this Pace frameset on there, painted a fairly grubby mustard yellow colour, it came with the Pace stem/steerer, a pair of RC35's and a Mavic front mech.
I put a punt on the frameset and got it for £220.
It arrived a short time later and I had some spare bits which I chucked on. I noticed that there was a hole in the Monostay on the back of thd bike which was threaded. Some research revealed I had one of the first F1 framesets, quite rare apparently only 50 odd framesets having been made.
The bike was awesome, a new set of elastomers and I was set. We emigrated to NZ, the bike needed a resort, of course the only paint scheme I could come up with was Pink. The legend and RIP Ross Bee painted her up, probably the only Pink Pace in existence at the time, it looked wicked.
A few more years down the line, the bike gained a crack in the seatpost junction, gutted...but luckily the aluminium used by Pace and their heat treating process meant it could be re welded, woohoo!! This meant sadly that the Pink had to go, and a more conservative White was adorned on her.
I'd been thinking a while about the Groupset on the bike, it had a mixture of Mavic, Shimano and UK bits (xlite etc). It was at this stage I became a little obsessed about Mavic kit. I'd had the front mech already and then scored a rear mech. Dibby on here was kind enough to send me a set of under bar shifters which are very cool by the way and I scored a Macic chainset incredibly cheaply off eBay. All that remained was the Seatpost. It took the best part of five years sourcing one in 27.0, there just weren't any out there. I eventually located one in the UK, road length, but again, a little research and when it arrived I spoke to a local fabricator about the possibility of increasing the length of the post with some sort of extension. I had a custom made billet of the correct external and internal ID made, 100mm inserted inside and industrial glued into place and 150mm external making the post 350mm overall. Never been a problem and IMO the best part of the bike. More recently I scored the pedals and a Rholoff chain which topped off the bike along with a set of Magura brakes.
Phew, well that's it folks as they say, nothing more I can do with her, an age of taking bits off and putting bits on, yellow, pink and white, have to think of another colour now lol
Thanks for reading, onto my next obsession
Rich
xxnick1975
Old School Grand Master
- Feedback
- View
fantastic, i remember the thread about the seat post
but come on 10 years and only 2 pictures!!! We want more
but come on 10 years and only 2 pictures!!! We want more
