The Late, Great Bontrager Race Lite

[slackboy]

You are welcome, nice picture. I'm frankly amazed that it was delivered so quickly.

 

[br0qn]

Love that perf Ti saddle! Yeah, keep me posted.

About the fork legs....I have a ton of Mag 21 parts, and if you're serious about the silver ones I might have something. Mag 21s came in 3 main colors: the original dark gold, a lighter champagne gold, and a grey/silver color. Not sure which one you're looking for: the champagne or the grey/silver. The grey/silver legs I have are up for grabs, but they may not be usable. When I disassembled them, the bushings and springs stayed inside the legs, but the stanchions came out. I can't figure out for the life of me how to get the bushings out. They're yours if you want....maybe you can figure out how to get the bushings out. The brace that came with it is black, not silver.

The champagne set I was going to send to Dave Wilkins to repaint for a Klein build I'm doing. But since I'm repainting, I don't really care what fork legs I use. If you want to swap for them I could probably be convinced, especially if it would help you out in your search and build. I would need a comparable set....as long as no structural damage.

I did end up PMing you a few saddle links. The perf is a unicorn but my fingers are crossed.

The edges of the decals on the bike are silver so the silver/grey legs (not champagne) are what I wish I had for a better match. These forks (and all things bicycle frankly) are new to me so I know nothing about them other than parts to rebuild are hard to come by. I found seals here but wipers don't seem to be available.

As for the springs & bushings, does this video help at all? I know that's a quadra and elastomer but maybe? Or are bushings and springs stuck in the legs not the stanchions? Maybe this video is helpful.

I did find a silver paint mag 21 on the bay right now but it's not cheap and I don't need another one, mine functions and has the right crown...it's just not silver. Maybe shoot me a photo of the legs? In any case, thank you for the kind offers.

Not unrelated, I also, found this guy with a trick little mod to convert to single leg air sprung and do away with the pump fill.

You are welcome, nice picture. I'm frankly amazed that it was delivered so quickly.

Thanks and ya, you'd have though it was a turbo saddle

 

[Elfman]

We'll, I think you already have a frankenfork....your lowers are from a Mag21 SL. The Mag21s were painted, while the Mag21 SLs used a tinted clear coat over the polished magnesium lowers. The clear coat was not effective at staving off the oxidation of the magnesium, so pretty much every SL has a "cancer" beneath the clear coat, resulting in either uniform dark patina on the legs (like yours) or irregular worm traces of oxidation. If you want to repaint yours, and you strip the old finish, I wouldn't wait long before putting the primer and paint on. Don't let the raw magnesium interact with the atmosphere long.

The videos you linked are for the quadras, like you said, and the internals and disassembly process is completely different than for Mag21s. You need the right tools (or an air compressor and some cojones) to release the stanchions from the lowers. The stanchions usually pop out with all the bushings and other odds and ends still attached. For whatever reason, on mine everything that encircles the stanchions stuck to the inside of the lowers, but the stanchions themselves came out. Like I said, if you think you can get the bushings out, you're welcome to these silver lowers.

My recommendation would be to paint your lowers. Mask off the stanchions and crown, find a good silver rattle can,vget some new decals, and go to town!

 

[br0qn]

It is franken, but only the bontrager crown onto the SL legs. As far as I know, the SL legs are no different than the others so the only thing gained, I believe, would be black anodizing and less offset ala the bontrager crown. That doesn't consider any generational changes that might be going on inside the fork, I don't know near enough about that out or what, if any, benefit would have become of such a swap. I do mean it would be nice to get the other benefits of the SL, namely the lightweight alloy steerer. I don't know exactly how difficult it would be to either find one and have it mated to this crown or have a custom one made and fitted, like your long lost fork, but it's something I may eventually explore after this bike is up an rolling. Also maybe it's just quite a lot of work and money to gain (actually lose) a small amount of offset when it would almost certainly be easier/cheaper to find an SL...though it wouldn't be silver would it...

The videos you linked are for the quadras, like you said, and the internals and disassembly process is completely different than for Mag21s. You need the right tools (or an air compressor and some cojones) to release the stanchions from the lowers. The stanchions usually pop out with all the bushings and other odds and ends still attached. For whatever reason, on mine everything that encircles the stanchions stuck to the inside of the lowers, but the stanchions themselves came out. Like I said, if you think you can get the bushings out, you're welcome to these silver lowers.

Right, figured as much.

Back to your jones hunt, is your front tire black walled? Just so I know what to keep an eye out for.

 

[benjabbi]

The SL crown has a bit of extra machining on the bottom to shave a few grams and is polished, for 1" threaded, the steerer would still be steel, alloy would end up with too thin walls for strength and threading an alloy steerer is generally accepted as a no go. Basically your Bontrager crown is as good as it will get! I've had steerers swapped in Rockshox crowns and it's not a problem but not really worth it in this case.

 

[Elfman]

It is franken, but only the bontrager crown onto the SL legs. As far as I know, the SL legs are no different than the others so the only thing gained, I believe, would be black anodizing and less offset ala the bontrager crown. That doesn't consider any generational changes that might be going on inside the fork, I don't know near enough about that out or what, if any, benefit would have become of such a swap. I do mean it would be nice to get the other benefits of the SL, namely the lightweight alloy steerer. I don't know exactly how difficult it would be to either find one and have it mated to this crown or have a custom one made and fitted, like your long lost fork, but it's something I may eventually explore after this bike is up an rolling. Also maybe it's just quite a lot of work and money to gain (actually lose) a small amount of offset when it would almost certainly be easier/cheaper to find an SL...though it wouldn't be silver would it...



Right, figured as much.

Back to your jones hunt, is your front tire black walled? Just so I know what to keep an eye out for.

My front Jones tire is skinwall.

 

[br0qn]

... but not really worth it in this case.

that's a relief! Thanks for clearing that up.

 

[Elfman]

that's a relief! Thanks for clearing that up.

that's a relief! Thanks for clearing that up.

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Love those rims and that photo! Are yours the ceramic versions?

How do you take those photos with the greyed out background? Looks really cool.

 

[br0qn]

Love those rims and that photo! Are yours the ceramic versions?

How do you take those photos with the greyed out background? Looks really cool.

No, not the ceramic like yours. Yours are even nicer! Hope you soon show them to us laced to your white industries hubs you did that nice work on. I got lucky snagging these from two different sellers on ebay. One had a bad photo and looked like it was a bright silver finish so I was a little uneasy about them matching. Thankfully they're perfect.

The first pics of the frame were with a cell phone which I loathe. I'm holding off starting another thread for the early OR/black bike until I can get some ok photos. All of these with the black background I shot with an old Ricoh digital camera with one of two lenses. The background is just a pelican hardcase and I used window light. Time of day is everything, some shots are better than others.

Really glad you like the photos, thanks for saying so. It's an old hobby that I put down for 10+ years and am recently enjoying it again.

 

[Oldskool26er]

Also has the original collar with the cut tire tube protector

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and some cool stickers

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yep

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I forget what year the change was made but the tail of the earlier wishbones was open and not closed like this one is

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You can see mine is missing the brake studs which is really the only bummer. They were made removeable to be easily replaceable should one get bent or damaged. I love this kind of thinking.

I don't think it was really ever ridden

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Nice find....to hell with the people that look down on post trek race and or race lites. It's a known fact that ALL race and race lites we're still made at Keith's shop in Santa Cruz right to the last one and, if Keith had access to the one piece tapered seat tubes from the start all race and race lites would have had them as you mentioned....