The Late, Great Bontrager Race Lite

Since picking up the '94 Race (thread to come soon for that one) things have shuffled a bit. Having a Race and Race Lite of nearly the same vintage I decided I should go sort of weight weenie with the Race Lite so many of the parts intended for this build are now destined for the Race and I've gone a little off the rails collecting parts for this and the other 2 concurrent projects (the Race and the Merlin)

Some of the Suntour group is now going on the Race so I picked up some m900 for this Race Lite. I found an excellent shape cassette and NOS brake cables. The NOS shift cables I don't think are m900 but same grey casing so should match up nice. Still planning to use my 8speed XC Pro shifters though, I love them.

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Also found decent shape brakes/mechs. The pulleys have some play so these NOS Vueltas will go in to help freshen things up and a rollamajig because I think they're cool. Should(?) make a difference in shifting and clean up the rear mech cable at the very least.


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and then I lost all control and started collecting (more) Ti bits including some sweet brake posts courtesy of @synlos, hardware for the brake calipers, a mech hanger bolt and pulley bolts.

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A nice pair of 2nd gen Paul levers (thank you @viengsavanh ) turned up here in the classifieds and I gladly picked them up, Little "P" decal en route from Gil. The modern set I have on the OR are such a pleasure to use so I didn't really hesitate to grab these. Also from @synlos comes the cable hanger with a Ti ferrule ;D and I scored a NOS set of DKG Strongarms which aren't the lightest boosters but they are period correct enough (even though from a 20xx run the first was ~89 or so) were machined within a few miles of Santa Cruz and ought to look the business here.

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I lost a little patience trying to find the matching NOS Real middle 32t ring. There is/was a 34t on ebay but I'm not anywhere near desperate enough to pay the $100 . Profile racing has a bunch of NOS rings for $20 each so I picked up silver a 32t to use but then I started imagining a blacked out crankset to go with some of the other black bits coming in. I had these Tioga bolts and found a NOS 42t Shimano ring so I also picked up a pair of Profile Racing black inner/middle rings (the outer ring they offer I don't love.) The big ring doesn't want to sit perfectly aligned on the F type spider and looks like it's just barely hanging up on the crank arm so I'll need to file a tiny bit of the ring but they should come together looking as good as I'd hoped.

The silver Real/Profile ringset will go to a different crank and onto the Race.


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So it's gone a bit boutique but all of the CNC stuff (well the WTB hanger is repop but close enough) comes from the same area as the frame. The black Chris King headset does too and if I can find some Black CK 32h hubs I'll be nearly ready.
 
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Blimey, you're going all in on this one arent you! It's going to look fabulous.
Totally! It's gotten a bit silly this one but I'm pretty excited about where it's headed. Really can't wait to get it built and to finally ride it.

The Race will likely be finished first though so I really need to get that thread started.
 
finally worked up the courage to disassemble the rear mech.


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Everything got a thorough scrub with simple green and then some bits an overnight bath in evap-o-rust. All the pieces here with the new pulleys and Ti hanger/pulley bolts.


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and back together


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swweeeeet

massive thanks go to @ATBOY for his video(s), doubt I'd have managed to get it back together properly without that.
 
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Beautifull color. I would like to find me a medium race lite.... how much is a frame in good shape running these days?
Thanks PS. I lucked into this frame I think at $250 even with missing brake posts. I did help someone else find a complete Red catalog spec '97 Race Lite with the black crown red Judy and all the rest for a silly price... can't remember exactly but ~$500

If you want a hand finding one stateside I'm always on the prowl and happy to send one your way or even help collect and ship if it's in the LA area. Let me know. Or if you want a purple Race sz M, I'm probably going to let mine go...

I have a fork planned for this bike but I just had to mock up a bit and I can't believe how good it looks like this...

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That Igleheart is supposed to be married to the '88 Merlin but I'm having serious trouble unseeing this.
 

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