Dr Dremel
Fat Chance Fan
Hi there,
I´m very new to the forum, although it helped me out a lot of times during the last years with the wealth of knowledge to be found here. I´m not new into old MTBs (in fact I remember them being "new") but only recently got my hands on one of my dream frames, a ´90 Merlin Mountain. It´s in ok shape, but does need some love. Hopefully some Merlin experts are able to help me out.
Firstly, it had a 26,9mm seat post mounted and is clearly a bit mushed around the clamping area :evil: . Thankfully no cracks to be found. My thinking is to ream out the top area of the seat tube to the correct 27,2mm diameter (it´s meaty up there) and do some careful filing to get the gaps straight again, and not just pry back the opening. Any better advice?
Second evidence of one of the previous owners being careless, the rear axle spacing as it sits now is at 132mm. So what would be the correct spacing, 130 or 135mm? I´m not going to try and realign, I just want to mount a hub with the correct width and otherwise leave it as is. As far as I can measure the stays appear to be symmetrical. Frame number is #29XX, indicating a 1990 frame (straight stays, rear canti brake).
And lastly, I measured the bottom steerer tube to be 29,9mm inner diameter. Does that mean it´s JIS standard? Weird as the original Ritchey fork has 26,4mm crown race diameter, indicating ISO. I have a matching crown race, but the bottom headsets cups I have on hand (Suntour XC Pro, Campa) measure 30,1- 30,2mm. That´s more interference and less fit than I like! My idea was to chuck a cup in the lathe and take it down to around 29,95mm. Again, any other advice is very welcome!
Cheers
Dr
I´m very new to the forum, although it helped me out a lot of times during the last years with the wealth of knowledge to be found here. I´m not new into old MTBs (in fact I remember them being "new") but only recently got my hands on one of my dream frames, a ´90 Merlin Mountain. It´s in ok shape, but does need some love. Hopefully some Merlin experts are able to help me out.
Firstly, it had a 26,9mm seat post mounted and is clearly a bit mushed around the clamping area :evil: . Thankfully no cracks to be found. My thinking is to ream out the top area of the seat tube to the correct 27,2mm diameter (it´s meaty up there) and do some careful filing to get the gaps straight again, and not just pry back the opening. Any better advice?
Second evidence of one of the previous owners being careless, the rear axle spacing as it sits now is at 132mm. So what would be the correct spacing, 130 or 135mm? I´m not going to try and realign, I just want to mount a hub with the correct width and otherwise leave it as is. As far as I can measure the stays appear to be symmetrical. Frame number is #29XX, indicating a 1990 frame (straight stays, rear canti brake).
And lastly, I measured the bottom steerer tube to be 29,9mm inner diameter. Does that mean it´s JIS standard? Weird as the original Ritchey fork has 26,4mm crown race diameter, indicating ISO. I have a matching crown race, but the bottom headsets cups I have on hand (Suntour XC Pro, Campa) measure 30,1- 30,2mm. That´s more interference and less fit than I like! My idea was to chuck a cup in the lathe and take it down to around 29,95mm. Again, any other advice is very welcome!
Cheers
Dr