1992 BikeTech Hikari team rebuild

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Btw. the pictures taken above all were taken after I had cleaned the frame with soap/water and then even brake cleaner spray. :facepalm:

I had to use paint thinner to get rid of all those "spots". But only a fast sweep. Nasty stuff! But it smoothed out some scratches, too. :roll:

After touch up, waxing and a lot of elbow grease here is the final result. But bear in mind I took those pics deliberately from its best side. :mrgreen:





Really astonishing, how a good camera can mess with reality :LOL:
I can asure you all, the frame look much worse when you see it with you own eyes.

Now time to throw a few parts at it, finally.
 
Re: BikeTech Hikari rebuild

Next I was experimenting with some parts, trying to figure out where to go with the build. I did not like the blue tires. Nor did I like the Spesh FSX fork. After trying a golden Mag21, carbon FSX, golden Judys, I threw on - just for fun - this olde RST:

Oh, oops! - red is actually looking good!
Not _that_ fork, but i decided red would be the way, I wanted to go.
 
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Another decision, that had do be made, was the choice of parts. As I had just sold the XT crank, that had been on that bike (got 50 € for it, thats what I payed for the whole bike :D ) I thought I would try those Syncros cranks as seen in the pic above. I gave them a quick polish and I think they're looking good. But now which derailleur should I use, that fits the look of the crank? rd-m900 would surely be nice, but I did not have a spare one at that moment. So I was thinking XT might do it. Searching through my drawers I found this poor fella:

Kind of fits the theme of the frame. Had worked quite a lot in its past life. Time to bring it back on the road again.

A few hours later:

Ahh, much better. And perfectly fits the look of the polished Syncros cranks.
 
Here is the brakes: XT black. Suits the fram nice, I think. And a little drop of color.


:D

Rust in the screw - well, I did not notice it until I saw it in the picture. :facepalm:
removed it now.
 
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My next step was to find a suitable fork in red...


No success. :roll:
Looks like a chopper, somehow...
But I don't have a better alternative yet. An the sun is shining...

So I took some shorter springs, some plastic reducer rings (quite a few actually :LOL: )
and travelled down the "Judy long travel" down to 4cm :facepalm:



Jea. I did that. It looks odd, but it works. So I guess, I'll stick to that until I find something better. Has to be red though. :mrgreen:
 
I had to wait 3 weeks for a new chain I to arrive. I had ordered it along with some other bits (cables, cableends, grips...) at a bike shop. I really started getting angry about the delay. They had my money after one day but they delayed the shipment because one 2,50€ part of my 100€ order was out of stock... I had to contact them an and request a partial delivery. (The rest did not arrive untik today, its over one month later... :roll: ) Why do such things always happen, when the weather is fine and you desperately wait to get the bike done?

But finally the parts arrived and I had the opportunity to flick a quick round about the woods for a first test:



Was fun, but I wasn't satified with the handling. Steering was kind of odd. Heavy feeling to twist the handlebar back to straight position. I prefer a more neutral feel.

So I messed around with different steerer configurations. Was not able to test them, because the weather got messy. Up until last weekend.
Little tour with the kids:

Even found myself a nice colored wall:


So this is how the bike is looking today. Steering is much better like that. But I dont like the look. The handlebar should be black and straight. I will try different stems to get the (steerer) feeling it now has while using a better looking bar.

Oh, and I need a Flite...

As usually, the project is 95% finished and the last 5% will take me forever. :roll:

What do you guys think?
 
Just my two pence. With that much steerer and that low angle on the seat, I can't imagine that's a particular comfortable riding position which would add to the wonky feeling when you steer. I'm not entirely convinced by the forks either, I doubt they are helping too much.
 
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Of you need the height at the front, look for a flat swept back bar.the bars look odd on long and low stems to me. It's like saying I couldn't be bothered to find the correct stem. Shorter a higher rise and even shorter.
You should be able to run the forks at 50mm and possibly 60mm without looking out of place as well, so reducing the need for such a high front end.
 
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