1997 Amp Research B4 Mercedes Benz

I started doing some maintenance on my Amp MB4 the other day and realized I might as well just tear it down and get on with pimping it out. This is wear you come in my fellow retro dreamers! What sorts of mods would you do to this bike??

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

The first two photos were taken when I got this bike in February 1997;


I loved this bike! It was my first fully, it performed really well and was crazy light for a '97 full floater.
I used to enjoy rebuilding the rear shock weekly, it made me feel like I was an F1 mechanic! Amp owners need lots of spares;


Back then I was all about cutting edge technology so a couple seasons later I built this;


Shortly after, I sold my Amp to a friend who was a machinist turned bike shop owner. He hung it in the front window for all to admire.

Fast forward 12 years and 30 bikes; I found an old bike behind a garbage can and drug it home because it looked cool;
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0
After a weeks research and finding you lot, I was hooked to the Retro intravenous. I had a great time rebuilding that bike last winter but, It didn't have much personal appeal to me. Bitd, I though they were a bit of a joke. All that extra weight for an inch of elastomer travel. No thanks.
This summer I was struggling with the notion of what retro monkey business I'd get up to over the winter. I wanted something with personal meaning, a rider and something I would want to keep. One evening on my group ride a mate says; Hey? You ever seen one of those old Mercedes Benz bikes? Ding-ding-ding, there it was. 1 phone call and 2 days later my bike was back home.
Rescued from its wall;

What about a colour change?
Based on the Mercedes F1 team?



Or the Mclaren Mercedes?

I will change the colors somewhat but, I'm leaving the front triangle the stock blue. I like the color and it's in mint condition.

So I've been collecting parts and I'm just about ready to start building.

So here's what I'm planning, in no particular order;

Silver King Headset
Silver Answer Hyperends. I may shorten the length these a bit.
Silver Kore bars or RaceFace carbon bars
Silver Thomson stem
M950 Brifters with SL-SS95 bar end remote
SC6500MX FlightDeck
Polished M950 crank arms mated to the original XT spider and rings
M950 mechs, Cassette and chain
I'll leave the wheels stock. 221cd's on XT paralax rear, amp frnt. I'm thinking of carbon vinyl wrapping the hub centers for looks/match to M950 gray. Maybe a bad idea if I'm polishing the crank arms?
Risse Astro 5 shock
I'm going to ano the seat mast black
Black Thomson masterpiece post. I know Masterpiece isn't period correct but, it looks almost identical to Elite so I'll cheat a bit there.
Black Thomson clamp
Flite Ti
I'm waiting to hear back from Brion at Amp regarding carbon seat and chain stays. Fingers crossed.

Your thoughts welcomed

I'm still struggling with the parts mix for this build. I'm not quite sure about bars;


I'm still waiting for M950 cranks and a carbon rear end. I'm going to black ano the seat mast aswell;

Parts

I would go with a more retro seatpost (that will save some considerable weight over the Hefty Thomson too) and stem for that matter. Bars?? Why not go for some exotica to match the Carbon Fork legs? Schmolke? I have a set on a Plexus, just 75g for the bar end friendly version in 620mm width, the chainset has to go also, horrible four arm, needs a CD, Tune? Topline? Kooka? etc
Suntour Thumbies and Extralite levers would lose a load of weight too over the XTR Sti's.
Great frames these, worth a big spend on parts.

I've never heard of Schmolke so I googled them, nice stuff.
My theme for this bike will be the highest technology of 1997 so thumbies are out. In keeping with that, XTR sti's, remote sfiter and Flight deck seems the way to go. I'm also a big fan of XTR's legendary reliability. I'm not counting grams on this build. I'm more interested in beauty and precision. That's why I'm using Thomson post and stem.
Thanks much for your thoughts

I built a similar one up in 1999 or 2000 for a friend, got it from a Merc dealer here in the UK, came with an stx drivetrain but switched it for XTR, changed the tyres, bars and seat, I don't think its been ridden over 10 miles since,


I wish it had the silver seatpost area like yours!!!

Also what rear shock is that you are putting on yours?

edit, watch out for the XTR crank and front deralieur set up ,its a real pain in the arse, I wish I'd of bought a smaller outer chainring than the one that came with the crank in the first place

Jay75":3pkjqsgf said:

I built a similar one up in 1999 or 2000 for a friend, got it from a Merc dealer here in the UK, came with an stx drivetrain but switched it for XTR, changed the tyres, bars and seat, I don't think its been ridden over 10 miles since,
I wish it had the silver seatpost area like yours!!!

Also what rear shock is that you are putting on yours?

edit, watch out for the XTR crank and front deralieur set up ,its a real pain in the arse, I wish I'd of bought a smaller outer chainring than the one that came with the crank in the first place

Click to expand...

The shock is a Risse Astro 5.

Funny about the seat mast, I'm going to ano mine black because I like that look better. Unless you want to trade?
Thanks for the pics of your friends Amp. Seeing one with the larger diameter XTR chainrings really helped me visualize how mine would look with those larger rings fitted. I'm actually trying to avoid that. I like the look of the smaller 42T big ring. At present I'm investigating an XTR (950) crank arm mated to an XT spider.
Did you have trouble with the f derailleur cable housing stop? How did you resolve the cable housing stop issue? Do you have a picture of your solution?
Thanks very much

Shameless plug here but........

I have an AMP Research B4 frame and fork up for sale....