'92 Merlin Mountain

It's taken a while but it's just about ready.

Virtually all parts have been sourced from RetroBike (many thanks to all who supplied the various bits and pieces I required - apart from SunnyJim :evil: )

The frame is a 1992 Merlin Mountain in great condition, sourced in the US (thanks once again Mr. Customs and Excise for the £71 charges) and arrived 3 weeks later.

The welds are something to behold and the frame really looks and feels something special, as light as a feather too.

The bottom bracket is the WTB/Suntour greaseguard version and the first job was to replace the two bearing races - now runs super smooth and as the bearings are available for £10 a pair it is a wonderfully cheap system to maintain.

Then came the rest of the kit - mainly XTR as this is intended to be ridden but I wanted to maintain the light weight and yet not go mad with bling as this is more stealth and subtlety. Plus I needed to save some wonga for my Dave Yates build (not too far off now).

Frame: Merlin Mountain 1992 (awaiting decals from Gil)
Forks: Pace RC31
Headset: Chris King
Stem: Syncros 130mm 5 Deg rise
Handlebar: Answer Hyperlite
Grips: ODI Ruffian

Brakes: XTR M950 V
Brake Pads: XTR
Brake Cables: Teflon
Brake Levers: XTR M950

Seat Post: Control Tech
Saddle: Flite Titanium TT
Seat Bolt: Control Tech

Shifters: XT Rapidfire (may switch to thumbies in a while)
Front Derailleur: XTR M900
Rear Derailleur: Proshift
Cassette: XTR M900
Chain: SRAM
Cranks: XTR M900
Chainrings: XTR
Chainring bolts: titanium
Bottom Bracket: WTB GreaseGuard
Pedals: XT Flats

Hub Skewers: Mavic
Rims: Mavic CrossRide (early originals)
Hubs: Mavic CrossRide (early originals)
Tyres: Ritchey Megabite Grey
Tubes: Maxxis LiteWeight

Apologies for the poor pictures - new camera which is far more capable than I am, and I'm still getting to grips with it:
















I'm not sure about the grey tyres - I originally thought they would look , I tried another set of wheels with Smoke Lites - perhaps these look better?



Be gentle guys...

Smoke Lites look way cooler....

Noooo, grey tires waaayyyy cooler!!

Classic build oh and grey or white tyres always look coolest with Ti

I will rephrase:

Smoke Lites look way classier.

(And that comes from a massive fan of coloured Z-Maxes!)

That's a nice build, I like it alot, I would keep the grey tyres on as it looked better, nice one.

the black tyres look the best... its crying out for decals dude!.. & UGM

very nice build!
i'd suggest to change the syncros stem for a controltech. would fit the build better shapewise imho.

scant":13c7k90c said:

the black tyres look the best... its crying out for decals dude!.. & UGM

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I know Mike! YGM back.

Inigo Montoya":1n2fvzu0 said:

very nice build!
i'd suggest to change the syncros stem for a controltech. would fit the build better shapewise imho.

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Agreed - haven't been able to find one in the right size yet...still looking...