1994 Saracen Kili Flyer

So this wasn't part of the plan for 2018! :facepalm:

Or maybe, on reflection, this actually was on the cards and it was the Clockwork AND the Diabolo that were completely unplanned. :roll:

After a late night of bourbon & eBay I appear to have purchased another project.

I've only got the eBay photos for now, but I picked the frame up today & the photos really don't do it justice.



For 1994 this was the top of the line steel race frame from Saracen, shared by the Kili Flyer & Kili XTR. Given the purple head badge, I'm pretty sure this started life as a Flyer.



It's not perfect; there are couple of minor issues:

Slight crimping of the seattube from the front mech...



...and it looks like the seat clamp has been over tightened without a seatpost fitted at some point...



However the seat tube has been opened back up, and the only issue is some crazing to the powder coat and the crimping to the seat tube isn't enough to cause structural problems & will be invisible once a mech is fitted.

There is also some superficial scarring to the DS chain stay, but it's fitted with a smoooooth UN72 bottom bracket...and look at that fluting on the down tube.




The original build would have been XT M737 with primarily Ritchey finishing kit, a U.S.E. seatpost & Pace RC35 forks, so pretty top end stuff.

The planned build is a little different, but very British (Now I've finally found a suitable frame)

Watch this space.

always fancied a Kili frame, just finding one in my size.

Really like ultrastrong tubes as well, have a '92 Team Marin and always wanted the '93 Explosif

Can probably guess some of the parts your going to USE and looking forward to the build, nice

Mark

mkone":xd054i16 said:

Can probably guess some of the parts your going to USE and looking forward to the build, nice

Mark

Click to expand...

Late nights and bourbon tend to lead to these sorts of things. It's how I ended up with my first daughter. She's a great kid so sometimes these things end good after all. I'm sure your bike will turn out a good result as well.

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I've certainly made worse decisions while drunk. :roll:

NICE

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Couldn't help myself.

A hint of things to come.



Just a mock up for now to check size & see how the parts I've been collecting go together on the frame.

Now to strip it back down & start a proper build thread.

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Nice....always liked the look of this era of Saracen. Fork looks great by the way

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So;

This build has been a long time in the brewing. :roll: I've been planning it for a couple of years now and collecting parts together over that period to add to the those I already had.

It started to come together property when I bagged a couple of U.S.E. Stealth forks two or three months ago:

They were added to the pair I had found a few years back & had originally gone on a Zaskar build.



When I got hold of the forks (Including a NOS Pair). I decided that I was going to put together a British theme build. As I say; I had a load of other bits that I'd accumulated along the way & with a few choice additions was sure I could put something together.

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Now there was just one fly in the ointment...

I didn't actually have a frame to hang everything off. :facepalm:

So the search began and it has led to the purchase of the following frames over the last few months...

1992 Dave Yates Diabolo- which turned out not to be suitable for several reasons. (Most importantly, I decided that this was going to be a slow burner, and was a little too 'special' for this one)

1992 Orange Clockwork - this was a bit of an accident, as I knew it wasn't suitable, but when it was offered I fell in love with it. :roll: This became the basis of a Full DX build & is now finished and subject to another thread.

Then a couple of weeks ago a bagged a 1994 Saracen Kili Flyer frame on Eblag....







I've always had a soft spot for this era of Kili's. and the Tange Ultimate Ultrastrong-Ultralight tube set is a bit special on the 1994 Flyer.