1993 Saracen Kili XTR Elite

Corduroyboy

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Rewind to 1995. Heavily into mountain biking, I spend most of my time buying bikes from Police auctions and classified papers such as Loot or The Yeller. (Come to think of it things are not so different today except today's hunting ground is primarily eBay). Anyway I come across what sounds like a nicely equipped Saracen. The ad mentions Ringle hubs, Pace forks and XTR. It's got my name written all over it. Having agreed a price, the seller comes to my house to deliver it. A '94 Kili XTR Elite. I had the '94 catalogue and there it was. Top of the steel range - Tange Prestige Ultimate Ultrastrong/Ultralight tubeset (with the instantly recogniseable 'ribbed' downtube). A whopping £1999 price tag. I was getting a 1-year old bike for less than a quarter of that...
In the boot of his car, the chap pulls out a myriad of extras to be thrown in to the deal. The original XTR M900 hubs on Mavic M231 rims (he had 'upgraded' to Ringle hubs front and rear), a purple Freestyle Goretex jacket and a pair of virtually brand new Nike Poohbahs in my size. Fate had smiled on me that day.

The bike was an incredible ride. So superlight and responsive that you might imagine was only possible with a titanium frame. Interestingly, the '94 catalogue had only one bike higher in the range - the Kili Ultra Titanium. But that's another story... ;)

I kept the bike for two years, eventually returning it to the original XTR spec - which was easy, since I had all the parts - and selling it for more than I had paid two years previously. In the mean time, I had 'upgraded' the wheels to Hope Titanium hubs and the cranks to Middleburn, using blue and purple anodising everywhere to accent the glorious purple paintwork of the Kili XTR Elite's frame. How I missed that bike...

Fast forward to 2007. Retrobike's Ebay Watch reports a Sarcen Kili with XTR. Sure enough, there was almost the precise bike I had sold some 10 years previously. The only difference being the model year - this was a '93. I still had that '94 catalogue and compared it with a spec list I had for the '93 Kili XTR Elite:

Tange Prestige Ultimate Utrastrong/Ultralight tubeset with ribbed downtube - Check
Pace RC35 - Check
Shimano XTR M900 throughout - Check

The only change was in the forks - the '93 Pace RC35s had the tubular chromoly bridge whilst the '94 forks had the CNC aluminium bridge and foil decals (Tallpaul your forks haven't gone unnoticed! ;) )

The deal was done. It even had my favourite tyres on it from back in the day - Ritchey Z-max WCS in red. And somewhat vulgar Cooks cranks in purple which were promptly sold on. The plan? To replicate that '94 Kili that I missed so much...

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That is lovely :cool:

So the downtube is the Ultimate Ultrastrong (Its what my Marin is supposed to be but it doesn't have the external ribbing :? )
 
Easy_Rider":2l91ffia said:
That is lovely :cool:

So the downtube is the Ultimate Ultrastrong (Its what my Marin is supposed to be but it doesn't have the external ribbing :? )

I think the '93 Team Marins did have it!
 
Finished!

Finished.
Only a year-and-a-half this time!
A personal record! :LOL:

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In case anyone wondered about whether or not this is a rider:

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Ubiquitous winter shot:

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Stablemates:

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