Saracen Race Elite - Complete!

RetroBike Build Number 2

This time it's a Saracen EStay sourced on RB from "MikeC"

- Cheers Mike!

- I nicked one of your for sale pics, hope you don't mind!



I got some very useful background on these from "dendy"

Who's already done a rather fetching build of one these which you can see here

it's a Saracen Race Elite

Apparently they are built up from left over '92 Kili framesets and a grab bag of whatever came to hand

Mine's also red and has a hotch-potch of bits (just like dendy's), from the very good (DX hubs) to the not so good, a fair bit of Altus

Here's the bike at Chez hydorah along with a couple of other strays I rounded up that day



I was going to go for full DX, but I notice DX thumbies have steel mounts which puts me off somewhat

Also I guess STIs would be correct for this, got offered a NOS condition set, but they were a little out reach for my meagre pockets

But I did pick up two sets of faulty XT STIs ST-M091 and ST-M092 both of which I have somehow managed to rebuild to full working order!



Here's some open STI surgery (ST-M091):



It is worse than it looks... Here's the offender a stuck upshift ratchet pawl:



It's the little bit left inside the shifter housing

- That's it for now as I'm waiting for F+R DX mechs from "GT-Steve" which I beleive started their journey to me this very day!

Nice buy, was looking at this myself but want to finish my Zaskar first.
What you got planned for this one then? Watched your British Eagle build - cracking write up/photos hope you'll be doing the same with this.

Good luck with the build fella.


Matt

Going to be really nice this. Very nice original condition and a slight upgrade on the altus stuff will make for a very nice bike..

Very nice bike! Great that you fixed the STI's. That's the only part of a bike I never opened/fixed.

Nice start fella.

Will have to start on mine then I reckon

Cheers guys!

The British Eagle worked out very well - I've used it a fair bit

And I think I've found my retrobiking niche, it's the weird/unloved/obscure/challenging

Making good bikes better or rescuing them by restoring or replacing the worn out/upgrading the inadequate and tweaking the cosmetics...

I'm thinking of splitting up my Zaskar and Cannondale Super V as they are already really good and apart from blinging them out or fitting super boutique kit (which is cool, but not my thing) there is nothing much for me to do with them...

About the STIs they were cheap enough for me to take a gamble on, and the seller hadn't been in there meddling

I had already been into a 200GS set (which had a broken spindle) so knew what I was in for...

As long as you note (memorise/sketch/photograph) each stage of disassembly, you should be able to get them back together

Not that I'm saying it's easy! It's like clock repair!

Coomber you have one too? What freaky array of components does yours have?

Never seen one before all of a sudden the are three on RB!

Mine is a skip find passed on by a mate.

He purged everything from it, which I think was mainly all DX, so I just have frame and forks, and maybe bar and stem if he can find them.

Mine needs a powdercoat though as paint is either missing in large patches (ie none on bottom bracket shell) or else orange in big patches.

Watching with anticipation!

mmm old Saracens! It is a wicked looking bike with the skinwalls, looking fwd to seeing it lightly pimped in some nicer pics

Seems like you need patience, a steady hand, and some cheap broken STI's. Hmm, I don't have any of those...

Now I have choices!

After a few months of being on here and being a complete hoarding magpie, I have lots of kit

I was cleaning up the DX rear mech when I thought hmm..... feels a bit heavier than XT...

So I grabbed some XT and did a compare

There is more meat to DX, BITD I always regarded DX as the rugged group suited to touring and stuff

But also I have found the the rear plate of the shifter parallelogram is steel, as is the outer plate of the cage. On XT it's just the inner cage plate that's steel

Front mech is similar weight/construction as XT

Now I already discounted DX thumbies as shifters 'cos of the steel mounting hardware

So I was wavering on my choice of deraileurs for a bit, however, in writing this post I'm noticing that the XT is a bit late in vintage (mid nineties) and the silvery-ness of the DX has to go on! Gonna look super cool against the red

I was thinking I need some suggestions, but I answered my own question and I'm back on track!



Although I have shifters to decide on...

Then chainset...

Then brakes!

I have stripped my '94 Zaskar and flogged the frame, so now I have yet more parts to choose from