Salsa Ala Carte through the ages.......

Ace Cracking pics, nice see how the bike has changed over the years! What does it look like today?

Sweet......I want that Bonty fork...

Cool visual documentation.....

Hi, thanks for the nice comments guys.
Yes this bike has indeed served me well. I wouldn't like to guess how many thousands of miles it's been ridden.

I will post some pics of the bikes current build shortly, but there's a bit more of the story to tell first.

2009 began a new chapter in the evolution as I discovered to my horror that the seat tube had rusted through at the point where it joins the BB.

The frame sat in the shed for a year or so whilst funds were put aside for the work required.
It was eventually sent off to Bob Jackson Cycles for major surgery in Aug 2010.
They replaced the seat tube and seat collar lug. Beautifully fillet brazed.
New white powder coat and they applied the decals that Salsa had very kindly provided.

First pic shows the damage, and the second shows what was a very temporary build. I just wanted to ride it a few times before I finished off the restoration.

Hi makster.
How do I find out when the next Isle of Wight ride is ?

Superb , are you going to recreate the Jellybean paint job ?, i'd be itching to do that if it was mine.

Oh yes the jelly beans are back on there, the white was just how it came back from the frame builders after the repair. I wanted to do the jelly bean bits myself. I'll post some pics of how it's looking a bit later. Cheers

Ok, so here are some pics of how the bike is today. I painted the Rasta Flags (jelly beans) back on. The man himself Ross Shafer, founder of Salsa helped out and sent me the Columbus stickers. He had some kicking around in his workshop, very cool thanks Ross you're a legend. For the last year or so I've been riding it as a singlespeed but I decided to build it up with gears again as my Salsa Moto Rapido is the best bet for singlespeed duties as it is very light (21lb).
So the Ala Carte is fully rigid again and it's got quite modern XT gears and shifters, which are ace. The Graftons are still on there as is the Mavic Mountain BB (only been through 2 sets of bearings since 1992 - quality item. They don't make 'em like that anymore !! ).
I feel the current build is kind of an up to date version of how it was in the first place, and should keep going for as long as I can find bearings to fit the BB and 1" headsets.

Thanks for posting this thread - I've really enjoyed reading it over the past few days

It must be really good to have a cool old bike like that from new - like an old friend.

I have ridden some of the trails on Lefkas in the late 90's - it would make a awesome RB event - miles of sunny dusty tracks fuelled by Ouzo, beer and gyros kebab

You have done a splendid job on those rasta flags btw

Cheers nevadasmith, thanks for the kind words. Yes a return visit to Lefkas would be wonderful. When I went we lazed around for most of the day and headed out to the mountains late afternoon and rode on into the evening. Then back for Greek grub, Amstel and Metaxa coffees , heaven. Same again the next day. For a week, happy days.
I have one Mavic wishbone shifter in the shed I think. LH front mech non indexed. Don't know what happened to the other one.

nevadasmith":1vl50els said:

Thanks for posting this thread - I've really enjoyed reading it over the past few days

You have done a splendid job on those rasta flags btw

Click to expand...

X2, Dare i say it, the Rasta Jellybeans look better than the originals, great conclusion to a great thread

Personaly i'd have gone for a black stem and seatpost though