1999 FSR Elite Max Backbone

1999 FSR Elite Max Backbone

Bought as per this thread.
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210996


Frame was on eBay as spares/repairs as the main pivot point had a lot of play.

The frame was delivered last Thursday.



The main pivot point did indeed have a lot of play, simply because the bolts holding the chain stays on, WERE SLACK!?!?!
I tightend them up, and not it has no more play,

Approx 1 hour later i had transferred a fair amount of gear from my 1998 FSR comp, onto its new home



It needed a few parts to finish off, chain/cables and a new headset, these were bought and fitted the following night after work.



Initial test ride was supposed to be a quick blast around the block to make sure everything was ok, i checked the bike out and the rear end has no play that i can tell, infact it feels tighter than the 98 FSR Comp its replacing, the back end suspension defo feels a lot more "active" in use, it apparently has an extra inch of travel over the other bike, so the pivot points must be in a different place, whatever they did, its a total upgrade IMO.

My initial test ride around the block end up being a 25 mile offroad route i have done before as i got carried away :twisted:



The following day (ie: yesterday/sat) i took it for a 32 mile road test to a local airshow, where it preformed spot on, i really love riding this bike!

Today i figured i would take it on a club MTB ride, which started out from Rothbury, up towards Simonside.



From here we did the BEST downhill rocky natural trail i have done so far on any of my bikes, around 1 mile downhill at speeds of 30mph (according to endomondo) the bike was AWESOME, it just soaked everything up, unfortuantly the brakes currently fitted are crap, they came fitted to my 98 FSR Comp and i still have not got around to swapping them for some Avid BB7`s yet, i had no confidence in them at all once i started smelling the pads burning, i loved it, brake replacement next on the list!

The ride ended with a few technical climbs/downs.



before we popped back out from some woods back into Rothbury, total ride - 23 miles.

Had the frame built up for 3 days and put nigh on 80 miles onto it! bike is great, body and legs/knees are suffering though, what an awesome machine.

Current spec

1999 FSR Elite Max Backbone

RPM Cranks
Bell chain (£4 in asda!)
Shimano XT rear mech
Shimano XT shifters/brake levers
Shimano LX front mech
Gold anodised handle bars
Outland Stem
Skyway lock on grips
Marzocchi Z1 Drop Off forks (130mm travel)
Tektro IO disc callipers (horrible) 203f - 160r
Onza rear disc adaper (sharkfin was missing from frame )
Mavic 317 rims, black butted spokes, Formula hubs
10mm bolt on rear axle conversion
Outland seat post
D2 saddle
X-Fusion Glyde rear shock
Superstar Uno headset
Outland flat pedals
K2 seat post clamp

Something about that. The colours go well and such.

A few updates, the Rothbury ride i posted about above was great i thought the bike was fine, but the next time i checked the bike after the ride i realised that i had blown my X-Fusion Glyde rear shock, the rebound knob no longer has any effect at the travel is "notchy" just as it starts to compress, once on the bike and sagged it works fine (bar the rebound knob not working) but i removed it anyway and refitted the stock Fox Vanilla shock to keep me on the dirt.

The Fox shock does not seam to rebound very well either :roll: maybe it can still be serviced?

Anyway my rear wheel hub/freehub failed 30 miles into a 40 mile ride about a week ago, the enire wheelset came from my 2011 Boardman Pro HT and had been repaired once under warrenty anyway, i never expected it to last very long, Halfords have a bad press for a reason, they are shit!

Anyway i had sourced some replacement hubs a while back with a view to fit them down the line when the expected failure happened.

I figured i might as well tart them up before fitting them, i initially kept these hubs as the bearing cups were perfect, i have no idea what make they are, its been a long time since i stripped them down, but they did come fitted to a set of Alex Rims that i smashed up about a year ago (iirc they came on my 98 GC)

Cleaned them up, sanded them down and gave them a nice coat of copper paint (same paint i used on the 98 GC)





Fitted to the rim/spokes but not tensioned up yet.



Finished off tensioning the front wheel tonight after work, i put brand new bearings/cones/axle in them, they spin real smooth





Really need to sort some Avid BB7`s out, next job on my list!

Edit: also converted the bike to full outer cables everywhere, still need to drill out the cable stops though, just researching needle files at the moment, cableties are securing the cables as a tempory measure, did a 26miler tonight after work, new hubs seam to have made the bike loads faster LOL