OH NO!!! Another Ti build thread...Update Nov. 5...

mikede

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...Like you guys ever get sick of them. Anyway, I picked up a sweet Sandvik-made Ti frame about (2) weeks ago and was just delivered today.

MongooseBuild1.jpg


Well packed by it's previous owner, trek_y made sure all was well. It's first stop was onto the kitchen scale:

MongooseBuild2.jpg


1642g with the waterbottle cage screws ;-)

But wait. I must admit that it is a MY2000 Mongoose Pro Ti frame. No, it's not strictly Retro. But yes it was made by the same company that produced other retro-Ti frames(edit).

I am a retro fan and this Build will stay in that spirit because I hate when bikes look cheap and all alike. Newer bikes look to me like crap most of the time.

Here's a few more pics for the meantime. Excuse the shittay pics as they were taken with my old 10D.

MongooseBuild3.jpg


I have a Kalloy stem/bar 120mm 0deg weighing a decent 350g. If this proves to be uncomfortable I have a 'NOS' Ritchey Forcelite Bar and stem that will be making it's home in the Kalloy's place. I also have a set of original Ritchey TrueGrips ready to go.

The Specialized cranks are in excellent shape and will be polished. They weigh 530g w/o rings, with which I will most likely be running a 2x7 with a road-style tight-ratio cassette( & Thumbies).

MongooseBuild5.jpg


MongooseBuild6.jpg


And here's what I have so far:

MongooseBuild7.jpg


The Tune Ti skewers served on the Marin til today. I replaced them with a set of XT skewers that came with the Mavic/XT wheelset.

I have also managed to find an early 90's Spinner fork with a 245mm steertube. It was a little tricky as this headtube is 145mm, then I wanted some length as i'm going threadless & for some extra wiggle room.

Not my pic but it's the one on the left side:
spinnerGabel.jpg
 
Dunno, i'll see what turns up. Might just stick with Brushed Ti w/ polished and black/grey bits.

I was looking at the Charge Spoon saddle, but i'm going between black and brown, and the white as a matter of fact.
 
Got around to doing a little fiddling last night. I threw in a 73x127 BB I had to see what I would actually need.

Results:

Between the Cranks/36t chainring and the chainstay I have 19mm/14mm respectively.

MongooseBuild10.jpg


MongooseBuild13.jpg

^That piece of kindling there is 17mm wide.....plus another 2mm between it and the crankarm.

So i'm going to pickup around a 113mm BB and see how that goes.

Besides that^ I took the Avid SD5's I had originally fitted to my wife's project bike and will be using them for the time being on this one. I threw on a set of LX canti's I had on my Klein.

http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1695860#1695860
 
Glad to see you are getting on with it Mike, usually takes me ages after getting a new frame, but then I could just stop and look at that frame as its lovely. Liking the shiny bits theme so far. :cool:
 
I hope I'm not being excessively pedantic in saying that Litespeeds and Merlins were never made by TiSports (sometimes known as Sandvic). Merlins were made in their own factory until the owners of Litespeed took them over in 1999 and transferred frame building (and some of the welders) to the Litespeed factory in Chattanooga. Litespeeds have always been built in Chattanooga and Litespeed was also the leading builder of ti frames on contract for other brands. TiSport was the second biggest contract builder, behind Litespeed.

I don't know how much influence the builder had over the frame spec when the frame was designed by another brand, but TiSports seem always to have tended to build heavier frames than Litespeed, and your 3.6lbs for a large frame is I think fairly typical. This could go some way to explaining why TiSport seems to have a higher reputation, as Litespeeds do seem to have a reputation for breaking and that could be because they were built too light, rather than poor production techniques. I have never heard of similar problems with TiSport frames.
 
trek_y":i8orld90 said:
Glad to see you are getting on with it Mike, usually takes me ages after getting a new frame, but then I could just stop and look at that frame as its lovely. Liking the shiny bits theme so far. :cool:

I look at it whenever I can =-).

Anthony":i8orld90 said:
I hope I'm not being excessively pedantic in saying that Litespeeds and Merlins were never made by TiSports (sometimes known as Sandvic). Merlins were made in their own factory until the owners of Litespeed took them over in 1999 and transferred frame building (and some of the welders) to the Litespeed factory in Chattanooga. Litespeeds have always been built in Chattanooga and Litespeed was also the leading builder of ti frames on contract for other brands. TiSport was the second biggest contract builder, behind Litespeed.

I stand corrected...I have edited my post. :D
 
No pics but I ordered some parts today:

-ODI Attack's( for the Marin actually) the used ones I bought are great but smell like old-attic
-Ritchey Truegrips, the no-frills rubber. If the originals prove to be too small, then i'll use these. And for €4, who can complain.
-68x110mm bottom bracket
-FSA Orbit Equipe aheadset- for the time being. If I find something else, this only cost €20.

I also got my seatpost in the mail, '11 RacefaceRIDE, 27.2x350mm weighing in at 298g.
 
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