'97 saracen hardtrax 'pics with manitou mars on now'

A free stem turned up it's steel and ugly but it's not too bad length wise and means I can use my 25.4 flat bars again.

Bar and stem weight has gone from 1055g to 476g Which more than cancels out the forks which means the whole bike is lighter

Rode it to work today - took 2 full cranks to get there this is another job to the ones mentioned ^ there. Little bit more comitment round the corner and full pressure in the tyres should get it to no pedals I hope

List of free things to do -
- paint bodged brake thingy
- set rear gears up better
- clean
- polish up other deore lx crank arm
- matching bar ends
- sort light bracket for smart rear light
- swap free hub bodies and sort problems as mentioned

Stuff that needs money -
- possibly bottle cages
- possibly bottle cage bolts - £4
- new bottles - £25
- saddle bag - £20
- stem - £35
- decals!!!!

Was adding up what this bikes cost me so far -
Bike - free
Grips - had
Front tyre - had
Rear tyre - free
Rear derailer - had
Seat - had
Stem - free
Bars - free
Cassette - had
Crank - had
Bb - had
Brake pads - had
Pedals - had
Skewers - had
Brake levers - had
Shifters - had
Calipers - got in a swap
Seat post - in the bike
Forks - swapped for 2 half worn dmr motos + £60 rebuild
Headset £11
wheels - £20 I think
Chain - £15
Cables - £20

Had means - lying around/off another bike/bought but unused till this

So £130, with almost half of that in the forks alone

Guna mention my other main bikes in here and what I'm going to do to them

GT series 2 (alu/carbon road bike largely 105) -
Put on mudguards - got - done
Put on mech - getting off Santa
Put on lizard skins - (old bmx bar and frame pads I use on it when commuting to reduce damaging it - need to buy a chain stay one!) - put one on, couldn't find the other
Put on 25c gatorskin instead of 23c - got - mudguards doesnt allow enough room
Possibly raise bars if cables will allow - it won't
Another bottle cage - £5 - ordered
Put on reflectors
Maybe new bar tape -£20ish

Kona Cowan (dirt jumper) -
Fit new piston into rear caliper (the joys of hydraulics :roll - got
True rear wheel
Set up

Hoping to sell my other bikes to just keep these 3 till I can afford another nice one

But possibly build a beater - flat bars, front rack, fitted pump, lights, 1x? Gear system, selle royal seat - I've got, good brakes and tyres will depend on what bike I get but have some things lying around - is the only ideas, rest depends what turns up or I choose to modify what ive got, got most of the parts to use so far :cry:

my gt i spoke about earlier, excuse the baggage, was going to do a time trial and had to ride there and back



the puch i rebuilt with my dad, a very patina build, was odd not painting and polishing, simply cleaned, new rims, tyres, rim tapes, tubes, cables, brake pads, freewheel, chain and bar tape



this is my fixie, its the first bike i ever built from the ground up on my own, sprayed it myself, has been through loads of phases, its great fun and is a very comfortable ride still holds the record for fastest to work - even the gt cant match it

back on track - few pics of the mtb



back when it had maxxis minion dh f and r 2.5 tyres on - slooowwwwwww but gripped like nothing else



this is with the new forks on but with the horrible heavy dirtjumper bars and stem on 'spits on floor' - deffo not for this bike!!!!!








this camera hides nothing!! doesnt look too pretty in this :cry:


my huge cassette, 12-36, no hill is too steep with this

Well a few things have been decided for things again for this, want to clean it up a bit, guna rebuild it again, polish and wax the frame and forks + other painted parts. Stainless steel bolts + washers will be used where I can, possibly cut out the brake levers and gear shifters and derailiers as per a Marin I've just been reading about. Also want to repolish the bars, post and crank.

Ahead kona p2s or simular are also on the list or maybe just swap back to a quill headset and original fork :?

What's the thoughts on a respray??

Well a few things have been decided for things again for this, want to clean it up a bit, guna rebuild it again, polish and wax the frame and forks + other painted parts. Stainless steel bolts + washers will be used where I can, possibly cut out the brake levers and gear shifters and derailiers as per a Marin I've just been reading about. Also want to repolish the bars, post and crank.

Ahead kona p2s or simular are also on the list or maybe just swap back to a quill headset and original fork :?

What's the thoughts on a respray??

Nice new forks man!
Hadn't seen all the new pics for some reason.

I'm wondering what to do about the canti hanger too. Can I slip it in among the headset stuff? haha.

Thinkin of Rockshox XC28 - pretty cheap, but with 100mm, travel. Plus an FSA pig bb headset.

Brakes are sorted now - got swiss stop rat pads on my cantis, so hopefully can keep em.

Actually - looking around, it seems you can't really use the stem cable hanger with suspension forks - cos it adjusts the length of the cable and means the brakes are ineffective.
Might have to swap to V-brakes for the front.

Got new tyres tho - Continental Mountain King II. Only 2.2 but look cool, fairly light and pretty inexpensive.

I did the same thing, hanger in the headset spacers then thought shit!! I was actually compressing the forks never gave it a thought!

Most forks have a hole that is or can be tapped to make a uside down L shape and drill + tap that to make it work like mine. It's actually a bit out of a door handle bent and drilled and tapped

The suspension is allowing me to go quite a bit faster, but now I'm feeling the need for 680mmish bars, which means going oversized - thinking cut down nukeproof bars in silver or going for ritchey bars, cos if I get the Marin I'm after that's what I'll use

Yool":8sz3inpv said:

Thinkin of Rockshox XC28 - pretty cheap, but with 100mm, travel. Plus an FSA pig bb headset.

Click to expand...

For the price (even cheap) you could buy much better period correct ones such as Marzocchi bombers which will work ten times better and are likely to last for years once the XC28s are pogoing in bike fork heaven.