1994 DEAN Titanium

Re: 1994 Dean Ti *updated 26/7 with Birthday Karma*

Very nice! Perhaps you can show us the bike on the 25th of August at the Retroride near Arnhem!?!

Re: 1994 Dean Ti *updated 26/7 with Birthday Karma*

That's a beauty Eef. What a generous birthday present too

Re: Birthday Karma

Double-E F":3js66cre said:

July 17th also happened to be Michaels (ez05409 birthday :shock: (though he already celebrated a couple more than me ).

Click to expand...

Try a lot more.

The stem really completes your Dean. Good work!

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After commuting on this beast throughout the summer, I decided to change the slicks for the knobbly tyres again and to put on a set of suspension forks instead of the RC30's..




I also replaced the Dean seat post by a Syncros one as the Dean uses a non-original clamp, which doesn't grab hold of the Ti rails on that Flite securely enough to go off-road riding.. And by putting on some Ti bar ends (Onza copies ..), it was ready to go this morning!





Can't say that 'retro is faster', but that's probably also due to the fact that I'm way more careful riding this bike than when I'm out on the trails with my modern rig .



Halfway I came across this 'statue' that was put up recently to remember the actions of our Liberators, this year 70 years ago..!




Finally, some dirt on that Ti skin again, love it !

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Still looks great!

Re: 1994 Dean Ti updated 27/9: off-road again!

Hi! I'm the first owner of this frame (actually second, my brother was the first). I managed to trace you thanks to the Belgian guy (Bert) you bought the frame from. Ofcourse my first question is: if one day you sell it, PLEASE CONTACT ME! I sold it years ago and still regret.

But it's nice to see the bike's being offroad again. It's a bike with a bit of a -ahum- "respectable" offroad history so offroad is where it should be. ;-)

My brother was back in the mid-nineties sponsored by the European importer of Dean (based in Belgium) and for them (and on this frame) he won (in Junior category) about 15 national races, won the Belgian National Cup, ended 2 times 2nd in Paris-Roubaix VTT,... competed in the 1995 World Championships in Kirchzarten and many more international races back then. When he changed teams, the bike became mine and, although I didn't have the qualities my brother had, won some races on it too. After I stopped competion the bike became my "allround" bike, did some travels on it and I guess this is one of the last pictures I took from it (taken april 2006 when I climbed Pico Mulhacen in Andalucia):



Enjoy the bike and yes, if one day you are about to sell...

Re: 1994 Dean Ti updated 27/9: off-road again!

And to answer one of the questions asked on page 1 of this topic: it is surely from 1994 and it's made from sandvik titanium (still remember the box it came in). It never had the "titanium" decals on it (although other frames that arrived in Europe those days had them on them - I know because I used to work for the importer as a "merchant" then so I saw several).

Wim

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Hi Wim!

Allright! Great story and a lovely picture: I haven't been at those altitudes with my DEAN (yet?), unfortunately..

Actually, you're the second person claiming to be a former owner of this frame: a couple of pages back a fellow member called 'bettes' also explains that he has ridden it. Really nice to reconstruct over 20 years of what sounds like a glorious history, involving a lot of racing and victories.
If any more pictures pop up from your archive, or that of your brother, I'd love to see those! I was wondering indeed about the 'TITANIUM' decals, as I still have a fresh pack of decals, including that one, but for now, I've been holding on to -what I presume are- the original decals.

Anyway, I don't think that I'll ever be able to part with my DEAN, but if I will, it's fair that I contact you first!

Thanks so much for your response,

E.

Re: 1994 Dean Ti updated 27/9: off-road again!

Hi again!

Bettes is the guy I sold it to, didn't know he sold it to another guy (until last minute, after I finished reading this complete topic ;-)).

I will ask my brother (and mother, she took them) for more pictures. There surely are pictures but because most of them are from mid '90-s, they're non-digital and I will have to scan them first.

Don't want to swap with a (very nice) Carrera steel racebike (full campagnolo C-Record) from the same year? ;-)

If you're interested: I think I still have some black anodized Machine Tech brake-levers from those days (09 -the distributor- was also distributing Machine Tech parts and I had my bike equipped with it).

EDIT: I had a close look at your pictures and I think the decals are still the original ones.

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Scanned photographs of 90's bikes are the best.. Can't wait to see some !
Just like a picture or two of those Machine Tech levers . Do you have any other of the 'original' parts left?



I think it's really nice to hear from you, Wim! Thanks for all the (upcoming) information on this lovely frame..
BTW, I'm not looking for a (retro) road bike at the moment, so I'm going to turn down your swap offer, sorry.