Project No. 5 - Alpinestars cro-mega DX 1991

Time to get back to the bikes that are my passion, alpinestars from the early nineties.

In this case a 1991 cro-mega DX. No world beater I’ll give you that but a truly beautiful bike that stood out in the paddock as a bike that pushed the boundaries of off-road bike design. The cro-mega was the heavier, cheaper and slightly less oversize sister of the al-mega. Sadly, many of the al-mega haven’t survived the test of time, with cracking common around the bottom bracket, seat post clamp and most commonly at the head tube (hence, the headtube gusset was introduced on later 91’ models and all 92’ and 93‘ al-mega). There was also the range topping ti-mega, these were Litespeed made and are ultra rare. Thus if your going for a 1991 alpinestars your only realistic option is the cro-mega.



Full 91’ alpinestars catalogue here:
http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=53745

This one has proved a strange purchase for me, I first saw it a week ago on ebay with a £100 buy-it-now price. I thought better of it as I’m on a two bike rule at home and this would mean me having to get rid of one of my bikes. A real shame as I’m really enjoying both at the moment. However, as the week wore on the more I thought about it, eventually with me getting involved in a bidding war and paying more than the original buy-it-now price!

Link to auction:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0310474530

I picked it up straight away as it was local to me in the pie eating town of Wigan, Lancashire. The bike has been neglected for some time, this is evident by the rust on the running gear and general scruffy nature of the bike. However, what really appealed to me other than it being an alpinestars was it’s originality. With exception of a replaced front mech it’s to the same spec that Sharrocks Cycles in Chorley, Lancashire would have sold it in 1991, even the Ritchey Force Quad tyres are original.

Here’s some pic’s of the bike after I’d thrown a bucket of water over it at home:

















I’m still thinking over what to do with it, but have already had a quick tinker with a few parts that I’ve been hiding away. For me an alpinestars needs Answer accessories so I’ve added an A-Tac, Hyper-Lites and Hyper-Ends so far. I’ve also added a temporary 29.4mm silver Kalloy post and Flite saddle in order to get a decent impression of it’s proportions. I’d like to experiment a bit with anodised colours on this one to compliment the fantastic graphics, so please give me your ideas and thoughts please.

Here's some pics after my quick tinker:

My brother had a 1991 Cro-Mega LX with bright pink front and rear ends BITD while I had a GT Karakoram Elite. I always loved the look of the Cro-Mega DX though. Great bikes, particularly good for wheelies.

I hear what you're saying about the Answer bits but if I'm honest I prefer the original set up. The frame design, paint-job and graphics are already a real winner and I like the subtlety of the original black parts on this bike.
A DX front mech, replacement repro decals and a bit of elbow grease are all this bike needs in my opinion.

Great to see one again. Good stuff.

lovely.
nice one.


i bought my Rocky Mountain Nimbus from Sharrocks wayyyy back int day. Test rode it in some woods near the shop. they always had cracking bikes in there.

Nice...

I had that in my watch list for the bro in law but he went and bought a spesh instead.

Cheers for the comments guys. Glad it's brought back memories from BITD.

My initial plan is to get it riding whilst I source all the parts I want for it, DX stuff like thumb shifters and i'll get the wheels rebuilt as they are a bit of a state.

Meantime it's getting kitted out with full M900 XTR of all things, just to get it back on the trails. I think it's important I do return back to full Deore DX though, it's a great groupset and the bike is named after it after all.

So the project will be a slow one by all accounts, but i've already made a start by ordering some decals from Gil_m.

That looks great Mark, I look forward to seeing it in action later this year!

Thanks Old Ned, I've been busy and it's now ready to ride







I've added a M900 XTR 24 speed groupset to get it up and running whilst I stock up with some period Deore DX 7 speed gear. I have however fitted a DX front mech to replace the rusty XT one, I'm almost there with the set of it but as alpinestars owners will testify the setting up of the front mech is a time consuming and fiddly business.









The frame has had a good going over with T-Cut and then had a coat of wax. It's come up really well, the white is a really sparkly artic white and it looks fantastic. I've also asked Gil to supply a few decals to replace the damaged ones.







I've stuck with the original DX cantilever brakes, as it will be good to get to grips with these over the next few months until I either use them as a part of a full Deore DX groupset or get rid for some aftermarket ones should they prove to be tosh.





Finally, i've gone with modern grips as a short term measure. With these I can remove them easily when the time comes to replace the DX gear and sell the grips on to fund period ones.





Future Build

As mentioned above i'm going to build up a nice Deore DX 21 speed groupset. I'll be putting up a wanted list in the near future as I begin my search for parts like thumbshifters, casstttes etc. The DX groupset is one of Shimano's most beautiful and really the only groupset I could build this bike with due to it's title. I've so far managed to pick up an NOS Deore DX seatpost.

Today I put the wheels in for rebuilding at my LBS as the spokes and nipples are scrap. I have some NOS Michelin Hot 1.95" tyres that will set the wheels off nicely. The hubs will be serviced whilst they are there also. I'm going to try and source some tasteful skewers to finish it off nicely.

The frame has a few rusty areas where the paint has flaked or been scratched, so I'm contemplating respraying the white middle section and touching up the grey areas. The reason for respraying the whole white area is because the paint is so vibrant that it would be hard to match it well, resulting in a blotchy finish.

Gil_m recently made up some decals for Tim Davies 91' ti-mega so these give me a good basis for getting others made to suit this model.



I have been thinking about a suspension fork for it also. I have a set of Manitou 2's that would fit perfectly and compliment the Answer gear really well. But, I'm fairly sure Manitou 2's did not appear until 1992. I'm also really enjoying riding rigid at the moment.

But for the time being i'm just going to enjoy riding it

Wow! Great looking bike you've got there, the 3D violet goes really well with the cool 'ripped' graphics.

Definitely one for my 'Cool bikes' collection!

Sweet, remember these bikes well (were a lot of e-stays around that period)

Prefer the original setup though without the purple

Even when it's not a world beater I think it looks that pretty.

When I am not keen on purple bits normally, the bars look just sweat on the Alpinestars!

Have fun!

Cheers,
Martin

Hi Mark,

Looks supercool I would so love an Aplinestars one day ..... along with the dayglow Muddy fox, MBK, Explosif from every year and the list go's on !!

May I say it looks better with the black wall tyres ? I think it does, I would never have thought it but it does now I have seen it.

Has is shed much weight with the XTR ? This would be a nice bullet proof retro race bike that could take a good thrashing.

Top job as always

Cheers

Really cool bike indeed. Great job!

Thanks gents, so pleased you appreciate the bike. It is incredibly pretty and I agree that the black wall tyre look great especially with being the 1.8" models.

As for weight it isn't a lightweight by any means. I'd estimate it to be around 27 lbs. So I think the XTR gear has made a good dent in it. I do like the old school alpinestars seatposts, bars and stems, unfortunately although marked up as 'megalite', they don't live up to their billing. The Answer stuff is far more easy on the eye and the scales and thats why I've gone with it.

I rode the bike for the first time this evening (in full old school alpinestars riding gear, naturally), two hours across the moors. I really enjoyed riding it despite having not gotten the gear set up quite right (front mech particularly). It rides great and is so much fun, i'd almost forgotten just how much fun, it wants to wheelie all the time and climbs like it has an engine. The downhills are a little twitchy but that just adds to the fun and personality of the bike.

Still contemplating the Manitou 2's, we'll see.

Back to yer roots, ready to ride is cool, rolling project, time to research and develop. Never realised they were so short, my modern play bike has criminally short stays at about 390mm, maybe it will handle some XC action after all.

I do think the Purple needs balancing out elsewhere on the bike if you are keeping it, somewhere there is a great compromise between a modest DX spec and some subtle trick bits, not sure how yet but its poss I'm sure


LMK if Mag 21's tempt ya on this!

Looking Good mate, looking very good...