Mercedes Gonzalez GT Psyclone

I bought this tiny little bike (14.5") about 6 months ago off craigslist from just about the biggest ass I've met on there (Joe for those of you who know). I bought it for the XTR cranks figuring I'd sell the rest of it on after poaching the cranks for my Lobo build. But I really should know by now that this plan never works out as intended. The seller went on about the bike belonging to a racer who won tons of races on it but he couldn't remember exactly who. After some recent digging and a big thanks to gm1230126 I found it was Mercedes Gonzalez though I still don't have any proof she actually owned the bike.

The bike came with a Judy DHO fork, Mavic 121 Ceramic rims on an XTR rear hub and Hope front hub, an XTR 952 rear der, crank with MRP chain guide and 952 rear brake with lever, a Hope mono front brake, XTR seatpost and SRM saddle. All for $350 and all in pretty great shape.

After replacing the crank and bb I rode it around a little and ended up loving this little bike... right until I crushed my knee into the upper fork crown. I limped my way home and took the entire bike apart which revealed a few things that I don't love. The worst of which was rust. The seatpost was frozen in place after a few hours of WD-40 I clamped it in the vice and out she came but the rust in the seat tube is pretty bad. I'm thinking I'll make it my 'round town bike when I get around to cleaning out the seat tube.

Here's what it looks like now. Anyone have any brilliant ideas for the rusty innards problem?

Forgot to add a few detail pics.

While riding it around my heel kept hitting the rear brake noodle so I replaced it with an Avid Rollamajig (a trick I picked up from G at Racers Edge).

And one of the front hub, I happen to have the matching rear and may replace the XTR rear in this set to make a fully matching wheelset. Though then I'd have a disc hub on a frame without disc tabs, better have a think about it.

And on the bottom my favorite drinking seat. Yes that's a bottle opener between the rails.

Hello Joe!



Man, I almost had that one; just couldn't deal with Joe for one more moment

For the rust dust on the inside of the seat tube, I'd recommend spraying a half can of B-9 Boeshield, plug it up, and let it sit a couple days. Then, get an old pair of jeans that can be used as rags, and a means to get them down the tube to scrub. Follow that up with a bit more B-9, and see how things are looking.

I used a collapsable automobile ice scruber; it was long and slender, and I was able to wrap it in denim, and scrub away, without damaging anything. Has worked well on a couple old steel frames.

Really like that frame

plug the b/b shell and get it internally bead blasted ,then oil it
cool looking wee bike , wont ask about the saddle

Sweet ride, bet it flicks around nicely.

stauqmuk":zj427vfv said:

While riding it around my heel kept hitting the rear brake noodle so I replaced it with an Avid Rollamajig (a trick I picked up from G at Racers Edge).

Click to expand...

Yep, 121's + V's = heel strikes. Nice fix.

Love the bottle opener!

Don't know why I feel the need to trick out every bike I own but here I am with what started as a beater/get around bike that is shaping up with a like new set of Caramba cranks. Now I'm on the prowl for a standard spider to exchange with the 1 piece CNC'd spider and double chainring these came with. I'm also entertaining the idea of grinding off the teeth of the 48t ring and making it a bash guard (weigh in on this quandary here).

carumba cranks, yes! grinding teeth for bash guard, NO !!!!!!!!! :shock:

merckx":2jd7luz8 said:

carumba cranks, yes! grinding teeth for bash guard, NO !!!!!!!!! :shock:

Click to expand...

agreed.

Well guys, thanks to the best bike shop in Brooklyn (Dixons on Union street) you can all rest easy knowing that the 1 piece spider and rings are safe. It just so happened that the head mechanic there had a beautifully preserved one laying around the shop. I've fitted my NOS spider to the cranks and the cranks to the bb. Now all I need is a chainring (maybe something gold?) in the 36T area and I can slam this build home.

Seatpost problems! Now that the bike is rust dust free I can't decide what post to go with.