Saracen Race Elite build.

dendy

98+ BoTM Winner
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I am going to start a thread off for my little build. Nowt special and it is my first build so go easy on me :)

I sourced this old E-stay Saracen sometime last week. In okish condition apart from a stuck seat post and I new it was a bit of a risk but was reasonably confident that I could get the post to budge..

I posted a pic of the bike on the Saracen thread and found it was a 93 bike based on a 92 frame set and therefore a bit of a combination of components. The frame is dear little 15.5" Tange e-stay, exactly like the 92 Kili Racer. The crank, gears and brakes are the beastly Altus A20. The hubs and front derailleur are black lx from the 93 M-560 set.

forumsaracen.jpg


Back to the seat post... For 3 days I tried all the tricks and couldn't shift it. I thought about cutting it off and chopping through the section to see if it would collapse inwards. I also thought about the last resort of heat treatment. Neither of these I was completely happy with. I decided that the saddle was knackered anyway so I proceeded to dismantle it with a saw :LOL: to reveal the sub frame then I plugged in the welder...

saracen030.jpg


I found a decent length of 40 x 10 flat solid and welded it to the subframe.

saracen026.jpg


My lady was called for some extra muscle and using the extra leverage of the bar within 10 mins I heard a crack. A lot of pressure was being applied so I initially I thought the worse but carried on from side to side until another crack was heard. This time I could see the post was freeing up and eventually I managed to pull it out..

saracen031.jpg


saracen034.jpg


The parts I Have now sourced and await them. Basically cos it is a 92 frame with 2003 components I decided to get DX thumbies, DX - MT63 brake levers, MT60 crank and DX rear mech. The black M560 hubs are to be kept and the Altus cantis are being replaced with black lx ones. I am undecided what to do with the black Wolber rims and tyres.

The majority of the parts I have sourced off this forum so hopefully when they start arriving next week I will begin to put things together. I know it wont be nothing amazing but will keep this thread updated...
 
Good work on torturing that seatpost out. :LOL:
I'm sure that you'll be very pleased once you've got the bike built up and ridden. They do ride very nicely indeed as I can testify here.
Looking forward to seeing how you get on with the build.
 
I love a good adventure / bodge / repair / challenge as the threads I've posted about my own bikes testify.

Good work, it's sure to be a corking machine!
 
Dont chuck the Altus shifter pods as they can be re-used elsewhere and fit higher up models of sti and sti clamps
 
Thanks all.

I really didn't want to loose the original seat post even though it is not in the best of condition. All I could think of was more leverage and being a welder fabby by trade the welding is not a prob.

I have now stripped it all down and applied frame saver as a precaution. To be honest the frame looks very solid just like I remember these Saracen frames to be.

Now I wait for the parts.. :)
 
legrandefromage":2zt9g9t0 said:
Dont chuck the Altus shifter pods as they can be re-used elsewhere and fit higher up models of sti and sti clamps

Thanks for that. I probably would have chucked all the altus stuff too. I didn't realise the pods are reasonably universal. :)
 
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