1990 Marin Eldridge Grade - NeonYellow&NeonPinkSplatter!

[juice]

The seatpost diameter on my Marin Eldridge Grade is 29,5mm. So i had two choices to add more turquoise colour. A Moby with 29,4mm or a Moby with 27,2mm and a shim. The 1mm difference of the 29,4mm Moby bothered me because i ain't building a wallhanger. Thanks to ishaw i was able to get my hands on a 27,2mm Moby. The seatpost is on of the things i never swapped back in the days because i wasn't aware of the possibility of a shim. So this beautiful post is one of the most satisfying things to add to my bike so far.
The original black Marin branded Kalloy post never looked good together with the 1991 Zooka stem but now these dark times are a thing of the past. I bought a shim from 27,2mm -> 29,6mm. This combination works perfectly and at the same time it's the proof that the 29,4mm seatpost would have been the wrong idea.

I'm a little unsure what bar to use. I got a carbon handlebar from Look. It is ultralight and looks the biz but i don't have too much trust in the stability of this exclusive handlebar and i like my front teeth and the rest of my face so no offroad action for this one. Right now i have a more common Zanzibar (thanks brocklanders023!) fitted which hasn't seen too much use in its former life and surely can take some beating. So i think this will be the way to go as long as no Answer Hyperlite bar crosses my way at a resonable price. I'm ashamed to confess i binned the original neon yellow painted Marin bar to use a Renthal sub130 for some years which had cracks in both ends by the time i took it off due to some mounted bar ends. Any opinion on vintage carbon bars? Let me know.

Since there is no cable stop or roller like on the original Marin stem on my Zooka i'm in need of a brake cable hanger. I had a black Problem Solver one which i had to mount sideways so that the cable didn't rub on the stem. It did like the company promised and solved my problem but looked wrong. :facepalm:
Now i got an Acor cable hanger with more depth. That plus some carbon spacers (from beshroomed - thanks mate!) now make sure that nothing rubs and that the stem is at a back friendly height. :roll:

 

[juice]

Today the brand new saddle showed up.
It is an Avocet o2 Air 40 Racing saddle with hollow cromoly rails. It is made by Viscount and has a full leather upper and some plastic side bumpers for protection. This racing version is a little more narrow than the regular men's version. It weighs 250gr and it will be a perfect fit for the Eldridge and hopefully for me, too.

 

[Muddy paw]

I always wanted one of those saddles back bitd but iwas to busy going out with my mates drinking :shock: ..

 

[juice]

Back in the days i wasn't even aware that these saddles existed.
My original Marin one was more of a sponge than a real saddle so i asked around in my local bike shop and finally bought a Flite Transalp. I had Flites from that point on and with the total lack of comparison i thought the way they feel is the way it is supposed to be right. They are quality saddles but 2 or 3 years ago i randomly brought back a Ritchey Vector Plus Rail saddle from the fleamarket for my Muirwoods..and this was heaven compared to all my Flites. So i was open to alternatives this time.
The first time i saw an Avocet o2 actually was on a pic here in the forum.
I found their website and liked the tech description on these saddles.
http://www.avocet.com/saddlepages/saddles.html
The version with the titanium rails would have been 10gr lighter but mine is such a beautiful colour match to my bike with its blue and yellow lettering that i will live a happy life with the extra weight.

 

[juice]

I sourced a new Shimano CN-7401 Dura-Ace chain. The 7400 type chain was Uniglide compatible only. This 7401 chain was sold as original equipment to the Dura-Ace road group and the XTR M900 MTB group. It will work with any freewheel or cassette as long as it is 7/8 speed and whether Hyperglide or not which is good regarding my Suntour freewheel. Had one of those back in the days and even if i probably would have gotten away with any cheap modern 9 speed chain this chain held its ground longer than my knees did. So i wanted the same same quality again. (Still have the same knees, too.)
This one took me about 3 years to find. I got it from a friendly ex racer who sold off all his road stuff. Thanks buddy. It weighs 336gr and has 116 links. I looked into buying a Rohloff SLT99 as an alternative along the way as these are also quality ones and still available in most of the shops i asked about the Dura-Ace but to finally have gotten my hands on the chain i was really looking for is very satisfying. Whether this is sad or fun is in the eye of the beholder. :facepalm:

 

[juice]

Although the colourclash thought from the almighty Wookie would be a fun thing to do my old and traditionally thinking brain still wants to chase the dream i had of a bike that never happened in my youth which means turquoise, turquoise and of course much more turquoise. :facepalm:

Unfortunally some parts never crossed my way in the right colourway at a resonable price or not at all. So this leaves some more work to do.
I have found a set of Critical Racing brakes. These were sold to me as new but i don't think they actually are because of their more low quality shade of anodized red. From what i have read across the net only the early versions came without the Critial logos but i think this set lacks them because someone anodized them in his cellar by himself. They can't be the earliest version because those ones weren't front and rear specific like this later set is. But later sets always had the logos. So i guess it will be no crime to anodize them once more to bring back some vibrant original colour scheme of these brakes to match the rest of my parts.

For this reason i had to press out the four bushings which was a nerve streching mission because i've never done that before and i had not one single suitable tool for this job...but i found some useful stuff at a friends mancave and in the end it worked without destroying the brake set.

While being at this beautiful place surrounded by some quality tools i thought it would be a good idea to take apart my red and silver Ringlé Cam Twist Set, too.
WD Pro wrote a very useful take apart manual on how this could be done the right way. Check it if you are interested in doing the same by clicking here: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... p;t=198359 Thanks Peter for the brilliant write up there! You are a retrobike god.

 

[juice]

I found the most beautifullest brake levers of all time! Yup i really love my new Machine Tech Zero Flex brake levers. The last 3 or 4 years i've only seen one lonely single picture of these in turquoise and i'm not even sure that this wasn't a photoshoped pic. 2 came up for sale during this time. One set was in the holy crazy dollar departement so i patiently waited till someone with a reasonable idea of the value of this set came along. I can't say this often enough when building something special time is your friend and not your enemy. So i'm very happy that these levers found their way to me even if they will leave their new home again soon but only for a change of their colour.

More CNC art from the U.S. arrived not too long ago. Some very nicely done brake shoes from Real Product Design. They have replaceable brake pads from Kool Stop but are also Real branded. Due to an ad i read some time ago the curved design of these pads should reduce crud buildup. We'll see about that.
Since they are made from 7000 series aluminium they will attend the levers and the rest of the gang on their way to the anodizer.

 

[juice]

Since i can't get the original Marin chainstay sticker redone i will go with this XT Sharkfin from Giles. Thanks mate!

 

[juice]

More peace on earth would be a great thing and more Ringlé stuff on my Eldridge, too.
So i got these Mojo cable hangers and again patience was the key here so that my wallet could find a little peace of mind, too. Of course you can but you don't necessarily have to pay more than 20€ for 2 of these nowadays.
The silver one will have a visit with the anodizer soon. First i thought the whole thing to get parts anodised for a bike was a little bit over the top but now my perspective is that it saves you the headage of hunting something in a colourway that might never cross your way.
But one thing that crossed my way in the right colour was this Ringlé Anti Chain Suck Thing. I got it from here but can't remember from who i bought it so an anonymous thanks from me to you.

 

[juice]

Today i had a little fun with my Shimano SL-MC41 shifter clamps. If you want to fit some Shimano M900 shifters to these clamps you'll have to drill them a bit so that all 4 pins of these shifters will fit instead of only half of them. Holding them in your hand while doing so because you have no vice is not recommended but it will work. The aluminium of this clamps is soft like butter so it went quite well.


After looking at all options i wanted Shimano clamps because i wanted a clean look on my handlebar. Of course i can understand the general opinion that Graftons or Moonhead ones are the clamps to have and i also think the part which is screwed on the shifters looks nicer than the Shimanos. But the part that is clamped to the handlebar looks much better when it is one solid piece especially when mounted next to my Maschine Tech levers and they don't need that much space. I looked at two other options before settling for the Shimano clamps. The plastic clamps from Magura are in my opinion the most sorry looking German engineering job ever. The only other clamps that would have fitted the bill were the Gorilla Billet clamps. They look sweet and could be mounted and taken off the handlebar without having to remove all other mounted parts from the bars but again if such a little thingy has a price that is higher than most complete XT bikes go for something must be wrong with the world or with me not wanting to reward some others persons madness. But each to his own. So you'll be the judge here.

My Shimano SL-MC41 shifter clamps show some kind of aluminium corrosion under their clear cloat..or maybe that's clear ano. I'm a little unsure on this. So there will have to be some extra work to fix that before they will be anodised in turquoise like all the other stuff. I'm also curious about how anodising this clamps will look like since the rest of the parts are machined aluminium and these are obviously cast aluminium. So try and error here i guess.