1994 / 96 Parkpre Pro Elite Ti - Retro-modern Winter Hack

Woz

Old School Grand Master
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Largely inspired by WD Pro's stunning build thread "Airborne 2000 Lucky Strike DB Rebuild", I thought I would document my Winter Build along with some pre-amble background waffle. Going to be based on a Parkpre Pro Elite Ti, it's going to be a personal retro modern affair. Stealth, durable and weight watcher type of thing....

Don't skimp on a winter hack bike:
For about the last three years now I've been tweaking various builds and trying out all sorts of stuff for the crudy long winters in Stockholm, Sweden. At this moment, leaves are falling fast, temperatures barely in double digits and lots of rain is on the way. It's a mud fest from now till about mid-December.

Thereafter for the next 3 or 4 so months it's the white stuff. Not cocain, but snow, and lot's of it. This is punctuated by ice, and lot's of that too. Only temperatures below minus 10C normally stop me from riding, but the whole landscape and routes change dramatically. No chances getting on forest trails. You can't even see the route, nor your hubs.

When eventually it does start to melt (that process goes on for about 6 to 8 weeks) the conditions go to ice patches between drenched snow thawing flooded wet land. Basically, that's more-or-less half a year of various levels of crud. It means (for me atleast) the "Winter Hack" needs to be a solid performer and more importantly a joy to ride to keep the motivation up.

Back to March 2011 .... fleabay moment
Bit of haze but I felt the need for some Ti to make a late spring / summer / early autumn all rounder with bits from the spare part bin. Nothing fancy, just a tootler was required and I was itching for a project.

The victim was a poor advert for a "Parkpre Titanium Frame". One bad photo, and not much in the way of a description - usual iffing and arring and drinking Pernod I contacted the seller to get some specs, and cheekly to get the reserve amount. I bid exactly on the reserve amount, and got it. It was cheap, but not a bargain. A co-ordinated delivery to a hotel in Derbyshire while on a business trip to the UK meant I could put it on the aircraft hold as checked in luggage back to Stockholm to keep the costs down.

Perfect and top bannana I thought. Unwrapping it and seeing what I got was a bit mixed though..... it had a crushed top-tube cable guide, a repair or preventive weld to the bottom bracket and a stuck in allen bolt in a revolving bottle cage rivet. Feck. Whisky time. Another look with an objective clear mind said it wasn't bad, and most could be fixed and cleaned-up. On a positive side, it had no dents, dings or deep scratches - no signs of chain rub at all. I did find about five generations of spider birth and burial grounds down the seat-tube. As the seller said "it's been at the back of the shed for over 8 years".
 

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March to now...
The old girl got built up. In fact I didn't bother really cleaning it, just straightend out the crushed top-tube cable guide, stuck parts on it and rode it....and loved it. Fantastic ride quality, nice neutral handling but still responsive to correct lines on fast corners and super comfortable. I put some 150 Km epics on it (which incidently forced me to finally fix the bottle cage rivet issue). It quickly became my main steed. In fact nothing else from the fleet got ridden it was that good - even with shoddy odd bits and parts.

A recent aquisition and loss meant a cabinet re-shuffle. The Parkpre was promoted to Winter Hack status, pending a full face lift and some additional re-engineering. Some will find it disturbing what I'm going to do with it, but it's for the greater good.

First things first, this is coming off. I never did find the special noodle canti-guide thingy anyway...besides it will come in handy later....
 

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Ahhh...I see from your signature you are a Parkpre fan ;-)

This frame has been a pleasent surprise - didn't really know the brand before.
 
REKIBorter":2evqnfav said:
If you require a brake cable noodle I can put you in the right direction.

Would like to thank you for the offer, but I'll pass. I'm pretty much single minded now how this build should be. Can I add that you have a great site and I used it to find some usefull important data.
 
Brake noodles can be found here > http://www.venhill.co.uk/Cable_Kits_and ... AHA__.html

I have used them twice now. They fit fine on steel and alu frames but I found them a tight fit on my Ti frame. All you have to do is hacksaw off the threaded section.

FB3C_L.jpg
 

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Bottle Cage Rivet Fix - how to

Thought I would make a post on how I fixed the stuck allen bolt in the revolving bottle cage rivet before I jump off to the dungeon and continue the build. Someone may find it usefull.

1) File the head of the allen bolt so it is flush with the diameter of the thread; you can be lucky and still use an allen key to hold it still, but chances are you will gradually file to the point the allen key is useless.
2) Cut a groove in the bolt on the small remaining head showing; thus making it a screw.
3) Get a front mech, and clamp it to the tube plus the little bit of exposed bottle cage rivet. There should be enough contact point and force to stop it turning.
4) Screw outwards if you can. It may be best to take the seat-post out, screw inwards and let the screw fall out.
5) With the front mech still attached, re-tap the thread to clean it up properly.
6) Then use this trick to tighten the rivet back up. It works a treat!
http://blog.pedalandwrench.com/2008/12/ ... tling.html
7) Job done, mount your bottle cage and make sure you use a good loose fitting new bolt to avoid the problem again. They don't need to be super tight.
 

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