bikeworkshop
Retro Guru
Here's my 1994 orange vitamin t
- I bought this off the original owner in Jan 95.
This photo predates digital, and the term "bikepacking". Taken somewhere in the middle of the Scottish Highlands may '95.
The original build spec, from Dave Baters Downend, Bristol (rip
):
Stronglight 1" threaded taper roller bearing headset.
Control tech inch quill stem
Pace RC35 Forks, rear mounted brake bosses.
diacompe 987 cantis with a rocker on the fork brace
Pace bars, x-lite bar ends
Ritchey foam grips.
Ringle front hub,
white industries rear hub,
hope ti-dye spokes
mavic 230 tib rims.
I can't remember the original tyres, but didn't anyone spending money have the smoke/dart combo?
Topline crankset
with Pace 48/36/26 rings
XTR gears (inc cassette) and STIs
Selle Italia Flite Evo carbon saddle - 99g & totally unpadded.
Ringle ti stix qrs, black.
The seatpost was a USE copy made by someone's dad at rolls royce/aerospace out of (no doubt aircraft grade) ti and aluminium.
The whole bike was built to be light, like under 20 lb, and fairly British. I remember after a very muddy race I threw it into a cattle pond and it floated!
Funnily enough apart from the seatpost qr the post is the only original component!
Everything else broke, wore out or became obsolete
It came with a 1" threaded headset, but luckily Sandvik the manufacturer had seen the sense of using a larger diameter for the headtube, to avoid that horrible mitre where a larger tube is cut to fit into a smaller one, so I could move forward with fork technology, as long as it's about 80mm travel
.
In its current guise it has custom shortened sids (tft
) running 9 speed xtr/xt with IS hydro tabs fitted by Vernon Barker about 20 years ago.
All other ongoing changes have been made at my place of work - Bikeworkshop in Bristol (est 197
mostly using second hand parts.
No cracks yet
.
Still riding where I live in the wye valley and black mountains. Still fits me like a glove and rides like a magic carpet
- I bought this off the original owner in Jan 95.
This photo predates digital, and the term "bikepacking". Taken somewhere in the middle of the Scottish Highlands may '95.
The original build spec, from Dave Baters Downend, Bristol (rip
):Stronglight 1" threaded taper roller bearing headset.
Control tech inch quill stem
Pace RC35 Forks, rear mounted brake bosses.
diacompe 987 cantis with a rocker on the fork brace
Pace bars, x-lite bar ends
Ritchey foam grips.
Ringle front hub,
white industries rear hub,
hope ti-dye spokes
mavic 230 tib rims.
I can't remember the original tyres, but didn't anyone spending money have the smoke/dart combo?
Topline crankset
with Pace 48/36/26 rings
XTR gears (inc cassette) and STIs
Selle Italia Flite Evo carbon saddle - 99g & totally unpadded.
Ringle ti stix qrs, black.
The seatpost was a USE copy made by someone's dad at rolls royce/aerospace out of (no doubt aircraft grade) ti and aluminium.
The whole bike was built to be light, like under 20 lb, and fairly British. I remember after a very muddy race I threw it into a cattle pond and it floated!
Funnily enough apart from the seatpost qr the post is the only original component!
Everything else broke, wore out or became obsolete
It came with a 1" threaded headset, but luckily Sandvik the manufacturer had seen the sense of using a larger diameter for the headtube, to avoid that horrible mitre where a larger tube is cut to fit into a smaller one, so I could move forward with fork technology, as long as it's about 80mm travel
.
In its current guise it has custom shortened sids (tft
) running 9 speed xtr/xt with IS hydro tabs fitted by Vernon Barker about 20 years ago. All other ongoing changes have been made at my place of work - Bikeworkshop in Bristol (est 197
mostly using second hand parts.No cracks yet
.Still riding where I live in the wye valley and black mountains. Still fits me like a glove and rides like a magic carpet
