reanimation
Retrobike Rider
- Feedback
- View
Yum yum yum. Total agreement with all those bits. Its starting to even feel like my BITD dream now, spec is perfect IMO. nice polishing.
Project No. 7: Alpinestars cro-mega EOS
- Thread starter sinnett177
- Start date
Yum yum yum. Total agreement with all those bits. Its starting to even feel like my BITD dream now, spec is perfect IMO. nice polishing.
- Feedback
- View
Gonna have to polish my XT crank up like that Mark, looks a treat! I totally agree with the use of XT. BITD XTR was just too exotic to be realistic for a young lad.
Great work again Mark. I am going to have to dig out my cro mega and do something with it now, although you are setting the benchmark pretty high for us mere mortals!
Like it a lot so far.
Oh and if you are giving this build this much attention I do worry how much you are going to spend in time and money if you get the ti-mega!
Like it a lot so far.
Oh and if you are giving this build this much attention I do worry how much you are going to spend in time and money if you get the ti-mega!
- Feedback
- View
I'm keeping a record of my spending for this build, i'll post it up once the bike is finished. Its quite amasing just how much it adds up to :shock: and this is a pretty conservative build in terms of parts too.coomber":1wbkvkj2 said:Oh and if you are giving this build this much attention I do worry how much you are going to spend in time and money if you get the ti-mega!
Alp*Willi
Retrobike Rider
Mark
As always my jaw drops and I'm in awe of your skill
An awesome project, it reminds me of when my m8 and I first got hold of my frame from the importers at Portskewett and took it back to the LBS he worked at busily trying to decide what to put on it. He was as excited as me and it wasn't even his bike
Really looking fwd to seeing the completed article.
Rhys
As always my jaw drops and I'm in awe of your skill
An awesome project, it reminds me of when my m8 and I first got hold of my frame from the importers at Portskewett and took it back to the LBS he worked at busily trying to decide what to put on it. He was as excited as me and it wasn't even his bike
Really looking fwd to seeing the completed article.
Rhys
- Feedback
- View
Seating
Trying to keep the theme going here in the seating department. To me a bike looks wrong if the saddle and post aren’t right for each other or the frame, so I’ve devoted an entire segment of this build to it and hopefully been careful enough to choose components that fit the era and look right with this build.
Seat Post Collar:
I’m using a standard alpinestars collar. There seems like few reasons not to really, they are the correct size (31.8mm), they can incorporate a rear cantilever hanger and there aren’t really many alternatives out there. I’ve had mine blasted and then powder coated in gloss black to freshen it up.
Seat Post Collar Quick Release:
The original seat collar quick release on an alpinestars cro-mega would just be the standard rubber handled steel effort with a few chromed bits. A good while back a Retrobike member found me a couple of al-mega cast stainless steel seat quick releases at the bottom of his spares box, here I have an opportunity to put one of them to good use.
Seat Post:
Many argue that a bikes stem and seat post should be matched in colour, I’m not sure I agree but they’ll be pleased to know that on this occasion the stem and seat post are colour matched. I wanted to keep the XT theme going and so the period correct M730 seat post fitted the bill perfectly, especially with it’s black colouring to match the stem. I was surprised to discover that these seat posts are steel. I think the last time I rode a bike with a steel seat post was my Raleigh Mustang in the late 80’s, so I’ll be interested to see how the ride compares. There was a few of these posts knocking about in used condition, but to be honest a scratched and blemished black seat post never looks good, especially on a build when so much time and money has been spent on the frame and components. So I splashed out on a NOS one from the states.
Seat Post Shim:
Unfortunately the M730 XT seat post came in only 3 sizes (26.8mm/27.0mm/27.2mm), so with the alpinestars cro-mega seat tube being 29.4mm (usually that is, this one is 30.0mm?), I’ve had to shim the post into the frame. Is shimming seat posts good practise? I’d say not, but it’s a steel frame and a steel seat post so I can’t see it causing too many problems. I run a shim in my 1991 cro-mega DX and Team Raleigh Dyna-Tech and have for some time without any problems to report.
Saddle:
There was a few types of saddle that I thought of using on this bike. Firstly, I thought about an Avocet saddle as in 1991 and 1992 alpinestars were fitted with these as standard. But this is not what I’m trying to achieve here, this bike is my ultimate cro-mega and that 13 year old bitd would not have been satisfied with factory fresh as specified equipment I’m sure. Therefore, the usual candidates for aftermarket saddles were considered, Rolls, Turbo, Turbo-matic, Brookes and Flite. Decisions, decisions…. All great saddles and all period correct, but one saddle stood head and shoulders above the rest, the titanium railed Selle Italia Flite. On my original cro-mega LX I’d tried in vain to get the looks, weight and performance of the Flite by buying a Velo Jet titanium copy. Now on my ultimate cro-mega I could do the job properly by hunting down a nice original flite saddle. For a nice condition early nineties ‘Red Label’ Flite your into very big bucks these days , but I managed to find this NOS later titanium ‘Classic’ model on ebay. I paid top money for it at £55 posted, but I’m delighted to be using it on this build. The date stamp dates it at 2004 so I’d think this saddle is one of last flites built in this style.
Trying to keep the theme going here in the seating department. To me a bike looks wrong if the saddle and post aren’t right for each other or the frame, so I’ve devoted an entire segment of this build to it and hopefully been careful enough to choose components that fit the era and look right with this build.
Seat Post Collar:
I’m using a standard alpinestars collar. There seems like few reasons not to really, they are the correct size (31.8mm), they can incorporate a rear cantilever hanger and there aren’t really many alternatives out there. I’ve had mine blasted and then powder coated in gloss black to freshen it up.
Seat Post Collar Quick Release:
The original seat collar quick release on an alpinestars cro-mega would just be the standard rubber handled steel effort with a few chromed bits. A good while back a Retrobike member found me a couple of al-mega cast stainless steel seat quick releases at the bottom of his spares box, here I have an opportunity to put one of them to good use.
Seat Post:
Many argue that a bikes stem and seat post should be matched in colour, I’m not sure I agree but they’ll be pleased to know that on this occasion the stem and seat post are colour matched. I wanted to keep the XT theme going and so the period correct M730 seat post fitted the bill perfectly, especially with it’s black colouring to match the stem. I was surprised to discover that these seat posts are steel. I think the last time I rode a bike with a steel seat post was my Raleigh Mustang in the late 80’s, so I’ll be interested to see how the ride compares. There was a few of these posts knocking about in used condition, but to be honest a scratched and blemished black seat post never looks good, especially on a build when so much time and money has been spent on the frame and components. So I splashed out on a NOS one from the states.
Seat Post Shim:
Unfortunately the M730 XT seat post came in only 3 sizes (26.8mm/27.0mm/27.2mm), so with the alpinestars cro-mega seat tube being 29.4mm (usually that is, this one is 30.0mm?), I’ve had to shim the post into the frame. Is shimming seat posts good practise? I’d say not, but it’s a steel frame and a steel seat post so I can’t see it causing too many problems. I run a shim in my 1991 cro-mega DX and Team Raleigh Dyna-Tech and have for some time without any problems to report.
Saddle:
There was a few types of saddle that I thought of using on this bike. Firstly, I thought about an Avocet saddle as in 1991 and 1992 alpinestars were fitted with these as standard. But this is not what I’m trying to achieve here, this bike is my ultimate cro-mega and that 13 year old bitd would not have been satisfied with factory fresh as specified equipment I’m sure. Therefore, the usual candidates for aftermarket saddles were considered, Rolls, Turbo, Turbo-matic, Brookes and Flite. Decisions, decisions…. All great saddles and all period correct, but one saddle stood head and shoulders above the rest, the titanium railed Selle Italia Flite. On my original cro-mega LX I’d tried in vain to get the looks, weight and performance of the Flite by buying a Velo Jet titanium copy. Now on my ultimate cro-mega I could do the job properly by hunting down a nice original flite saddle. For a nice condition early nineties ‘Red Label’ Flite your into very big bucks these days , but I managed to find this NOS later titanium ‘Classic’ model on ebay. I paid top money for it at £55 posted, but I’m delighted to be using it on this build. The date stamp dates it at 2004 so I’d think this saddle is one of last flites built in this style.
- Feedback
- View
Thanks for the kind words gents, i'm enjoying this project a great deal. I'm just missing the wheels and waiting for some paint to dry to finish this build off.
I got 2 of these a while back from a fellow retrobiker who rode alpinestars bitd and had these knocking about in their spares box. I'm using one on this build and the other on the cro-mega SS.GT-Steve":2qt8afcf said:
