'93 Saracen Race Elite- New pic, looks better now!

Frame: Saracen "Race Elite" Tange tubing

Fork: Raleigh, 1 1/8 steerer

Headset: No name Halfords
Stem: Ritchy
Handlebar: Kalin
Grips: Unknown
Barends: Tioga

Brakes: Avid 2.0
Brake Pads:
Brake Cables: Clark
Cantilever cable hangers:
Brake Levers: Shimano "A"

Shifters: as brake levers Shimano "A" sti
Front Derailleur: Shimano Deore LX bottom pull
Rear Derailleur: Deore DX
Derailleur Cables: Clark
Cassette: Shimano
Chain: ?
Cranks: Shimano lx300
Crank Bolts:
Chainrings: Shimano Biopace 28/38/48
Chainring bolts: Shimano
Bottom Bracket: Saracen
Pedals: GT

Hub Skewers: Front Shimano Deore XT
Rims:
Hubs:
Nipples:
Spokes:
Tyres: Schwalbe Land Cruiser
Tubes:

Saddle: Specialised
Seatpost: Ritchy
Seatpost Binder: Saracen

Weight: ?kg

So, a little background here. SWMBO bought a bike from Halfords, before i discovered RB, just to get us out with friends for picnic's etc and getting to the pub.

She could only find one that fitted her, a 20" full sus jobby :roll:

Now she thinks that the sus saps her energy, twist grip shifters are crap, and the whole thing is to heavy :roll: :roll:



Here it is in use earlier this year.

So i decided to get a "nice" frame, and swap over all the bits i could, doing it as cheaply as i could when parts were not compatable.

Even though it is an Apollo, it still looks sad stripped down....



So looking here in the for sale brought me to Colin who sold me the Saracen Frame, and another Colin, who sold me some sti's.

I quickly mocked up the frame, and found the first problem....




Not much steerer at the top



Much posting in MTB chat got me several results. From we_are_stevo can the idea of a steerer tube extension, and from several other people, the offer of Karma forks. :shock: This really touched me, people i have never met offering to give me parts to make my project work.......thanks guys...this is why retrobike is sooo good.

There were other problems, for which i am greatful of the help from other fellow RBers. The seatpost diameter was different, and the front mech was bottom pull on the Saracen, and TP on the Apollo. Ebay sorted those quickly.

After a quick measuring session an order to Wiggle and one to CRC brought me a steerer extender (£11.99), and a new Ritchy stem (£6.39) ( the old one was cr*p, to high a stack height, and would have been much higher off the ground)

The stem came first, so i mocked up the bars...



Today i just put all the rest of the bike together, and now only need to adjust the front and rear mech's, the tidy the cables, and set the chain length








The idea was to do this on a cheap budget. Frame £46 inc p&p, STI's £7 inc p&p, Steerer extender £11.99 inc p&p, Stem £6.39 inc p&p, Front mech £8.99, Seatpost shim £8.95,Cables and headset protector £13. I am quite pleased with the result.

All thoughts welcomed....

SWMBO obviously isn't short!

That's about the 2nd biggest head-tube i've ever seen.

!!!!!!!!!!

Certainly up there in the top 3.

:O

no wonder the steerer want's long enough!

Well,

adjusted the chain length, front and rear mechs, did the cables and took it out for a test ride.

Feels very different to my BSO Griffin . Oddly, the rear brake seems to work better than the front one :? STI changers seem to work well, never ridden with them before.

Just got to set it up for SWMBO.

Weighed it as well....16kg. Lighter than the Apollo...is this a good weight, i haven't really paid much attention to the weight of other peoples bikes here.

Thanks for all the help i receved.

Dave

Personally I would forgo the suspension fork all together.

Its going to be a significant contributor to the overall (fairly) heavy weight.

I decent SH or new rigid fork and a decent sized front tyre would do wonders for the ride, frame angles and weight.

I don't mean this to sound critical just if you/wife want the best out of the parts and bike a change up front may be needed.

I agree with Mark on this. The Suntour forks you have will add a lot of weight and won't really perform that well either.
For the un-damped suspension travel you might get out of those forks you'd be just as well with a rigid fork and a large volume tyre.

Also the shorter A to C length of a rigid fork will better suit the geometry of the frame.

Actually ..... what steerer length would you need?

May have something new that could be had for very little money - would even be the right AtoC.

Thanks for the info/comments, i really appreciate the constructive criticism

I really would like to get some rigid forks, but....

a) this was a cheap rebuild initially. Just swapping over parts to loose the full sus rear end, and...

b) will need to talk to SWMBO as she suffers from tennis elbow in both arms, and rigid would cut down her ability to go very far.

The geometry does look a little askew, i know, but it was a compromise at best.

Cheers guys..

Dave

letmetalktomark":3sc9qb1h said:

Actually ..... what steerer length would you need?

May have something new that could be had for very little money - would even be the right AtoC.

Click to expand...

The one on the Suntour fork is 235mm 1 1/8. As you can see it is a little short, but i have used an extender, as we really don't do serious rough stuff

Is it RED... :roll:

Paul...your '92 Killi looks great...