1989/90 clockwork restomod. 100% shimano free

After just short of a years worth of fettling, I have finished (I hope) my clockwork.



full spec:-

Frame: orange clockwork 17" 1989/90

Fork: orange f9

Headset: modus 1" threaded
Stem: syncros 1" quill 0deg rise, 90mm
Handlebar: raleigh special products titanium brahma bar
Grips: syncros
Barends: control tec

Brakes: avid arch rival 40
Brake Pads: avid
Brake Cables: clarks
Brake Levers: avid SD7

Shifters:
Front Derailleur: sram x-9
Rear Derailleur: sram x-9
Derailleur Cables: sram OEM
Cassette: sram pg970
Chain: KMC missing link
Cranks: syncros
Crank Bolts: unknown srp / kcnc or similar
Chainrings: syncros granny & outer, stringlight 'zircal' middle
Chainring bolts: SRP
Bottom Bracket: FSA
Pedals: welgo beartrap magnesium

Hub Skewers: brandX hope copies
Rims: unknown mavic
Hubs: hope mono
Nipples: unknown stainless
Spokes: unknown unknown stainless
Tyres: panaracer xc pro 2.1 (folding)
Tubes: maxxis welter weight

Saddle: charge spoon
Seatpost: syncros
Seatpost Binder: brandX hope copy

Weight: hopefully 26lbs or less

Re: 1993 slime green neo-clockwork

jax13":4u9mmbt4 said:

100% shimano free.

Click to expand...

...Top Marks :!:

Hate market domination :evil:

where is Al ?????

he will be stoked up at a shimano free bike

the mk1 build...

With the build I wanted to go against the grain, a classic frame, modern ish components that didn't look out of place & a finished product that was functional as an all rounder but most importantly, 100% shimano free. The reason behind this was simple, everything i had ever owned was on shimano components & I wanted something different for a change.



Originally, I built the bike up on a pair of hope big-uns, a 4 arm race face ride crankset (with some rather ugly pedals!) 100mm travel indy xc forks, cheap cro-mo seatpost, x-lite flat bar & control tec risers & an X-7 front mech. I was fairly happy with the handling & performance of the bike but there were some niggles. Firstly, I don't like mismatched groups so the x-7 had to go & be replaced by an X-9, as it happens I managed to snag a barely used x-9 for a fraction of the cost of the '7.



The next big issue was the weight, when I put it on the scales they tipped the 33lb mark so something needed to be done. The wheels weighed a lot, the forks did too & I could easily snip a few ounces here there & everywhere. I wasn't happy with the frame angle either & wanted to go rigid for weight saving & the unmistakeable retro feel, my options were either save up & wait for something pace or go original, LGF answered a wanted ad with the forks it now wears, orange F9's. The wheels were switched out for some hope mono's laced to a pair of mavic rims, the tatty sd1.9 brake levers swapped for some new sd7's, the saddle was swapped for a different spoon, this one with red stitching & red body to match the build better than the white of the old one.

I still needed to switch out the crank & pedals for something a bit more suitable, a couple of weeks watching the sales section for some reasonably priced quality cranks left me with very few options that came into budget. I spotted a tatty syncros crankset & rings on ebay, chucked on a bid & won them. The decals were rubbed, they were quite badly marked & speckled with bumps, middle ring was toast & the bolts were knackered. Ebay again turned up a stronglight 'zircal' middle ring, I grabbed some ano bolts off the sales section, Gil sorted out the replacement decals & I got the dremmel out & started to lessen the extent of the wear & tear to the crank arms.

Pedal choice was a bit of an issue. The V8 replicas began to grow on me but the style didn't really suit the build so I started hunting around. I had a bit of a syncros theme going so I was looking at meathooks & similar but they were all a bit rich for my budget so I settled on some beartraps. I opted for the Mg bodied version for a decent weight saving for not a lot of extra cash & almost everything was sorted.

Bottom bracket choice on a sensible budget is tricky now with square tapers when you start taking shimano kit out of the running. I wanted something light-ish, XT level quality & not shimano but nothing really stood out. I would have loved to be able to drop £80+ on a used royce BB but sensibility took over & I opted for an FSA BB (which may be swapped out if something lighter & cheap enough pops up for sale!)

The last change to the spec came with the bars. I was looking for a genuine orange ram rod brahma style bar. I had a brahma on an old giant when I was at school & really liked it so started looking. The ram rods appear to be rarer than rocking horse nuggets so I started looking at alternatives. My anal retentiveness with matching groupsets also applies to cross-branding, I couldn't use a GT or Scott branded bar on the bike, It just wouldn't look right so I was in the market for something else. At the same time, another member was looking to swap out the Ti brahma he had on his dyna-tec so a deal was struck to do a straight swap for the x-lite & control tec parts I had against his bar.

The final result is as you see it now, the only changes I can see myself making in the near future are potentially a longer reach stem & a change of rubber when the panaracers are toast.

The last bit of the puzzle was courtesy of Gil_M. I had read a lot about his decals so after a couple of emails to sort out what I wanted he turned up a blinder with some chrome '93 decals. My last choice is whether to leave the oranges chrome or switch them out for the orange oranges Gil also supplied me with.

macclesfield forest on its first proper outing...



a view from the top about 2/3 of the way around, across the reservoir & back towards the car (or more importantly a view towards the location of a victory pint in the pub next to the car) apologies for the glove!


charity lane... a nice downhill section with plenty of loose stuff & some interesting lines. An ideal place to realise your back brake isn't working properly!

more from macc...

forks are a bit long for the frame, they make it look odd

otherwise nice build

mattbrown":1zrjcw8c said:

forks are a bit long for the frame, they make it look odd

otherwise nice build

Click to expand...

my aim is to drop some pace forks on it next year when my budget allows and i'll probably be swapping the biguns off it at some point too -they are the only bits i'm not totally happy with and did compromise on!


edit: both missions accomplished (orange forks rather than pace though) & the finished build sits a lot better & rides a lot better too thanks to the weight savings.

Nice , pleased to hear you are swapping the Big Uns, great hubs, had a set on my old LTS DH, great on a full susser but dont suit an XC whippet like the Clockwork.

mk1.5 clockwork by night...



now wearing its new mono based wheelset & front mech (dropped the x-7 in favour of an ebay bargain x-9) I never will understand why I opted for an x-7 in the first place when i hate non-matching groupsets. It took a little redneck fettling on a shim to get a good fit to the post but 5 minutes with a file and it fits like a glove!