1989 Merlin Mountain

[27motorhead]

As always @Canuckbiker loving the tweaks. Look forward to seeing what you do next now that it's "finished"

 

[Black_puma]

Moto stem repaint is complete , I went with the Salsa pepper decal rather than the Salsa words, kinda like it better

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That is a loooong stem, are you sure you can still reach?

 

[Black_puma]

Made a few tweaks, the 150mm Salsa Moto was a bit long for my taste, I managed to source a 130mm at great expense, a nice surprise after receiving it in the mail was noticing it had full titanium hardware which softened the financial blow a bit , great original paint and decals as well and yes, a much better fit for my preferred riding position.

I'm a big fan of the @mkozaczek Merlin build and have, well, copied the idea of a small Cook Bros Racing decal on the rear of the top tube (hope you don't mind ), I made the decal myself using a scan of a decent quality image, having fitted Cook cranks and skewers I think it goes with the build

Also swapped the front derailleur for a standard clamp version which I much prefer the look of, swapped the Dia-compe brake lever blades for plain silver versions (more fitting for an 89' than the grey painted version) and swapped the grips to WTB units. Where has this grip been all my life! I may have to order a couple more pairs, super comfortable design

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Stunning looking bike!
How's the performance of the U brake with short straddle cable? I'm quite curious to know.
Having 3 GT's with U brakes, the straddle cable is crossed over with the straddle bridge behind the seat tube as seen from behind.
It looks interesting and quite different to what I'm used to.

 

[Canuckbiker]

That is a loooong stem, are you sure you can still reach?

LOL, yes, 150mm was a bit long, hence the recent switch to a 130mm, much better

 

[Canuckbiker]

Stunning looking bike!
How's the performance of the U brake with short straddle cable? I'm quite curious to know.
Having 3 GT's with U brakes, the straddle cable is crossed over with the straddle bridge behind the seat tube as seen from behind.
It looks interesting and quite different to what I'm used to.

I'm no expert but I think it's the ideal straddle cable length if frame cable routing allows, it works great for me

 

[MattiThundrrr]

As much as I loved the Ti Syncros seatpost I got an urge to try a black seatpost.

Balances perfectly with the fork.

 

[Retro_Roy]

thumbs up on latest revisions.

 

[uno-speedo]

The latest changes are so sweet and the CB sticker looks neat. Just need to replace the new WTB grips with period-correct WTB grips

 

[Canuckbiker]

You might say I’m a bit of a weight weenie LOL

I certainly was BITD but in recent years I’ve realized that light weight in vintage bikes is not everything, my Brodie weights in around 26 pounds and I absolutely love the ride.

Who doesn’t love a nice lightweight build though?

In the last couple months I built up a great vintage steel road bike for my son, the frameset was bought with a couple spare parts, one of which a titanium Dura Ace cassette, yummy . My son’s build ended up using all 10 speed while the Ti cassette is 9 speed. Hmmmm. That cassette sat on my dresser for a couple weeks while I thought of ways to make use of it. Being a road cassette the largest cog is only 23, but most 7 speed cassettes I use have a 24 second largest cog so 23 is plenty big enough for my usage.

I was determined to make the Ti 9 speed cassette work on one of my thumb shifter equipped bikes 7 speed freehub body due to the friction option with thumbies. Trouble is that the 9 speed cassette is physically too wide to fit. While cleaning up the cassette I noticed the first few cogs only have one tooth difference between them and taking out the 14T cog actually leaves a pretty nature cog step progression and narrows the cassette just enough to fit the 7 speed freehub body. Nice! Swap over to a 9 speed chain and good to go. The Merlin was selected as the thumb shifter equipped bike to use the Ti cassette, switching the thumby to friction mode and the shifting is surprisingly smooth and quite. This part swap shaved 85g. Not huge but the Dura Ace cassette only weight 145g, the 7 speed I prefer using on all my bikes is a modern lightweight Shimano unit only weighing 230g.

Then one day I noticed a set of Titan titanium pedals listed on FB shortly after being posted and snapped them for a really good deal. Pretty cool early 90s pedals and only weigh 211g. Hmmm, titanium pedals for sure need to go on the Merlin.

Next couple swaps yielded marginal weight reduction but were made more for aesthetic reasons. I love a mint XT post but a 1st gen Syncros will always trump the XT for my taste. I also swapped my Brodie U brake boosters with my romax, I love the “brodie” engraved solid booster but the drilled out version wins out for me by a small margin.


Wheels: I wasn’t really planning on touching the XT hubbed/Wolber AT18s. One day scrolling eBay vintage parts I eyeballed an NOS set of Matrix Mt. Titan rims. For some the Matrix brand will not be as sought after as the AT18s. My first high end component I ever owned though was a set of Matrix single track rims laced to Suntour XC 9000 hubs. Those wheels lasted for thousands of miles, the Matrix rims were outstanding in quality so I have a soft spot for them. The Mt. Titan’s weigh in at 380g each, I just finished swapping out the rims and shaved 185g off the wheels. For weight weenies there’s no better place to shave weight than wheels, you notice it right away in the first few pedal strokes.


All in all 567g (20oz) saved and new total bike weight is 21.5lbs

Is my Merlin finished?

 

[27motorhead]

Is my Merlin finished?

NEVER!!!

And now you’ve started this weight weenie tinkering there’s only one way this is going!!! light bike = light wallet!