1993 Merlin Mountain

[Skynet]

The Syncros bottom bracket arrived today, not much point in pics, sure you've seen them before.

Just bought some RC30's, pretty sure 2nd gen. so right age. Few scabs on the chrome at the rear but should be able to sort that out easily enough (famous last words) and the fronts look pretty clean.

They're 1⅛" so bought shims from Rampage, just need to sort out a 1" threaded steerer now. But if nothing second hand turns up in the next few days then Pace spares still do them and place in Germany said they might be able to do a ti steerer.

Also bought the 2nd Salsa stem, a real shorty at 80mm. Pretty sure it needs a complete repaint which is a shame as the decals are in good shape. Will see if a major touch up would work first.

 

[Minifreak]

Sounds like this is really coming together nicely if you manage to get a 1" threaded Ti steerer for a good quoted price, please let me know as I'd love one for my Merlin.

 

[Skynet]

I've messaged him. He has 1" Tune unthreaded ti steerers, adding a thread to them was a "might be able to" rather than a will be able to, so we'll see. Also need to see how much extra that would add to the cost.

 

[Skynet]

The Storika saddle arrived today. Rubbish light for pics though so colours are way off but you get the idea. I guess the light brown counts as taupe and the inserts chestnut.

It's no where near period correct, they were a hand made, limited run in 2003, but don't care. Feels hard as a board, not that means much off the bike.

 

[Skynet]

NOS Salsa Pro-Moto stem and Royce crank bolts have arrived (just after I took this pic, but you know what bolts look like). Light's still rubbish.

The Salsa's not exactly weight weenie, the expander bolt weighs almost as much as a normal stem But looks good and suits the frame. Just needs a quick clean. The expander bolt is a worthwhile candidate for a ti replacement.

Nice that things are turning up rather that just paying out for them, makes it feel like a build now.

 

[Skynet]

Just bought Psycho Psycles eyes rear hanger, weird but fun. The eye's swap out, they did a few others, think 6 in all.

The bars are going to be a cheat for now so I can get it done this month, Salsa Pro-Moto carbon, should take some trail buzz off with the stiff RC30's anyway. At least they have Salsa stickers, probably generic stuff that everyone just badges up though. So will do a rev b as I can.

Edit: The steerer's sorted out and bought the easy bits like chain, tubes... So have everything now, well everything's bought. As the front end is going to be all black to start with, I've got some Renthal kevlar grips to break things up a bit.

 

[Nader]

Re:

Excellent parts selection looking forward to see it finished.

 

[Skynet]

Thanks. The bars weren't part of the plan but only take 10 minutes to swap out later. With a bit of luck everything will arrive this week. But the front mech doesn't look as though it's going to turn up so I need to find another, which is a pain.

Might also get a pair of Spinner forks, have a feeling the RC30's are going to be too stiff.

 

[Skynet]

The Tune binder bolt and QR's arrived today. They do some really nice stuff, must be one of the few still going from the 90's that aren't in name only. You can get light stuff from KCNC etc but I don't think they're in the same league.

I've pretty much always used a bolt for the binder, saves a few grams and can't remember once thinking that I wished it was a QR. The Tune is 14g, for comparison a Ringle Ti Stix is 34.5g, XTR M900 66g.

The Tune QR's are amazingly light, 36g/pair and are real QR's not glorified nuts and bolts. Ti Stix are 82g, M900 167g. Even lighter than the Nukeproof Ti's on my Adroit which are basically nuts and bolts.

So going from XTR to Tune saves you 6½oz just on those two parts. Yeah, I've always been a bit of a weight weenie.

 

[Skynet]

The Psycho Psycles hanger arrived today. Looks good in a strange sort of way.

They did human blue, green and hazel, reptile, cat and werewolf. So I've cat, reptile and, I assumed hazel but someone has it listed as werewolf.

Stuff from abroad's arriving faster than from the UK, this was from Finland and only bought it on Friday.