Giant MCM Team

[Once A Hero]

Haven’t had cause to start a new build thread for a while as I’ve been winding down my retro bike activities (pretty much completed my collection), but I’ve had an eye open for one of these for many a year, just waiting for the right one to come along.
Whilst this isn’t an expensive bike/frameset, they all seem to be either too big, too much money, or the later model finished with world team colours at the front end - or all of those things.

But finally a small sized, full yellow MCM Team came up for sale on eBay, and I watched and waited as the price gradually became more affordable - bearing in mind it wasn’t local, and didn’t include postage.

As is also often the case, the build specs of the MCM Teams out there tend to be pretty rubbish - which is odd given it’s effectively a top of the line frameset. Perhaps only being offered as frame left the build being open to absolutely any interpretation.

So here’s what I picked up at the weekend:


Great seller to deal with and a fair deal done - but I was really only interested in the frame.

Stage one of the build has commenced, which has included a full strip down, degrease and polish. It’s come up nicely














Once fully stripped down I was curious as to what the frame weighed, and was pleased that it came in a smidge over 1.6kg.

I’ve started gathering parts - many with the help of @Tsundere but I’ve still got a few key pieces to find/figure out.

I’m going for a more 1995 MCM Team build rather than the later years, so this is going to be more M900 XTR, rather than M950. Only wish I’d held on to a set of M910 hubbed wheels over the years…

 

[Dave_H]

Such good looking frames that were largely overlooked at the time.

Can't remember if they were prohibitively expensive at the time or if at the time the world was moving away from the lightweight XC end?

 

[trailwright]

Agree, good looking frame and similar looking to the Trek OCLV of the same period. But I had both one after the other and the Giant was noticeably heavier and not as lively a ride as the Trek.

 

[Once A Hero]

Never had one myself, just recall seeing Rune Hoydahl destroying the field on one during many a World Cup race throughout 1995 so it always stuck with me to get one at some point.

Weight doesn't strike me as being heavy, but I'll weigh it once built up to see how it stacks up against my other XC bikes.
As for cost - I'll do some digging and see what I can find out.

 

[Once A Hero]

Little bit of progress, installed a bracket for the braze-on front mech, the mech itself is awaited.


Seeing as the frame is lacking a cable stop for the rear cantis, I’ll need a collar mounted item, this one may be temporary.

 

[1552]

I was watching this on ebay myself, but the stars just didn't align for me

Now ones on here for sale and I'm skint

I worked as a Saturday lad in a small car parts and accessories shop that was also a Giant dealer around 95, and we had a lad who the shop sponsored, he was upgraded to the mcm team frame from his previous alloy model and I got to build it up, wanted one ever since.

I had an mcm team colour frame and in a moment of weakness during covid I sold it

This looks really clean

 

[Frankenorange]

Little bit of progress, installed a bracket for the braze-on front mech, the mech itself is awaited.
View attachment 998368

Seeing as the frame is lacking a cable stop for the rear cantis, I’ll need a collar mounted item, this one may be temporary.
View attachment 998371

The brake cable might have a bit of a hard time getting into that hanger. There is a hanger that hangs from the pinch bolt sold by Surly and you can get them under that name, or other names. Basically a loop of wire with an adjuster and i am pretty sure it will hang much lower.

Search surly long cable hanger and you will find loads of them.

 

[Once A Hero]

The brake cable might have a bit of a hard time getting into that hanger. There is a hanger that hangs from the pinch bolt sold by Surly and you can get them under that name, or other names. Basically a loop of wire with an adjuster and i am pretty sure it will hang much lower.

Search surly long cable hanger and you will find loads of them.

Thanks, I’ll check it out.

 

[Once A Hero]

Had a suitable Aheadset in my spares drawers so have installed that, along with a set of Judy XCs I’ve been cleaning up - these need new MCUs but I had a pair of springs handy so popped them in for the time being. I’ve got another set of forks on the way but it’ll be a while before I can fit those as I expect they’ll need work.

Stem from storage just to get an idea of what length I’ll want, this one is 130mm.