superdan1984
Dirt Disciple
It continues...
But 1st,
Forgot to add up the costs from the last segment
Dt Hugi Hubs
1998 Wrong hubs £200
1997 Wrong hubs £100
Nos 1995 £120
121 Non Ceramic wheels
DT Hugi 1995 Rear
Specialized Control Master Tyres
£350
Spokes £60
Wheel build including brake set up cause he's better at than me £100
New set of X-Ray Shifters £60
£990 Total
Other Parts from that section
Pro Long Saddle
£70
Avid Ultimates £250
Total spent So far
£4100
August 2023 Photos 123
To the Malverns we go
Having had my wheels built and going through all of that messing about, i was immediately unhappy with them.
Yep, that's right.
Because they weren't quite right, because they were the CD's and the coating had worn off the same as had happened on my D521's.
I didn't think i'd noticed, but i did.
But i wasn't gonna not go to the Malverns just because of that.
So i went, and it was so good!
Immediately tried to find the real Mcroy.
Neil didn't turn up with it for 3 days, I've waited 20 years i guess another 3 days won't kill me, urghhhh! Ha
Got to know the guys at the retro stand, gleeming with my bike. Was immediately shot down.
"You realise your wheels have been laced the wrong way round?"
"They're also 36 spoke and jase's is 32"
"And they're not ceramic.."
What!!??
The decals were supposed to go from the drivers side in, not out. The final nails in the coffin for that wheelset.
But those guys were great, so good that when i told them that i had the wrong bolt count DCD one of them Dan, told me he had 3 bolt red DCD on his bike and had no problem with me swapping them over....
What an absolute legend!
And finally on the friday, the real Mcroy turned up... Look how gad damn beautiful that thing is!!
30 years old and it still has that gleaming Ferrari red coating, and looks like an utter pocket rocket!
Stuck my bike in the Sunday showdown
Didn't expect to do that well... Then didn't... And was then secretly annoyed that it didn't!
But a whole bunch of JMC fans, and a couple of lads who'd just bought a genuine JMC FSR.
And the 1 conversation i do remember aside from being stunned that i was massively out geeked by these guys, was an idea to get all the JMC replica builders back for the slalom race this year.
Having thought about it though, considering it's gonna be 30 years since Jason's passing next year i think it would actually be better next.
But imagine that, a JMC Slalom showdown!
So good!
March 2024 Photos 456789
The finish line is in sight
Final unicorn
Having come back form the Malverns, i'd had a great time but those wheels, they were bothering me.
And so it began, I started a new hunt.
It's funny, i don't even think you always consciously make a decision that the hunt has begun, but it has, and you find yourself trawling through site after site, trying out different ways to find your selected target.
I'd put multiple call outs for Ceramic 121s, and it was the first time i'd never got anything back, on every single forum i could think of, and by christmas i'd exhausted pretty much all of my options.
I had bought 2 121 wheels on ebay, both were Ceramic but when they came one was 32 hole the other 36 and they both in different finishes. And neither were in great shap tbf.
Which my bike mechanic mate laughingly enjoyed pointing out.
With the customary abuse of "how did you not read they were different spoke counts? You're an idiot!"
I even got touch with Mavic to see if they could Ceramic coat my rims, obviously that was a massive no!
Then just on a random search i tried for a change not to look at any of the main sales sites that came up and typed in "Mavic 121 Ceramic"
And oddly something came up a little further down the search page.
"121 Ceramic 36 hole rims"
I went to the page Steel vintage bikes, which is mainly for retro roadie bikes.
And at first i thought it had to be a scam!
They had NOS 121 Ceramic rims in 36 hole for £60 per rim, seemed too good to be true...
But i had to give it a go...
Pulled the trigger on just 1, so if it was a scam i only lost £60.
I had found a similar site when i first got my rockhopper and it turned out to be some chinese scam.
Kept a super close on the tracking..
2 weeks later it had arrived from Germany, and it was exactly as advertised.
They were Red label NOS Ceramic 121's...
For £60 a rim?! WTF!!
I honestly considered buying their entire stock then selling them all for £150 a rim, and i reckon i'd have got that too.
But i didn't, i bought myself another told my closest retro build buddies just in case they wanted them, then told retro communities on some of the fb forums.
More fool me really, but i also couldn't be arsed with all that packing and sending.
Then went back to my long suffering bike mechanic mate who'd only finished building the wheels on the bike a few months before, and now i wanted him to strip them and replace the slightly naff rims with new rims.
Not only that, but i wanted him to do the decals too, because he teased me about the last set i'd done on 2 the other 121s i'd bought a couple of weeks earlier that turned out to be not right either.
He hated me, ha!
And to show just how much he hated me, he waited 3 months to build them, bastard! Ha
Though tbf the weather has absolutely sucked so it hasn't been a problem.
While waiting i'd also managed to go through buying 2 nos xt rear skewers, the 1st wasn't long enough, even though i'd definitely measured everything correctly.
But the 2nd was perfect.
Then after much poking of the angry bike mechanic he finally built them.
With much swearing at me over messenger and personal threats to my saftey when i showed him the photo of the real bike and he realised the decals had to be slightly different than they were on my previous rims.
The day finally arrived
Got them back home... And more importantly, wasn't beaten to death by Jason the bike mechanic...
Got out the old Tatty Spesh tyres i'd been restoring and cleaning up, and rebuilding the walls and slung them on.
The JMC was done!
Okay yes, those wheels are 36 hole, but i'm choosing not to care about that also Jason would definitely murder me if i asked for another wheel build, and i'm also not hunting for those hubs again.
So the only difference between mine and the real one is
Front Titanium Specialized skewer
Ti Rail Pro long Saddle
32 hole rims instead of 36...
Oh and a mud plug..
I can live with it.
.. For now ;D
Final costs
121 ceramic rim Ebay 32 £100 Wrong
121 ceramic rim Ebay 36 £120 Wrong
2 sets of JMS Rim Decals £25
Finish line Decal £20
Grip Shift Decals £10
121 36 Ceramic 121s NOS £120
Wheel build + Decals application + a 3 month wait + Personal threats to my wellbeing £150
Seatpost collar £5
New top caps for my Rockshox FSX's £10
Restoration of FSX Forks from Retro Shox £100
Total £660
And a Grand total of £4760 spent
But that doesn't even cover the amount of hours digging for everything.
And it's been a hell of an experience.
Hope anyone who's read this and has enjoyed my trauma, ha!
Last 2 photos is of where i've arrived now to when i started riding in that glorious weather of 2020
Here's hoping we get an awesome summer this year!
Will be at the Malverns hopefully again, but remeber next year JMC Slalom to comemorate the man that started us off with all this.
To JMC
But 1st,
Forgot to add up the costs from the last segment
Dt Hugi Hubs
1998 Wrong hubs £200
1997 Wrong hubs £100
Nos 1995 £120
121 Non Ceramic wheels
DT Hugi 1995 Rear
Specialized Control Master Tyres
£350
Spokes £60
Wheel build including brake set up cause he's better at than me £100
New set of X-Ray Shifters £60
£990 Total
Other Parts from that section
Pro Long Saddle
£70
Avid Ultimates £250
Total spent So far
£4100
August 2023 Photos 123
To the Malverns we go
Having had my wheels built and going through all of that messing about, i was immediately unhappy with them.
Yep, that's right.
Because they weren't quite right, because they were the CD's and the coating had worn off the same as had happened on my D521's.
I didn't think i'd noticed, but i did.
But i wasn't gonna not go to the Malverns just because of that.
So i went, and it was so good!
Immediately tried to find the real Mcroy.
Neil didn't turn up with it for 3 days, I've waited 20 years i guess another 3 days won't kill me, urghhhh! Ha
Got to know the guys at the retro stand, gleeming with my bike. Was immediately shot down.
"You realise your wheels have been laced the wrong way round?"
"They're also 36 spoke and jase's is 32"
"And they're not ceramic.."
What!!??
The decals were supposed to go from the drivers side in, not out. The final nails in the coffin for that wheelset.
But those guys were great, so good that when i told them that i had the wrong bolt count DCD one of them Dan, told me he had 3 bolt red DCD on his bike and had no problem with me swapping them over....
What an absolute legend!
And finally on the friday, the real Mcroy turned up... Look how gad damn beautiful that thing is!!
30 years old and it still has that gleaming Ferrari red coating, and looks like an utter pocket rocket!
Stuck my bike in the Sunday showdown
Didn't expect to do that well... Then didn't... And was then secretly annoyed that it didn't!
But a whole bunch of JMC fans, and a couple of lads who'd just bought a genuine JMC FSR.
And the 1 conversation i do remember aside from being stunned that i was massively out geeked by these guys, was an idea to get all the JMC replica builders back for the slalom race this year.
Having thought about it though, considering it's gonna be 30 years since Jason's passing next year i think it would actually be better next.
But imagine that, a JMC Slalom showdown!
So good!
March 2024 Photos 456789
The finish line is in sight
Final unicorn
Having come back form the Malverns, i'd had a great time but those wheels, they were bothering me.
And so it began, I started a new hunt.
It's funny, i don't even think you always consciously make a decision that the hunt has begun, but it has, and you find yourself trawling through site after site, trying out different ways to find your selected target.
I'd put multiple call outs for Ceramic 121s, and it was the first time i'd never got anything back, on every single forum i could think of, and by christmas i'd exhausted pretty much all of my options.
I had bought 2 121 wheels on ebay, both were Ceramic but when they came one was 32 hole the other 36 and they both in different finishes. And neither were in great shap tbf.
Which my bike mechanic mate laughingly enjoyed pointing out.
With the customary abuse of "how did you not read they were different spoke counts? You're an idiot!"
I even got touch with Mavic to see if they could Ceramic coat my rims, obviously that was a massive no!
Then just on a random search i tried for a change not to look at any of the main sales sites that came up and typed in "Mavic 121 Ceramic"
And oddly something came up a little further down the search page.
"121 Ceramic 36 hole rims"
I went to the page Steel vintage bikes, which is mainly for retro roadie bikes.
And at first i thought it had to be a scam!
They had NOS 121 Ceramic rims in 36 hole for £60 per rim, seemed too good to be true...
But i had to give it a go...
Pulled the trigger on just 1, so if it was a scam i only lost £60.
I had found a similar site when i first got my rockhopper and it turned out to be some chinese scam.
Kept a super close on the tracking..
2 weeks later it had arrived from Germany, and it was exactly as advertised.
They were Red label NOS Ceramic 121's...
For £60 a rim?! WTF!!
I honestly considered buying their entire stock then selling them all for £150 a rim, and i reckon i'd have got that too.
But i didn't, i bought myself another told my closest retro build buddies just in case they wanted them, then told retro communities on some of the fb forums.
More fool me really, but i also couldn't be arsed with all that packing and sending.
Then went back to my long suffering bike mechanic mate who'd only finished building the wheels on the bike a few months before, and now i wanted him to strip them and replace the slightly naff rims with new rims.
Not only that, but i wanted him to do the decals too, because he teased me about the last set i'd done on 2 the other 121s i'd bought a couple of weeks earlier that turned out to be not right either.
He hated me, ha!
And to show just how much he hated me, he waited 3 months to build them, bastard! Ha
Though tbf the weather has absolutely sucked so it hasn't been a problem.
While waiting i'd also managed to go through buying 2 nos xt rear skewers, the 1st wasn't long enough, even though i'd definitely measured everything correctly.
But the 2nd was perfect.
Then after much poking of the angry bike mechanic he finally built them.
With much swearing at me over messenger and personal threats to my saftey when i showed him the photo of the real bike and he realised the decals had to be slightly different than they were on my previous rims.
The day finally arrived
Got them back home... And more importantly, wasn't beaten to death by Jason the bike mechanic...
Got out the old Tatty Spesh tyres i'd been restoring and cleaning up, and rebuilding the walls and slung them on.
The JMC was done!
Okay yes, those wheels are 36 hole, but i'm choosing not to care about that also Jason would definitely murder me if i asked for another wheel build, and i'm also not hunting for those hubs again.
So the only difference between mine and the real one is
Front Titanium Specialized skewer
Ti Rail Pro long Saddle
32 hole rims instead of 36...
Oh and a mud plug..
I can live with it.
.. For now ;D
Final costs
121 ceramic rim Ebay 32 £100 Wrong
121 ceramic rim Ebay 36 £120 Wrong
2 sets of JMS Rim Decals £25
Finish line Decal £20
Grip Shift Decals £10
121 36 Ceramic 121s NOS £120
Wheel build + Decals application + a 3 month wait + Personal threats to my wellbeing £150
Seatpost collar £5
New top caps for my Rockshox FSX's £10
Restoration of FSX Forks from Retro Shox £100
Total £660
And a Grand total of £4760 spent
But that doesn't even cover the amount of hours digging for everything.
And it's been a hell of an experience.
Hope anyone who's read this and has enjoyed my trauma, ha!
Last 2 photos is of where i've arrived now to when i started riding in that glorious weather of 2020
Here's hoping we get an awesome summer this year!
Will be at the Malverns hopefully again, but remeber next year JMC Slalom to comemorate the man that started us off with all this.
To JMC
