New Build - Retro or Not?

[Simon]

I'm really struggling with this. I've brought myself the frame pictured at the bottom of the post - a Serotta CHT. Triple butted titanium and some of the nicest welds in the industry. It's also (yippee!) got a disc mount.

Now, I suppose I was originally thinking of building it up a bit retro style (it's probably important at this point that I note it'll be my only mountain bike). The trouble is, the price of retro parts has been creeping up steadily for a couple of years now. When you get them, they're secondhand and there's no guarantee something won't snap or otherwise fail.

Wiggle and Merlin are in the middle of a bit of a price war right now. For about £1000 I could get a full M960 XTR groupset, SID Teams, a DT 240 wheelset, Chris King headset and some reasonable finishing kit. Cracking value, and a great bike.

The trouble is the modern kit still leaves me cold - it's boring and functional. It's much more fun searching out retro parts. I suppose what I'm saying is I'm a retrobiker at heart, but I feel torn between the fun stuff and practicality!

 

[orange71]

Look for NOS retro stuff!! Old stuff, unused... probably still cheaper than new equivalents?

 

[BoyBurning]

I suppose really it depends how often / hard yer goona ride it (I see you mention it's yer only mtb). I completely agree bout the price rise occuring with old kit, the 'unknown factor' in it's longetivity, and the difficulty in finding replacements if this doesn't appear to be very long...

To this extent I make no bones of running modern gears and brakes on my old Pace. Yes they are ugly and soul-less but they serve a purpose, last (and are covered by still valid warranties!), and work well which is what I need for an everyday riding bike.

There appears to be some quite nice stuff coming out again of late - but it's very pricey. Half the joy for me has been being able to ride around on stuff now that I would never have been able to afford when it was new 15 years ago or whenever.

Maybe you could follow a similar route to the one I've chosen - running modern drivetrain and brakes but with an old style stem, post, bars, saddle, wheels, qrs etc...?

 

[Kestonian]

I had a similar dilemma recently - I had the cash to buy my dream bike or a stable of retro steeds. I went for the dream for a number of reasons

1. I can still get the retro steeds when I find them at the right price - I just have one transient retro slot in the stable. At the moment, it's an RC200. If I find a Merlin XLM in the right size, condition and price, it will become that and probably stay that way (unless I find a Moots Riggor Mootis in the right .... you get the picture!)

2. I got the dream bike built EXACTLY the way I wanted it. In a short time scale, with everything in the colours I wanted, spec I wanted and didn't have to wait, get outbid, get scammed on ebay, have it lost in the post etc.

3. This would be my main MTB for everything from 2 hour races, to social rides to 48 hour adventure races. I wanted the best of today. I have the best of yesterday in the garage when I want that.

You might feel differently.

 

[orange71]

having said the above I do like hanging newish kit on old frames

 

[stevet1]

I'm really liking the brushed/polished finish on that frame.
If its your only bike, at the very least I think I'd stick to modern suspension forks unless your running it rigid.

 

[Elev12k]

1st I would like to say that is a very nice frame

Modern era parts wouldn't look odd on that frame. The frame itself isn't really old. I am not a big fan of new parts on -let's say- an early/mid 90s frame. Yours is probably around 5 yrs old. Stuff over a decade old would probably look more out place than stuff <10.

Personally I do not feel nowadays stuff has more or less soul than stuff about 5 years old. To me it is more or less the same. Nowadays stuff with soul does excist. It is only probably even tough to source as the serious oldschool (>10) stuff though

Personally if I had the funds and didn't want to spent too much on searching, I think I would mix a bit of modern stuff that is widely available with some nice stuff of yesteryear (but not too old).

 

[andrewl]

It's also (yippee!) got a disc mount.

The disc mount is however one of the really ordinary chainstay jobs which makes fitting anything new difficult.

 

[kingroon]

M960 is a nice looking gruppo, I'd go with that.. Do you have to spec the entire bike as either Retro or Modern? I'd go with M960 gears & brakes etc. with the odd Retro piece [stem/bars/QRs etc.]..

Catastrophic Failure notwithstanding, anything that didn't have mechanical parts in '94 will still work in '07.. :?:

That is a lovely frame BTW, the colour of the M960 will suit it perfecto

 

[scant]

It's also (yippee!) got a disc mount.

The disc mount is however one of the really ordinary chainstay jobs which makes fitting anything new difficult.

nope, theres several aftermarket conversion kits to allow normal IS mount calipers to fit. this very topics been discussed recently on this very site. 22mm hayes calipers do appear occasionally if you wanted to use the current mount.