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Alright then, next bike in line to get sorted out was the Vengeance. I had sent it off for painting but he must have been drunk when he did it.  It was terrible. At least half a dozen flaws I spotted immediately. I was considering just doing it myself and not paying for it but in the end I rang him and he was fine about it, said he would do it again, do it better, and would have it ready in 2 days. So I sent it back over to him and twiddled my thumbs waiting for it. But I remembered that first I had to sort out all my gear.  This is the result of gathering up parts from broken bikes over the years and hoarding it - a lot of good stuff actually, and even some new parts. I sorted that out into what I could use on MTBs, and put the BMX and Racer parts in another box and stuck them out of the way. And the frame came back... Perfect! It's a nice pearl white, and the paintwork is almost flawless this time.  The RST forks were liberated from the broken Kinesis  And fitted to the Vengeance, in the middle of the night, on top of my receptionist's workstation   That took ages because I had to try and put a headset together out of spares. The one that came off the frame was very messed up indeed but I found the races from the Carrera Vulcan I had years ago (identified by the white paint flakes on it - it was also one I resprayed white) and once I'd found decent bearings we were good to go. The bike came with 27" handlebars which were just way too big and I hunted around until I found some narrower Tioga ones - also from the white Vulcan. They are 25" across but that also meant I had to run the Tioga stem to suit them as I only had stems for larger diameter bars. The 27" bars just felt too wide at the shoulders for a woman and I figured the 25" ones would be a good fit for her narrower frame. Next step was the driveline and that came off pretty much complete from the Marin. 8 speed Shimano Alivio gear in reasonable order except for the rear mech which was pretty awful.  The hanging part of it was a bit twisted but I pulled it somewhat straighter. The plastic cogs were very very worn but out of my box of spares I pulled a basic Shimano Tourney mech and ripped it apart for the gearwheels which were the same size but just slightly fatter, but they still fitted in so that was a win, and the Alivio 8 spd mech was back in action. I pulled the one remaining brake disc and the combination shifter/brake levers off the Marin as well - it was looking pretty dead at this point...  I tried to remove the cranks from it also but someone had already been there and stripped the threads on the drive-side so I left them alone grudgingly. So the spares box was raided again and some Suntour XCRs were located and mish-mashed with the best gear cogs from the original set on this bike. The cranks themselves had to be replaced as they are really beat up and wouldn't look presentable enough to go on this (what is becoming a) really nice bike. Leaving me only to make some new cables up and attach all the pieces together and get the Vengeance to look almost like a bike...  I (well we, I got my buddy to help with the last few bits) took the tyres off the black Hardrock - a pair of Continentals, one half worn and the other fairly good - and popped them onto the original wheels. When cleaning the wheels up I could see the sticker residue where they used to say Carrera on them but I cleaned them off better so that isn't so visible now. Put the other wavy disc from the Marin on and took one off the Hardrock too. And some pedals, some air in the tyres, some cable clips.  I am really pleased with it. I found a gel saddle in my spares, and that's the original seatpost for the bike. The brakes are cable disc Tektro Io that I had in spares also, with good pads, and I'd already bought a lovely set of floral pattern pink lock-on grips. I gave it to my buddy to do the set up as he's not too busy this week and I have some purple anodised bolts and bottle cage ordered, and after that just some stickers for the tubing to just add the finishing touch, and we have to figure out some overly elaborate way to give it to her now. I'm for hiding it in the forest and "stealing" it for her when we're next out, but suggestions are welcome, not on a postcard though as this is happening soon! |
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The next bike to be built will be the Marin. It's going to get the brakes and shifters from the Rockhopper and the drivetrain will be mostly new. I'm waiting on parts to change the brakes to 203mm. Yes, yes I am stripping the Rockhopper. Yes, it is the best bike I've shown so far. That is, until I show you the perfect hardtail frame I finally got hold of last month...  |
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Jun 13, 2021 23:20:05 GMT
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Lots of anodised bolts were purchased and the Carrera Vengeance is now very, very girly.  Some stickers ordered off ebay and some custom printed by my local signage place who did a great job turning my imagination into something printable.  Final Spec: Carrera Vengeance Ltd Ladies frame, repainted Pearl White RST Capa 80mm front forks OE Carrera Wheels, Continental Mountain King 26x2.2" tyres, OE QR skewers Shimano Alivio 8 Speed Rear Mech, 3 Speed Front Mech Shimano 8 Speed cassette Shimano Alivio 8x3 Shifters Tioga Stem, Tioga 25" bars, XLC Heritage Floral Embossed Lock-On Grips Suntour XCT 175mm cranks, Shimano Megarange9 rings, unknown metal XC pedals Tektro Io Cable Disc Brakes, 160mm Tektro discs, Shimano levers OE Aheadset, OE Square Taper BB OE Carrera Seatpost, Gel Saddle Pink Gear + Brake Cable Outers Purple cable ferrules, bottle cage, + anodised bolts throughout We haven't had a chance to give it to her yet, but soon. In the meantime we needed a bike for my buddy to ride for one outing so I got the Rockhopper ready for him, but he has shorter arms than me so the stance of the bike isn't as much to his liking. So one evening i took into it and pulled the bars and stem off it and fitted a shorter stem, which meant changing the bars too as like mentioned before I only have stems for larger diameter bars. It did improve the geometry for him but I don't like it like that. It'll be fixed later. I've ordered a replacement Deore rear mech for it as the previous owner had replaced it with a cheapo unit and of course it doesn't shift right (probably a 7/8 speed unit and the bike is a 9 speed). Also been on ebay and been buying up some sets of hydraulics, so lots of brake swapping going to be happening soon.  The Marin will be the next build. It's going to be SRAM drivetrain with the Deore brakes and some WTB 29x2.4 tyres have arrived after I got sick of traveling to Halfords waiting on Conti 2.35s to come back into stock. |
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Jun 14, 2021 14:24:17 GMT
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Loving where this is going. 90's Kona frames are ace too.
Personally, I prefer the WTB tyres, I run a mix of Trail Boss and Vengence on my bikes.
Conti's in my experience are overpriced toss.
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Jul 13, 2021 14:11:48 GMT
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The hydraulics arrived.  First off was a set of Giant MPH, which I bought simply because they looked weird. I was doing a lot of ebay searching for a good set of brakes on the cheap and ended up buying too many as usual! I also grabbed a rear Juicy Carbon to go with the Juicy 3 front that I had "in stock". I picked up a set of Hayes So1e that were spelled incorrectly on the listing so they were a bargain. And lastly I finally got a set of the brakes I really wanted:  A good condition set of Magura Louise hydros. Not only are they a super brake, it's a huge internal lol for me as I know a girl called Louise who also tries to slow me down sometimes  So with proper brakes now available I finished off the Marin with the Hayes (as I'd already put a 203mm Hayes disc on it) and then had to wait for another bracket as I'd bought IS mounts for the frame but the Hayes are direct post-mount calipers. All the others are IS mount, typically. Although for some reason I do not seem to have a photo of it! I shall go rectify that. |
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Jul 14, 2021 11:53:27 GMT
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So once the Marin was sorted (will get a picture soon) it was taken out for a test-ride, and it was pretty good albeit a bit of fiddling with the gears was needed. The WTB 29x2.4 tyres were just too wide - the rear rubbed on the legs and left no room for the front mech, so in the end the Impac 29x2.1 trail tyres (that it came with) went back on to it, sadly. I'll write out it's full spec once there's a finished picture. On to the Rockhopper. Yes I had decided to strip it but after one ride I realised it was pretty good, and a new plan was formed. The new plan is that I'll use it as my main bike, and then slowly build up the Kona with the best of old-school gear as I get it, and make a really tasty bike. I'll still use it but maybe not just as roughly. The Rockhopper had a cheap rear mech on it and the axles were done. But those wheels are really good and I'll need them for the Kona, so I still had the Mavic CrossOne wheels from the Hardrock, which were fairly good, so I prepped those to go on. Stripped and rebuilt the axles on them as they were a bit stiff. Usually I can get away with doing an axle with standard 15mm spanners but the nuts on these wheels were really thin and tight so I took into the spanner with a flapdisc and made myself a new cone spanner. Improvisation, right?  Put the bars and head it came with back on to it. Ran new cables all round, and fitted a secondhand Deore rear mech that I found from a charity organisation via ebay for £30.  In the end I got a really nice bike, all set up now, that I've not had a chance to use yet but feels really balanced and agile. Final Spec: Specialized Rockhopper 19" frame, stripped bare and scrubbed clean OE Rockshox Duke 100mm forks Mavic CrossOne Wheels, Continental Vertical 26x2.2" tyres, Shimano Deore QR skewers Shimano Deore 8 Speed Rear Mech, 3 Speed Deore Front Mech Shimano 8 Speed cassette Shimano Deore 8x3 Shifters Specialized Stem, Specialized 26" bars, OST white Lock-On Grips Specialized 175mm cranks, Shimano Megarange rings, DMR V12 pedals Shimano Deore Hydraulic Disc Brakes, 160mm Shimano discs, Shimano Deore levers FSA Aheadset, OE Square Taper BB OE Specialized Seatpost, Sel Italia Saddle, OE Specialized QR Clamp New Black Gear + Brake Cable Inners + Outers Anodized Red Dice valve caps |
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Aug 14, 2021 22:48:05 GMT
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 This is just a report to say that the Rockhopper has been used a few times now... and I've never had as many spills!  We're hypothesising at the moment over whether it is due to: Too long of a head stem meaning too much weight over the front wheel Too light of a rear end leaving it skittish Too fast and too light meaning it's better than the rider using it It's a very fast bike and perfectly geared. But yeah I'm way too far over the front end which might be why I keep ending up in the ditch when I get on the brakes. Gonna try bringing it back a bit with a shorter stem and see how that goes. It's all a bit of experimentation anyway right? And no broken bones yet so... plenty of time... |
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Tazzy
Part of things
Posts: 114
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Sept 1, 2021 18:17:14 GMT
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The stem is way way to long  |
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I was out again on the Rockhopper with a few changes a while back and it was still really skittish. Also a couple of my riding buddies tried it one weekend when i wasn't free, and they found the same thing. I'm finding it way too light, and it's like the wheelbase is too short, it's too willing to veer off to the side, and isn't steady. It's knocked my confidence a bit and the other guys don't like it either. I stuck it up for sale as-is but got zero interest. Bad timing as everyone that took up (or thought they were going to) cycling during the 'rona lockdown now realises they aren't actually gonna any more and is selling up, so there's a glut of decent, fresh machinery for favourable prices. Plan has therefore gone back to stripping the Rockhopper for the good bits, and building the Kona. In the meantime I've been out using my mates Specialized Hardrock. He's built a clinker of a bike from the Hardrock Pro I picked up initially (at the start of this thread) after I robbed the good bits off it. He found a modified Carrera locally for a few quid with a decent lockout fork and good wheels on it, and hydraulic brakes, and built that all on to the Hardrock Pro. Now he uses that and the older Hardrock is spare (with V-brakes!) Also still going from ancient history, is my Kenesis! I had the rear arm welded up buy a guy I know. I also had ordered some fresh army surplus canvas tape. First to get covered were the Marzocchi forks  Stripped down into pieces for the wrapping  But I wasn't really happy with the dirtiness of the aluminium parts. I want to properly clean that, and then paint them black. Later maybe.  Because now they had to go back together to get refitted to the bike! The headset bearings were a bit rough so I cleaned the Cane Creek races out and fitted new bearings.  And decided while I was there that the Deore cable disc brake had served it's time and the bike was getting a hydraulic front brake. I could also then remove the combined shifters (that are pretty worn out) and do away with it on the left side as there is no front mech anyway, this bike runs 1x7 gears (hard work on hills!)  I would change that but I'm not sure if the rear wheel hub would accept a 9 or 10 gear cassette? and also needs to have surfaces for the rear V brake...  So the front disc should also be upsized too, right? Shimano 160 removed, Shimano 180 fitted.  Leaving only one more problem to discover...  ...in 1998, Marzocchi used a 49mm spacing for their disc mount on the Bomber Z1/Z2/Z3 range, not the IS 51mm we are used to now. And the only thing that fits is some ancient unobtanium Hope or Magura stuff, and the only adapter was made a dozen years ago by Magura and is long, long looooong discontinued... Bah! So I've still got no bike. |
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Nov 29, 2021 20:22:21 GMT
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Looks like you're putting together some quite tasty bikes surprisingskoda I'm looking forward to seeing how that Kona pans out though! |
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49mm disc mount was a formula standard. yes it's a curse word isn't it.  go ask on retrobikes, see if anyone has an adapter laying about. if not, sell the fork and find another with IS. or drill your post mount you have, you'll have to use a nut on the back side as the holes going to overlap (a bit like 4 to 5 bolt wheel adapters, haha). the vengance looks good. stems a bit long though. that Kona is sexy, it will build in to a really capable bike that handles wonderfully if you pick the right forks. |
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Davey
Posted a lot
Resident Tyre Nerd.
Posts: 2,348
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Loving this. I am also a fan of older Kona bits and Kinesis stuff. Current older bike which takes a fair old hammering. 2003ish Cindercone, XT Crankset, XTR rear mech, brand new Deore brakes as they where a bargain and insanely underpriced for what you get. Hope Ti Glide disc hubs and Mavic rims lighter than pretty much anything available today but with Titanium strength. The best buy was the Magura Menja forks getting them set up to suit my weight made the bike ride almost as well as the 29 inch modern equivalent. The bars are stupidly wide but I love it regardless.  |
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K11 Micra x3 - Mk3 astra - Seat Marbella - Mk6 Escort estate - B5 Passat - Alfa 156 estate - E36 compact
Mk2 MR2 T-bar - E46 328i - Skoda Superb - Fiat seicento - 6n2 Polo - 6n polo 1.6 - Mk1 GS300
EU8 civic type S - MG ZT cdti - R56 MINI Cooper S - Audi A3 8p - Jaguar XF (X250) - FN2 Civic Type R - Mk2 2.0i Ford Focus - Mercedes W212 E250
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49mm disc mount was a formula standard. yes it's a curse word isn't it. go ask on retrobikes, see if anyone has an adapter laying about. if not, sell the fork and find another with IS. or drill your post mount you have, you'll have to use a nut on the back side as the holes going to overlap (a bit like 4 to 5 bolt wheel adapters, haha). the vengance looks good. stems a bit long though. that Kona is sexy, it will build in to a really capable bike that handles wonderfully if you pick the right forks. I want to keep the Bombers so yeah I am going to drill the post out. The mounting bracket I'll use will be threaded so it won't need a nut on the other side. If I take 1mm out of the outer (further away from each other) sides of the holes in the fork, then in theory I won't even need to shim them as the mount will hold the bolts in tension and there won't be any movement possible. I've already bought a set of Rockshox Recon 351 for the Kona. I was looking at some Fox and Manitou options but the Recons were a decent price (used). I'm toying with adding some external bearings or possibly an angled headset, to rake the geometry back a little bit. I have the good set of wheels that came on the Rockhopper so it will be a 26" wheel bike for sure. And I've got orders to build another MTB, the most important thing being that it's a pretty colour. Yellow or green. Good job I've been (intentionally) hoarding bits (for this inevitable request) then isn't it? |
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no, don't touch the fork, that won't work. the lower point is the same for IS as it is for formula. drill the adapter (mounting bracket) you have on the brake now.
if you want a more modern head angle, run a 650b wheel on the front. to be honest though, it doesn't need it.
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OK yeah I drilled the adapter out instead of the fork. I tapped the fork though as there was no room for nuts on the other side.  And needed to find smaller headed bolts as there was no clearance between the head and disc  And spaced out the bracket for the caliper - as I didn't have any taller post-mount adapters, it was kinda make-shift for now  And kept going with the changes. Another issue with building bikes with whatever you have at the time is, sometimes the bits aren't the best solution. For example, these bars are far too narrow for me.  Bars changed, and cable front disc changed to hydraulic, meant I could lose the combined brake/shifters, especially as there is no front derailleur and the left hand shifter has a rung brake adjuster too, so those came off and went in the skip. I found an 8spd Alivio shifter in the spares box, and a couple of 9s, but nothing to match the 7 speed rear cassette.  I do want to change the gear range as well to make it more usable, but the hub under that cassette is stepped and only the Shimano megarange will fit it, and so I can't fit any of the other cassettes I have. Option 1 is stick with it and buy a 7 speed shifter Option 2 is use the 8 speed shifter as-is Option 3 is replace the wheel, cassette, rear mech and the shifter all to 8 or 9 spd. Remember the wheel needs to take a V-brake too so all of the wheels I have "in stock" are unsuitable. Hmm. Kinda stopped play again here while I ponder options. |
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As I mentioned, the Rockhopper isn't to my liking, too skittish, and I've no confidence on it. I tried it a bit more, but couldn't do it, and was using the also-mentioned V-brake Hardrock my buddy has spare now instead. So I was browsing the for sales as you do - so was he. He kept showing me full-sus Norco's and Cove's etc, and debating whether to buy another bike. So I was also looking at them, and actually got in touch with a few sellers about some premium machinery, until my answer popped up in the form of a frame advertised locally for not very much. In Northern Ireland "the next village over" means it was 2 miles away from my house, as villages here are small and everything is near everything else (but takes ages to get anywhere as you have to go through them all in turn..) So that is how I picked up this frame:  And, also, I found a "Trex" for sale at the other side of the small town 3 miles from that, so on the same dark evening I grabbed that too  Obviously I figured out it was a Trek. Could have been a "Trax" but I would have recognised one of those horrendous pieces of junk instantly having tried my best to avoid selling any of them when working at Halfords a decade ago. The Trek is not in bad shape actually, and needs very little to repair it. Everything I should have for it.  I have the urban tyres taken off the Carrera Vengeance and some V-brake spares, and a few chains spare, so this will be a light refurb and should make a nice road-based hybrid for some fitness next spring. And the red frame?  I'll write up that build soon. There's much to tell, but it's actually worth it! |
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And one last addition... (Apparently, according to my gf, mountain biking is "so much fun" now that it's muddy - a big change from summertime opinions...!) Looking for a good frame to build up, I actually came across an ad for this Lapierre for sale at a tiny bike-shop in Belfast (an hour away) for what seemed to be a bargain price. All their other bikes were used cheapies. I couldn't make it work for a few days and I was sure someone else was going to snap it up, but the big day came when I was going to go buy it. And then, a friend said he was going to Belfast that day in his van, and some quick rearranging meant that he picked the bike up for me and I didn't have to drive 2 hours at all - and it was secretly stashed away in his garage.  The ad pictures had been low-res but I could make out the "Ritchey" on the stem and "Deore" on the rear mech, so on those points alone I had already determined the bike had to be good quality.  I had about 5 minutes to take these pictures and then hide it again, so it could be discovered later. After it's first outing, bike and rider drenched and happy.  She loves it, and it was a total surprise. She hasn't had a bike "all my own" since she was little and has been borrowing someone else's old bike and gear. Unfortunately now she needs a helmet, gloves, boots, and a muck-suit, which are apparently I am also responsible for buying ... sigh. |
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Dec 29, 2021 12:50:10 GMT
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After buying the red Rockhopper frame, the seller (who turned out to be a friend of a friend, and also someone I'd bought an LCD screen off a couple of years ago) had said to give him a shout if I needed anything as he had loads of spares. Well, I did. He had given me a headset with the frame but somehow I'd managed to drop the bearings. I was sick of having no bike and having arranged to go out on Sunday, I started building the bike at work on Saturday afternoon. I managed to get an internal bearing set from the local bikeshop but they had no races, bah. I contacted the frame-seller and arranged to go over and he'd get me some bits to get the headset together. He had no more bearings but he had some races. My shopping list was growing. I wasn't happy with the Rockshox Duke forks on the white Rockhopper so I needed some shocks. I couldn't get more gears onto the Kinesis so I was needing an appropriate shifter or some kind of solution. I wanted Panaracer tyres to replace the Conti's on the Rockhopper. I don't trust them, and every set of Pana's I've ever rode on have instilled confidence. I needed a set of wider bars. I needed some left side crank arms as I seem to have about three FSA & Shimano crank-side arms, strangely... I wanted a good brand, short head-stock for the Kona. etc. So when I went back and started mentioning these to the guy, he kept turning up suitable bits from his spares, and from what was a cheap frame deal turned out to me making a few significant purchases. I'm happy with all the bits I got, some cool stuff, everything I need to build all the bikes up into something special.  First up a set of Rockshox Revelation 150mm, with a 20mm bolt-through axle, straight steerer, for 26" wheel. So it's high end but old-school fitting, important as I've nothing to accommodate tapered steerers etc.  Obviously that meant needing a wheel to match it. How about a Hope hub on a Mavic rim?  The rear is a Specialized rim with Shimano hub, and had a 9-spd cassette on it. The discs on these two wheels are cheap ones off ebay.  I had initially asked about the tyres on them, but ended up buying the two wheels and the fork... and the head and stem, all from a Cove FS bike on his stand that I though he was fixing up, but turns out he was splitting it down for spares. So the Hope head and the wide, wide Easton bars came with me too  Mentioning the cranks, he turned these up and I couldn't resist the absolute 90s DH retro awesome look of them, complete with Odyssey pedals...  And when I talked about the gear/cassette/V-brake dilemma on the Kinesis, he pulled these out and again I couldn't resist...  When was the last time you saw a set of Mission wheels? They're so cool. Totally unsuited for the bike though! |
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Dec 29, 2021 14:23:58 GMT
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I was out again on the Rockhopper with a few changes a while back and it was still really skittish. Also a couple of my riding buddies tried it one weekend when i wasn't free, and they found the same thing. I'm finding it way too light, and it's like the wheelbase is too short, it's too willing to veer off to the side, and isn't steady. It's knocked my confidence a bit and the other guys don't like it either. I stuck it up for sale as-is but got zero interest. Bad timing as everyone that took up (or thought they were going to) cycling during the 'rona lockdown now realises they aren't actually gonna any more and is selling up, so there's a glut of decent, fresh machinery for favourable prices. Plan has therefore gone back to stripping the Rockhopper for the good bits, and building the Kona. In the meantime I've been out using my mates Specialized Hardrock. He's built a clinker of a bike from the Hardrock Pro I picked up initially (at the start of this thread) after I robbed the good bits off it. He found a modified Carrera locally for a few quid with a decent lockout fork and good wheels on it, and hydraulic brakes, and built that all on to the Hardrock Pro. Now he uses that and the older Hardrock is spare (with V-brakes!) Also still going from ancient history, is my Kenesis! I had the rear arm welded up buy a guy I know. I also had ordered some fresh army surplus canvas tape. First to get covered were the Marzocchi forks Stripped down into pieces for the wrapping But I wasn't really happy with the dirtiness of the aluminium parts. I want to properly clean that, and then paint them black. Later maybe. Because now they had to go back together to get refitted to the bike! The headset bearings were a bit rough so I cleaned the Cane Creek races out and fitted new bearings. And decided while I was there that the Deore cable disc brake had served it's time and the bike was getting a hydraulic front brake. I could also then remove the combined shifters (that are pretty worn out) and do away with it on the left side as there is no front mech anyway, this bike runs 1x7 gears (hard work on hills!) I would change that but I'm not sure if the rear wheel hub would accept a 9 or 10 gear cassette? and also needs to have surfaces for the rear V brake... So the front disc should also be upsized too, right? Shimano 160 removed, Shimano 180 fitted. Leaving only one more problem to discover... ...in 1998, Marzocchi used a 49mm spacing for their disc mount on the Bomber Z1/Z2/Z3 range, not the IS 51mm we are used to now. And the only thing that fits is some ancient unobtanium Hope or Magura stuff, and the only adapter was made a dozen years ago by Magura and is long, long looooong discontinued... Bah! So I've still got no bike. Hope made those adapters too. And they're great if you give them a call. I bet they'll have an adapter somewhere still. |
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Dec 29, 2021 17:45:10 GMT
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Bought a 2007, I think, hardrock before Xmas as I'm also getting back into mountain biking.
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