Friday, September 28, 2012

1988 Fat Chance Team Comp

I am very happy to finally be the owner of a Team Comp. It seems that getting a Yo Eddy or a Wicked is easy these days, but TCs just don't come up very often, especially ones with G.P. Wilson dropouts. Sadly this one is missing the original fork, but it did come with a nice matching Salsa stem. For the time being I'll built it up with a nice old Rock Shox RS-1 and see how it rides.

I'm not not sure, but I feel like this bike was previously repainted. The decal placement is off and under the clear coat, there is a Chris Chance decal on the top tube along with a Yo Eddy guy near the head tube and the overspray in the BB shell and inside the headtube. Otherwise the bike is in great shape and ought to be a solid rider.









Custom 1991 Fat Chance Wicked

This 1991 Wicked is full of little custom features. The box crown fork is highly unusual for a Fat Chance this late in their production life, however this bike came like this from the factory. Evidently the first owner raced for Fat (or a Fat sponsored shop back in MA) at some point in time and ordered this bike for city riding / touring. In addition to the box crown fork this Wicked also features Yo Eddy style top tube cable routing, a threaded BB shell (didn't really start until 92 on most Fats) and a pair of water bottle mounts underneath the down tube. The bike was in a sorry state when I got it, mostly a heap of parts, but it included a nice IRD post, King headset, MRC Ti stem, Ti BB, Ti brake bosses and Ti bolts throughout the bike (one snapped off in the downtube water  bottle mount and with some previous attempt at removal). Rest of the bike was XC-PRO with a couple other odds and ends.

The bike had some minor repairs done around the chainstays and most prominently the removal and replacement of the water bottle mount with the sheared off Ti bolt. Frame is not fully aligned and ready to be repainted.

I will paint this one and one other 91 Wicked in Ice Teal metallic and this bike will be built with a full Campagnolo grouppo to pay tribute to Fat racers of old. It ought to be stunning.








Thursday, September 27, 2012

Bullseye wheels for the 90 Yo Eddy

The frame is nowhere in sight but the wheels sure look tasty... Hope to get going on this one soon!

NOS Bullseye hubs laced up to NOS Campagnolo Contax hard anodized rims with Specialized Team Master tires, NOS of course.




Sunday, September 23, 2012

1994 Yeti ARC build update #4

Finally it's a bike. Surprisingly the Graftons were very easy to set up. Perhaps I'm finally starting to figure them out. I still don't undersand why the orientation of the 'L' brackets is reversed from front to rear, it must be a design flaw. On the front (at least the set I picked for the front) the brackets mount from the front with the captive nut on the back side. On the rear set the recess for the nut faces outward and the bracket is mounted from the back of the arm. It makes it difficult to get an allen wrench onto the bracket bolt during adjustment. I wonder if John Grafton did this on purpose to somehow move the pads fore/aft to get better application of power onto the rim from front to back... I have to pay some more attention to how this impacts leverage during braking, if at all...

The ARC still needs decals and a crank swap, otherwise it's basically done. I might try to find different brake cable hangers, we'll see.





Saturday, September 22, 2012

1994 Yeti ARC Build update #3

After spending some time making a custom fitting for my rivet gun I was able to get the bike mostly strung up. The front sections of the housings are not right just yet and I need to do some more trimming here and there but it's mostly there. Brake pads will go on tomorrow and aside from the decals it'll be mostly done...

It's so weird looking at this bike without the decals, can't wait to get them put on.






Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Too much of a good thing is a great thing...

Getting ready to get send a few more things to get anodized including several pairs of Grafton brakes and levers. Fresh rubber sleeves for the brake levers, new o-rings for the brake arms and all new hardware ordered and on the way. The first pair of brakes in turquoise turned out very well and a couple lessons learned along the way should make the next few go even smoother. Just need to decide on colors.







Hi-E success!!

Finally managed to get the front hubs apart and pending getting new bearings the 28h front with the silver center is all sorted. These things are quite the jigsaw puzzle and I can definitely appreciate the degree of engineering that went into manufacturing them.



Monday, September 17, 2012

Yeti ARC build update #2

I wish I had more substantial updates to make on this build, but I guess an incremental step in the right direction is still a step in the right direction.

Got the steerer tube cut, stem decaled, chainrings on, Grafton BB rebuilt, bars/shifters/grips on and not just need to rivet on the cable guides and I can string it up!!





Saturday, September 15, 2012

Hi-E Hubs for Adroit Ultra Light build

It's taken a little while to find the correct pair of 28/32h Hi-E hubs for the Ultra Light Adroit build kit, but the end is in sight. A set of 32/32h came up rather quickly, but finding a 28h front with the large diameter body was a bit more difficult. One finally surfaced last week, but of course it has a black center. So, now I have to try to disassemble it and replace the black center with the silver center from the 32h.


Sunday, September 9, 2012

1994 Yeti ARC build update #1

The 94 ARC is coming along pretty well. The only real hang up is still the decals which are taking a little bit longer than I'd like, but the end is in sight. The Grafton brakes turned out very well, I just need to get some new mounting bolts, washers and find one set missing pad mounting hardware. Wheels are in very nice shape and the Ringle QRs are perfect!  All in all this is shaping up to be a great build.

I really hope to get this bike done quickly and do a combined photo shoot with the 95 ARC that's still hanging around the shop. It would make for an amazing shoot!!









Friday, September 7, 2012

1994 Klein Attitude Storm

I've had this bike for several months now but never got around to posting the pics. It's an original 94 Attitude painted in Team Storm. The fuselage is currently undergoing restoration to take care of the small chips, nicks, scratches and a dent on the seat tube resulting from the previous owner clamping something there. Plans are for a... wait for it... a complete M900 build. I know, shocking right?

With any luck this bike will be done around the same time that the original Tinker style MC1 Storm Adroit shows up...