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.

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.

Yet another Yeti I won't mind reviewing

Just as soon as it chills a little bit

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.

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.

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.