OLD Fat Chance add

Nothing special,..just fun to put it up here

KOGA miyata Ridgerunner E-stay

I know,..i should have not done this, but i just accepted an offer on a Koga Miyata RidgeRunner E-Stay
It is a 1990 version, so an early E-stay frame,.
The reason that i bought this frame has to do that this is a bike of which i had a picture of in my High school agenda because i just adored this bike,..but waaaaaaaay out of my league budget wise,..was very expensive

It is a bike that was ridden by a mountainbike hero Greg Herbold.
I think it would be nice to build it as a replica, like on the picture.



I now know for sure that some of the other bike will have to go,..The Rascal en Easton will have to find a great new home.

De-Anodizing bike parts

Let me first explain wat anodizing (anodising) is;

Anodizing, or anodising, is an electrolytic passivation process used to increase the thickness of the natural oxide layer on the surface of metal parts. Anodizing increases corrosion resistance and wear resistance, and provides better adhesion for paint primers and glues than bare metal. Anodic films can also be used for a number of cosmetic effects, either with thick porous coatings that can absorb dyes or with thin transparent coatings that add interference effects to reflected light. Anodizing is also used to prevent galling of threaded components and to make dielectric films for electrolytic capacitors. Anodic films are most commonly applied to protect aluminium alloys.
Anodization changes the microscopic texture of the surface and can change the crystal structure of the metal near the surface. Coatings are often porous, even when thick, so a sealing process is often needed to achieve corrosion resistance. The process is called "anodizing" because the part to be treated forms the anode electrode of an electrical circuit. Anodized aluminium surfaces, for example, are harder than aluminium but have low to moderate wear resistance that can be improved with increasing thickness or by applying suitable sealing substances. Anodic films are generally much stronger and more adherent than most types of paint and metal plating, making them less likely to crack and peel.

I received a Syncros seatpost a couple of weeks ago and this arrived a bit more scuffed then expected, in a condition i do not use for my bikes and therefore i was thinking about de-anodizing the post (and maybe re-anodize in the future) so it looks better then scuffed black.
I've looked around on the internet and found out that putting the item for 5 minutes in caustic soda will do the trick (caustic soda is used to unblock a blocked sink.
Because i did not want to try it on the seatpost to start with i took some old Hope QR's apart and put them in,..
These were scuffed too and i couldn't care less if it went wrong ;)

This is how they looked;



and this is what i used.
Unfortunately is it in Dutch but it is a 2 component soda from the brand HG



You have to put from both bottles even parts in a small box (I use the old Chinese restaurant rice boxes ;) )
enough to put the part under



I put it in,..and after 2 minutes you could see the soda do it's work


After 4 minutes i took it out with a clamp and rinsed it of with cold water.
It turned black but all the red was gone.


I took some stainless steel polish and polished it up,..and the black came right of,..
After that i took some silver polish but i do not know if that made a difference although the cloth became grey using it.
This is how it looked after the polishing, the whole "project" took about 20 minutes,..and the result looks nice
Even the HOPE brandname is still visible



Next up was the seatpost.
Because i did not have to box big enough i used my parents sink and the yellow patch.
I put it in the caustic soda en put it on the post and almost immediately the black came off (purple)


Same process, rinse with water,..and polish,...
Also very satisfied with the result.
Black Syncros decals are on it;s way from Gil_M



I am very pleased with the result , especially if you look at how easy it goes.
BUT PLEASE BE AWARE<>>>THIS SODA IS TOXIC!!!!,..YOU SHOULD WEAR GLOVES DURING THIS PROCESS!!!!
There are also some ovencleaners that might work,..bit "saver" but less strong so my might have to put the parts in longer to get the same result

the Serotta rebuild story

I have mentioned this already a couple of times but hereby i want to tell the complete, but short, story

Back in '95 or so I bought a Serotta ATX at Kapteijn Tweewielers in Amsterdam replacing my PEARSON custom.
It was my pride and joy,..rode the bike all over the place, numerous competitions, al lot of trips to my work.
I equipted the ATX with Spinergy wheels, Cook Bros RSR cranks, Paul rear mech, XTR front Mech, Magura's,USE Seatpost etc,..
During the competitions runs it was an impressive ride, i tried a couple of other bikes but none drove as good as the serotta, fitted like a glove.

After a couple of years i wanted to convert her into a single speed, in the meantime a collected some other bikes so the Serotta wasn't used that much so i wanted give her a second life. Replacing the Pace with the Tange swichblade, brakes by Onza V-brakes


When i made the first testdrive i noticed something strange,..my seatpost slide down,.. :$
After checking what the reason for this was i unfortunately discovered a crack in the seattube


Because i bought the frame new from the dealer with a lifetime quaranty i went back to the dealer.
He told me that this was bad luck, the importer went bankrupt in the meantime so he couldn't do anything for me except throwing the frame away for me.
I didn't accept this and contacted Serotta myself.


Serotta gave me a return number and i could send it back , and after a investigation they could inform me if this crack would be a quaranty issue.
I took the frame apart and made some last pictures because there was a chance that the frame was not going to get shipped back.

After a couple of weeks Serotta made me very happy by informing me that the seattube was going to be replaced under warranty.
Because i had to pay the shipping costs to the factory myself they offered me a paint scheme upgrade, i now could choose a two colour scheme instead of the single colour it used to be.
After making a lot of different colour options i went for Onyx black faded to candy apple read with white logo's.
I was after a slick look but still some retro look and feel.

During the rebuild process Serotta kept me informed by sending me pictures of the replcement.
There are some real welding artists working there,..so impressive!
First the cut the cracked tube out


and they put the new one in


I requested Serotta if they could remove the canti studsand add some discbrake pads but they didn't design this frame for disc and couldn't do that, but the put an extra cable stop on the top tube to make it V-brake compatible.
Hereby a picture after the paint job,..my god,..sooooooo pretty


In the meantime i was starting to buy the new parts, which was not simple i can tell you, the parts i was looking for had to be red, in very good order, and from a specialist brand and time period correct.
Apart from the colour, the quality had to be outstanding.
I have a soft spot for Paul so i wanted to put as much as red paul parts on.
The result is impressive,..if i might say myself,..it is a gorgeous bike, and stepping back on the serotta after such a long time felt like coming home after a long time,..felt great.

Good things still happen

This has nothing to so with my OLD METAL but this just made me smile,.. and it is bike related ;)

FIRST FLIGHT BIKES

Mountainbike heaven,..



and off course the well known Chris Chance video

Ringle Ti-Stix

It was me who said ; the Yo will not be build with Ringle Blue parts because this was done many times and the easy path,..
And what do i do,..Yes!,..build it blue,... :(
atleast i took the ringle seatpost out ;)

Received these today in the mail, and will be treated will caustic soda to get the anno blue off and very fine sandpaper for the polishing so these will be clear silver Ti,..

YEAH! my first follower

A big warm welcome to Joe,..thanks for being the first to follow my blog, really appreciate it!

Makes me proud and feel that the things I put down here is not completely garbage ;)

for the rest of the viewers, please take a look at his blog aswell,...you should check out his Maverick Durance , great bike!

cheers!

Bas

One of my dream bikes is for sale ,...damn!

On eBay right now,..one of my dream bikes is for sale.
If I wasn't building the Yo Eddy right now i would not hesitate and make Bill a good offer,..
Unfortunately I made a deal with my bank account that I wouldn't buy any more projects/frames this year so; great frame, nice price, wrong time ! :(

Why does this always happen,...i even considered selling /trading the Yo for the Ti Fat with Bill but i can not get it over my heart to say goodbye to the Yo, it is just to god damn beautiful,.... i know for sure that i would regret this so i hold on the the Yo and my time will come regarding the Ti Fat,...

You tell me!

I am going to this the other way around
Not going to put a wanted list here,..you tell me what I should look for.
I have a Yo to finish and still need some parts but I am open to offers for other parts then the parts i have right now or still need, so it is up to you to convince me that I need the part you want to sell me.

What I would like is
- Part you want to sell me
- Price you are asking posted to the Netherlands
- Which part you would like to replace
- Picture and description (condition; something/10)
- Motivation

Surprise me with your offers ;)

Middleburm Ti Self extracting crank bolts

Some things are so simple but so handy!
Received some Titanium Middleburn self extracting crank bolts,..21 grams

looks great,..works even better

Gold self extracting crank bolts

The cleaning and maintenance of a bike chainset is essential to keeping the best possible shifting performance. In addition, standing dirt and grit on the bottom bracket penetrates seals far faster than if it were given a swift clean at the end of a winters day ride.

This simple level of maintenance can never be as comprehensive as it should be without removing your cranks with a crank extract tool - or a pair of Middleburn self-extract bolts.

With our self-extract bolts all that is required is a 6mm allen key - simple. Anti friction washers ensure minimum effort is required. With the bolt sets available in a range of colours they also provide you with the finishing touch to any bike.

PAUL Components conversion kit

Hi,

maybe one of the readers can help me out,..or has the golden tip...

I am looking for a conversion kit for my Paul front mech.
There are kits available to make this top pull a down pull

any tips are very welcome, any colour considered

thanks

Bas

Bikes and Coffee

The 7th of December there will be the first edition of BIKES AND COFFEE
This will be an event organised by some bike enthoustiasts icw the DIRTY PAGES mountainbike website to have a small gettogether and show (present) your own favourite(Special) bike.
I have been asked to show the Serotta ATX so will be there if all goes well.
I will make some pictures and post them here after the event,..

Bikes and Coffee is based on the well known Cars and Coffee meetings,.
I hope the coffee will be good! ;)

Syncros Seatpost 2

The second Syncros Seatpost came in this week,..this one is as good as new,..looks much better.
Now waiting for the Syncros Ti,...and see how that looks,.....then i will decide which one to go for,..
And i am also thinking of replacing the Brooks or the flite sadle, might be a bit better looking ,.. :$

OLD METAL became NEW METAL

I have mentioned it here before,..and still will not put the whole story here just some pictures, my Serotta Colorado ATX got a complete factory rebuild/paint early this year.
Hereby some pictures taken when i got it back,..those guys at Serotta sure know what to do with a bunch of tubes and some paint,..absolute wizzards.
Is it strange to look this as it were ART ?
My god,..look how pretty this is,...

Bike art; future projects

I know I shouldn't even think about future project before I finish the current once.
The Fat Chance needs still some TLC and parts (and I need funds ;) ) and are still some other frames which are waiting for the final rebuild. (If i ever build them)
The next one (Alpinestar Cromo DX with that gorgeous elevated chainstay and the bend seattube)which come my way is more of less a spontanious buy, like most of my bikes, but I need to get focused and start working on the goal I have regarding my collection.

I thought that I wanted to collect the rigid steel frames from the early 90's which I realy love for their build style but on the other hand I do not want to sell the bikes I have which do not fit that discription and even one bike I want badly is a Klein Attitude Team from 91/92 in Green/White/Pink .
So I decided that I will keep the bikes that are historicaly interesting and have something to add to the collection if they are not the rigid steel bikes.
And on the purschase side; the first bikes I want to buy next year are the mentioned before Klein Attitude and a fully rigid DeKerf Team SL


DeKerf is a Canadian bike/framebuilder with some brilliant details, i love his rear stay, work of art,...
The front fork has the same style connection, and is just damn gorgeous...
I also like their rigid 29er with discbrakes,.. (maybe sometime,...)



The Alpinestar that will arrive in a couple of weeks needs a complete rebuild and i think i will replace the original red colour by something freaky like Kawasaki Green or Candy Pink,..

Paul rear mech on eBay -> did not win! :(

Got up this morning early, alarm went a 6 :(
Logged in on the eBay site to check the current status out from the Paul mech.
At that point it was about 31 USD,..waited untill 1.5 minute to test the water and placed my bid ; put in 61 USD and at that point i was the highest bidder with 40 something,...and then came the problem,.....i couldn't get back on the eBay site! DAMN!!!!!
The only reaction i got that i was outbid with 1 USD at the end so i did not win the Paul,..
I tried to look for the email address of the winner but that is not open,..

better luck next time,...i hope

Poll up for the Fat Chance Yo Eddy TEAM build

Hi Guys,

I am playing around with the parts for the Fat Chance.
I have been buying some different brands.
For the Bar Stem i will use for now the available Syncros parts untill the Groovy Stem/Bar combo is finished, that will be a (still to decide) combo in Aquafade green of clear Ti

Campagnolo
- Cranks (nos, gorgeous, work of art)
- Brakes
- Rims
- Rear Mech

Syncros
- Stem and bar
- Revolution Cranks (as new, completely rebuild)
- 3 different seatposts (A black one that will be polished to blank Alu, A black one which is in an emaculate state, and a Ti version)
- Qr's

Ringle (all blue)
- The bottle carrier
- Ti Stix
- Seatpost (gorgeous)
- Hubs in the Campagnolo rim wheels

Cook Bros
- RSR Cranks
- QR seatclamp

Paul Comp
- Rear silver mech
- Love levers

Saddle
- Brooks Swift Ti in honey
- Flite classic in black

Will absolutely use
- The XT thumbies
- Chris King headset in black although gold would have been nice aswell

still missing
- a great solution for the front mech

What should I do? please give me your thoughts

Cheers,

Bas

SYNCROS cranks ENGRAVING mystery -> Solved

Received a reaction form the pre-previous owner about the engraved SYNCROS brand name..

He had it done in a Jewelry shop because we was fed up with the sticker decals rubbing of,..

mystery solved ! ;)

KLEIN Rascal

A bike that will be build after the Fat Chance is a Klein Rascal
I already have the bike and put some parts on to get an idea of what ii is going to look.
Unfortunately i can't use the PACE fork which is shown on the picture because i the stearer is not long enough, i might want to have a new one made, i kinda like the look of the Pace in the Rascal.

Paul Components

Another company I just love for their parts in PAUL COMP. (just click the title and you will go to his current internetsite)
My first part from Paul I bought many years ago at Kapteijn Tweewielers in Amstedam, back in 95 i guess.
It was a silver rear mech, it ended up on the Serotta ATX (before the complete rebuild) and i used it for many years.
When i rebuilded the Serotta i changed the colour scheme, so the silver one was replaced by a red paul comp mech.
Unfortunately the red one was broken, i think during a crash or so, a part broke so i had to take the part from the silver one and replace it with the part from the red mech.

Since then the silver mech is not usable which is a shame because for 1) these parts are a work of art; 2) extremely expensive, and deserves a nice place on a bike.
I got a tip on retrobike that there is a rear mech in silver for sale on Ebay in the US,..it is broken but the part i need looks to be still on there so i will start bidding and hopefully win the mech so i can use the rear mech again,..
This is the part from eBay ;


Other parts from Paul i have are the Levers on the Fat Chance; Levers in red, The gorgeous Motolite v-Brakes in the rare red colour on the Serotta.
And I also still have red front mech lying around but untill the moment i have found the conversion set to make it a down pull i can't use it,.. :(

The SYNCROS seatpost

HMM,..it is starting to get a SYNCROS blog ;)
Today i received the SYNCROS seatpost from the US, unfortunately it is not as good as i hoped,..but no worries, i get another 2 next week, both SYNCROS, 1 in black which looks great, and 1 in Ti,..both from the UK.
The problem with seatposts for the Fat Chance Yo Eddy is the size, it is a 29,4 diameter and this is pretty rare,....in Titanium is is ultra rare.
Also the blue Ringle post is unique, especially the state it is in but this one will be sold to a fellow Fat Chance owner in Italy soon.
Because i do not like the scuffed look of the Syncros is will take of tke black anno with caustic soda and polish it to clear alu ,..which will be fine.
For the Syncros stem i ordered new logo's with Gil_M from the retrobike forum, i will order some new decals for the seatpost aswell.
Got them before from Gil, they look great.

When i look at the bike right now I am not satisfied with the look of the Campa crank,..to much silver ..... :$
I think i will take the cranks of and save them for the KLEIN ATTITUDE TEAM '91 which i want to buy next year.

The Fat Chance Yo Eddy Team project

The bike I am currently working on is the Fat Chance Yo Eddy Team in the colour Aquafade.
I bought this bike as a frame only (with some parts) and a Rock Shock Judy XC but sold the fork because I am not such a fan of that fork,..and found a matching original rigid Yo eddy forl.
This was a very pricey purchase but am happy that I did, it looks great!



today i put some parts on because i want to know how it looks,..

Still do not know which parts i will be using in the build,..currently i am buying some parts double, Campagnolo and Syncros so i can play around,..

If you have some parts or tips for me how i should build this bike,..just tell me ;)


UPDATE:

Syncros Revolution Cranks

I always had a soft spot for the SYNCROS brand.
On all of my builds you will find some of them, The Stems are a must have classic, the bars are great, the seatposts are one of the most wanted once (especially the 29,4mm sized, but i just love the Revolution cranks.
At the moment i have 2 sets, the last one i bought was broken at the paddle connection and a great friend who has all the right connections helped me out and it looks like new again, really stunning,..THANKS MARTIJN!


The other set I bought form a retrobike member the beginning of this year and looks like to be something really special.
This set has a engraved SYNCROS brand name instead of the normal sticker.
I looked trough the internet and asked around hoping to find the answer but the only reaction i got is that it must be really very very rare,..

I also found the original installation manual; http://web.archive.org/web/19961226004841/www.syncros.com/pdf/CrStEng.pdf

The set with the engraved SYNCROS logo is currently fit on my Boulder Bicycles Defiant which has SYNCROS parts all over