GoatSurfer Retro MTB and other ramblings...

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Friday, October 23

1 x 7 Beater Project - Pt 2

by Billy Goat on Fri 23 Oct 2009 15:22 BST

Found the original rear mech that came with this bike back in 1991, this badboy has covered at least 10,000 miles and is still going strong

Then I found some spare cranks I had laying around and also an old 36t HyperGlide ring

And last but not least a saddle in......erm.....rather a distressed state

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Thursday, October 22

1 x 7 Beater Project - Pt 1

by Billy Goat on Thu 22 Oct 2009 13:42 BST

This is a little 'side project' and one that shouldn't be taken too seriously ok?
There are bigger and (maybe) better things destined for this frameset but for now it is going to be a kind of 'Parts bin, junk, beater' build where I'm using up all sorts of crap, some of it tatty old junk, some of it new parts to create a fun 1 x 7 build suitable for my local bike park.

Background:
This is a 19" Saracen Traverse Competition Hydrotech and I bought this bike new in 1991 from the Chesterfield Cycle Center (J.E James of Sheffield, England) for £600 and it was my first proper MTB. I couldn't afford the exotic Funk in the showroom at Shockwave in Nottingham so this had to do........it was full DX and originally had Wolber rims, Magura HydroStops, Saracen's own bizarre oversized handlebars and a 150mm stem

. Very quickly I dumped the stem and bars for a Syncros Cattleprod and some Answer Hyperlights and it stayed like this for six years while I rode it every day, putting 200 miles a week on it all year round. In 1997 after thousands of miles on this bike I bought myself a new Pace RC200 F6, gave this to a friend and promptly forgot about it. Fast forward 12 years and I get a call from this guy saying he had found an old white bike frame I'd given him and did I want it, wow....I got my baby back

As mentioned earlier I do have some radical plans for this frame in the shape of a Singlespeed project but this 1 x 7 thing is more of a bit of fun and as a 'proof of concept' so its most definitely function over form.....it WILL look ugly and have an odd mix of parts on it