Yep I did it again, started a bike project without taking pictures first. I purchased this 1992 MB-2 last winter. The bike was in good shape but the paint and decals were shot. It must have spent a lot of time on a bike rack because it was scratched beyond anything I've ever seen. The former owner did make some attempts to touch up the scratches with blue and black paint, yikes! As usual I started cleaning the bike, then out came the rubbing compound. One thing led to another and parts started coming off. Ultimately it led to a full paint job done by me and Testers.
I made my own decals, which is why the down tube decal isn't true to the original on the MB-2. I printed the decals on waterslide paper, applied clear coat to keep the ink from running off the paper and then applied them to the frame. It's a real pain and I don't think I'll try it again.
Originally I tried to set the bike up with drop bars but ultimately I couldn't overcome the extra long top tube. At 24 inches it's 2 inches longer than my other drop bar bicycles. The 49 cm frame came with a long stem, straight riser handlebars, and grip shifters. The stem may have been original but the grip shifters and handlebars were not. I originally tried a Nitto Technomic 50 cm stem on the bike but switched to the Nitto Dirt Drop stem to try and get the handlebars higher with the drop bars installed.
I used a pair of inexpensive plastic fenders I had hanging around. I cut the rear fender shorter since there's nobody ever riding behind me. On the front fender I made and extension to the existing mud flap using a piece of old tire tube and some rubber used to make gaskets. It's a bit of a kludge but provides a bit more protection than before.
After riding the bike for a while I realized I was using the middle 34 tooth chainring with a 7 speed 11-28 cassette 98% of the time. So I decided to go to a 1 x 7 setup. At the time I had been borrowing a rear wheel from another old mountain bike because the rim that came with the MB-2 was shot. I had my LBS replace the rim, unfortunately I didn't know that the rear freehub body was dried out until I put a new cassette on and gave it a spin. It spins fine but is rather loud due to the lack of lubrication. I tried to service it but it requires a special tool that Shimano no longer makes. There is a way to make a tool (thanks You Tube) but I haven't gone that route yet. Since this bike is supposed to be for bad weather I decided to just ride it as is. When the hub dies I'll replace it. Who knows how long it will last. My goal with this bike was to use the parts I had on hand with a few exceptions, IE: the rim and dirt drop stem. Also when I made it a 1x, I had to change to a shorter BB, a 38 tooth chainring, a Sugino chainring guard, and a 11-34 cassette.
I had the Rivendell Saddle Sac and the Brooks B68 saddle which is no longer made. If you want a wider Brooks saddle you now have to buy a sprung saddle! The Saddle Sac makes a nice trunk.
Nitto Dirt Drop - MT-10, is the tallest of all the 1 inch quill stems. 35 degrees of rise, 100 mm extension and 155 mm from minimum insertion. Picture a heavy duty Nitto Technomic stem inserted to it's minimum insertion mark, which gives you 6" of rise, then take 80 - 100 mm of extension and angle it up 35 degrees, that's the Nitto MT-10 in a nutshell. I should say that is the MT-10 long quill in a nutshell. The short quill Dirt Drop has only 90 mm from the minimum insertion mark. The shorter version seems to be more commonly found. I found the long quill at http://www.benscycle With the swept back handle bars I'm not even close to using all of the stem's potential height.
I made handlebar grips from remnants of used Brooks leather tape wrapped around bits of gel pads. The additional grip areas are wrapped with Newbaums cloth tape with two coats of clear wax free shellac to keep the tape from fading and fraying.
Grip shifters are hardly a classic look but they are as easy to use with bulky winter gloves as they are with bare hands. I also like the fact that you can shift several gears at once like a friction, or indexed bar end shifter. You can't do that with rapid fire shifters which is kind of ironic. The front derailleur also gets a bit of trim with grip shifters, rapid fire shifters don't allow for any trim. Sometimes I think the bulky collar of the grip shifter is kind in the way of my hand space but other times I think it provides I nice place to keep my hand from slipping forward. When I finally have to replace the rear hub the shifter will also have to be changed because newer hubs are 8,9,or 10 speed compatible and I won't try to rig it with a spacer just to keep it 7 speed.
The handlebars are Civia Duponts that I had hanging around. They are very similar to the Nitto Albatross handlebars except they are 22.2 mm wide readily accepting shifters and brake levers used on mountain bikes but they are too narrow for bar end shifters.
The MB-2's frame and fork were constructed with Ritchey Logic Prestige tubes, and the rear diamond was constructed with Logic CroMo ,unlike the top of the line MB-1 which had 100% Ritchey Logic Prestige tubes. From what I've read the logic tubes had shorter butts allowing longer thin sections.
The Deore XT linear pull brake was an upgrade that the previous owner made. Oddly he had it mounted in the rear using the left hand brake lever mounted upside down on the right side. The original cantilever brakes were mounted on the front with their original lever. I just flipped the brakes and levers around. Since the front brake is generally stronger I wanted the superior linear pull brake up front. I replaced the rear Dia Comp cantilever that was part of the MB-2's original set up with an Avid Shorty that I had in the parts bin. If nothing else they are easier to set up with adjustable spring tension for centering the brake arms and shoes.
The original Deore XT rear derailleur and Specialized crankset remain. Both wheels were replaced at some point and from the looks of them with their purple alloy nipples and wheelsmith spokes I think they were built by my LBS. Below is a list of the original build specs.
The complete Bridgestone 1992 USA catalog can be found here:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/1992/1992.pdf
A Wald medium basket is zip tied to $12 Sunlite Gold Tec front rack. Also zip tied to the rack is a piece of the old handlebar with corks plugging the ends, which gives me a place to mount my headlight under the basket.
So all and all with the various changes I'm probably out of pocket $300 for the bike and parts. I'm sure there will be more changes to come. As anyone who is a big enough bike geek to read all this knows bikes can go through several iterations before they finally settle into their final state.
Happy riding
I made handlebar grips from remnants of used Brooks leather tape wrapped around bits of gel pads. The additional grip areas are wrapped with Newbaums cloth tape with two coats of clear wax free shellac to keep the tape from fading and fraying.
Grip shifters are hardly a classic look but they are as easy to use with bulky winter gloves as they are with bare hands. I also like the fact that you can shift several gears at once like a friction, or indexed bar end shifter. You can't do that with rapid fire shifters which is kind of ironic. The front derailleur also gets a bit of trim with grip shifters, rapid fire shifters don't allow for any trim. Sometimes I think the bulky collar of the grip shifter is kind in the way of my hand space but other times I think it provides I nice place to keep my hand from slipping forward. When I finally have to replace the rear hub the shifter will also have to be changed because newer hubs are 8,9,or 10 speed compatible and I won't try to rig it with a spacer just to keep it 7 speed.
The handlebars are Civia Duponts that I had hanging around. They are very similar to the Nitto Albatross handlebars except they are 22.2 mm wide readily accepting shifters and brake levers used on mountain bikes but they are too narrow for bar end shifters.
The Deore XT linear pull brake was an upgrade that the previous owner made. Oddly he had it mounted in the rear using the left hand brake lever mounted upside down on the right side. The original cantilever brakes were mounted on the front with their original lever. I just flipped the brakes and levers around. Since the front brake is generally stronger I wanted the superior linear pull brake up front. I replaced the rear Dia Comp cantilever that was part of the MB-2's original set up with an Avid Shorty that I had in the parts bin. If nothing else they are easier to set up with adjustable spring tension for centering the brake arms and shoes.
The original Deore XT rear derailleur and Specialized crankset remain. Both wheels were replaced at some point and from the looks of them with their purple alloy nipples and wheelsmith spokes I think they were built by my LBS. Below is a list of the original build specs.
The complete Bridgestone 1992 USA catalog can be found here:
http://www.sheldonbrown.com/bridgestone/1992/1992.pdf
Happy riding
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