Readers’ Rides #10

It’s an epidemic of hardtails.  I’m not sure what’s happening exactly but there seems to be some sort of retro trend going on right now.  I’m guilty of it too.  My friend Colin gave me an old Dekerf  frame that Chris Dekerf is welding a rear disc mount onto right now.  Might won’t be as true to the breed as Ron’s build – but hopefully it will be just as fun.  If you have a ride you’d like to tell us about please send me an email.  We’d like to post your story.  Thanks to Ron for the sweet submission.  – Cam McRae

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It was always a dream of mine to own a Dekerf.  Back when I was racing XC in my high school days on my 1994 Norco Kokanee, I could only imagine one day to ride what some of the elite racers were riding.  Thank goodness for two things: gearwhores (I truly admit I am one) and depreciation of used gear.  Because of both these, I got the chance to own, and build up one of my true dream rigs as a grom.  

 

  In today’s world of heavily manipulated, hydroformed tubes and frames, a simple skinny tubed frame looks almost out of place.

The gear monger that I am, I’ve owned and built close to 2 dozen bikes over the years. I haven’t kept a bike any longer than a year after my Kokanee.  Many days I think I enjoy building and working on bikes more than riding them.  Throughout my 15 years on a mountain bike, the insatiable desire to spec and build bikes has helped maintain and drive my interest in the sport.  Now I’ve built the bike that I want to pass on as a family heirloom, designed to swallow up fast mellow riding like the UBC Endowment Lands – where I do most my riding now thanks to a recent move.

The build is what you can consider semi-retro; definitely not the latest and greatest, but this slightly older stuff is what gave rise to the carbon impregnated titanium bolted gear that we all lust after today.  I couldn’t afford to ride XTR 10 years ago, and I still can’t afford to ride current XTR.  But I can afford to ride 10 year old XTR.  I tried to maintain the Canadian theme by hunting down Raceface and Syncros bits and pieces to accompany the Vancouver born frame.  This was by no means a ‘money is no object build’; the budget was tightly adhered to and the final cost including the frame came in well under my goal of a G note.  The tradeoff: accumulating parts was a long arduous process taking over 6 months from the time I acquired the frame. It sucked staring at a bare frame as beautifully and artistically put together as my new-to-me Team SL – spending many hours and nights hounding all the local consignment stores, online classifieds, and Ebay.  Fitting that at 10 years old, this Team SL has been resurrected and loved and ridden like it deserved to be instead of hanging in a guy’s garage.

 Reynold’s finest 853 cromo is the choice of many high end custom builders.  The Raceface BB says do not diassemble – or else you will find crappy bearings that will inevitably fail in short time.

Frame
A 17.5” Team SL frame, constructed of 3.9lbs worth of air hardened Reynolds 853 steel tubing, 725 seatstay yoke, and Ritchey dropouts/bb shell – only the best.  Although I toyed with a Dekerf factory refinish to the emerald green colour along with adding a rear disc mount, at this point I could not justify spending more on the refresh than what the frame cost me, with its original blue paintjob still in very good condition.  Maybe when I decide that v-brakes just won’t cut it anymore, she will get another makeover.  The serial number puts date of production around mid-end 1998 to early-mid 1999.  I Ebay’d this gem from a prominent MTBR’er from Michigan who had it hanging in his garage. 
 

  Most don’t make frames like this anymore.  Lugged seatstay, toptube, seattube junction.  Dekerf signature pierced monostay seatstays.  Ultra clean cable routing all down the non-drive side of the toptube.  The frame is constructed by TIG welding, brazing, and filet brazing at all the various junctions.

Fork
I scored this Marzocchi Z2 Atom Bomb scored off Ebay in mint condition save for a scuff on one decal.  A true classic fork, no disc mounts for a nice clean look, short on travel at only 65mm, but allows the Dekerf’s steering precision to really shine.  The only adjustments are dual sided preload and single sided rebound; its so nice to not have to worry about the multitudes of complex adjustments so common in today’s fork, blown seals, defective air chambers, etc etc.  It wasn’t easy to find a 10+ year old fork in as new condition (1997 manufacture date), not in the ‘look at me puke green’ colour, and at an affordable price.
 

 A virtually flawless 12-year old Marzocchi Z2 Atom Bomb.

Drivetrain: XTR M952 front derailleur top swing top pull with the differential guide plates.  This was the only model series FD to feature this, and only the top swing configuration got the differential plates.  No idea why, but it’s unique, seems to work well, and I like it.  Shimano’s rapidrise/low-normal rear derailleur makes so much sense from a mechanical standpoint with its ability to downshift under heavy load.  It’s a shame that Shimano did not incorporate Rapidfire plus with rapidrise from the very beginning.  My feeling is that by the time Rapidrise came on the market, nobody could be bothered to relearn how to shift in reverse.  Too bad for them, good for me.  After spending some time on the new XT Shadow RD with the updated cable stop to eliminate the nasty cable loop, I knew that the XTR M951 was the only Rapidrise RD I would look for with its built-in rollamajig device.  Once again, this device never carried on to any other model RD for some reason.  XT dual control shifters/v-brake levers handle the shifting and braking duties.  I figured if I was going to learn to use the Rapidrise rear derailleur, may as well learn a new way to shift; plus the dual control stuff can be had for super cheap as new old stock.  For XC applications, the system makes sense, but there is still the odd time I shift in the wrong direction after considering my self relearned.  

 No granny ring here.  Fairly custom 36/48 ring combo.  Note the hinge on the FD cage.

The Raceface Deus XC crankset was a takeoff from one of my older bikes, close to XTR weight, much more affordable.  This is the area where I feel the technology has gotten leaps and bounds better; having ridden my share of square taper bb’s, then ISIS bb’s, and not satisfied or content with durability, weight, cost, or stiffness of those older setups, my bikes now see nothing but external bb’s.  Ironically the notoriously poor OEM Raceface bb bearings were shot in short time, so I had the LBS install some Enduro bearings and got some new chainrings.  I decided to run a 2×9 setup with 36t and 48t front rings, mainly to get more useable gearing for my riding, allowing me to ditch my entry-level commuter road bike (fitting 4 bikes in a small condo, quite tough!).  Any weight lost from deleting the granny gear was made up with the steel 36t for durability.  Thanks to the forum users, as I did not even know that rings larger than 44t were available for the now so common 4 bolt 104mm bcd.  An XT 11-32 cassette and SRAM PC991 powered by Wellgo clipless pedals (Shimano clones with mud shedding design) round out the drivetrain.  The drivetrain spins a pair of kevlar beaded 2.0” Kenda Karmas which are definitely nothing more than a fair weather XC tire, although the Stick-E tread tries its best when things get a bit wet. 
 
  Built in rollamajig = no nasty cable loop.  Virtually mint XTR goodness.

Brakes: Nothing fancy here, had an extra set of LX V-brakes lying around.  I would love to get my hands on a set of XTR V-brakes, but not ready to shell out the ~$100+ that they seem to be able to fetch.  After spending some time away from disc brakes, I can definitely say I miss the power, control, and consistency of modern day discs.

  Where she sleeps with our Balfa Belair.  Normally there’s a Giant Faith in there as well.

Bontrager Race X-Lite Wheelset: Built around rebadged DT 240 hubs, tubeless ready, straight as an arrow, and lighter than many road wheelsets.  The Bonty wheelset rides stiff, light, and fast.  It has proven to be very durable thus far.  After a few rides on the exceptional DT 240 rear hub, Shimano’s mid-range offerings just feel sloppy by comparison when engagine gears.  Hands down the loudest rear wheel I’ve ridden in my life; the audible clicks from the near-instant engaging star pawl ratchet system let dogs and walkers know I am coming up fast, and also let my neighbours know I have returned from my ride, so they can spaz at me again for storing our bikes in suite. 
 
   DT Swiss 240 hubset (riding in Ritchey socket-style dropouts) re-labeled as Bontrager.  All the flash, lots less cash.

Cockpit
The classic 120mm 10 deg rise Syncros hinge stem has been with me for over 10 years, the only piece I have remaining with me from back when I used to do some work with Syncros before they moved out of Vancouver.  Great to see some of the guys with the old Syncros still around doing bigger and better things.  This lovely stem bolts to a first generation Raceface Next SL low-riser carbon bar in a generous 25” width.  I wanted a ‘Canadian’ handlebar.  It needed to be 25.4 clamp, light, and have some pimp factor.  I fell in love with riding a carbon bar over the past year, and on a bike with only 2.5” of front travel, any additional vibration damping would be a welcome bonus.  Lock-on grips are a must have for me, and I know bar ends on a bike with riser bars is a big fashion faux-pas, but for this bike’s intended function, they are fairly essential.  The bars turn a Chris King headset now doing duty on its 3rd frame and still going strong.

  What an ass she has. 

For the derriere end of things, a Syncros seatpost clamps onto a Specialized saddle.  The original 2 bolt infinitely adjustable post; today, there are better executions of the same design IMO, but I decided to hunt the Syncros post down mainly for nostalgia.  We saw a fair number of these warrantied when the head unbonded from the post, so hopefully mine will be ok.  The Specialized saddle is nothing special, not overly heavy or light, but it is the perfect shape for my behind; it is in one word AMAZING for me.  The saddle is now on its 4th bike. 
 
  Syncros stem, carbon spacer, Chris King headset, Dekerf externally butted headtube, Marzocchi bolt-on crown.

The Ride
The Dekerf weighs up on Dunbar Cycles’ scale at 24.8lbs including my bar mounted light brackets and my emergency tool pack, so in reality should be close to or just under 24lbs.  The Dekerf replaced my Giant Anthem, which weighed about 27.5lbs.  She rides stiff, with just a bit of give that only classic steel can provide.  My odd gearing choice of 36/48 up front, with an 11-32 out back, is perfect for me and she rips through UBC’s Pacific Spirit Park and the Delta Watershed.  Even compared with a highly efficient XC platform like the Anthem, getting up and out of the saddle for sprints on the Dekerf resulted in a rush of instantaneous forward propulsion that is often times mellowed out a bit with even the best rear suspension. 

  No plow bike here; steep geometry, 2.5” fork, 2.0” tires, force you to pick the perfect line.

Overall though I feel she is a bit slower in the rough terrain where rear suspension does a much better job floating over obstacles and allowing momentum to carry forward. The Dekerf doesn’t climb as well as the Anthem either; modern suspension platforms have been engineered so finely that, for me anyways, I find climbing traction inferior.  What the Anthem did not have though was soul, and no amount of training and technique nor money in parts can buy that.  My only other gripe:  2.5” front travel. I’m used to 3.5”+ with my other bikes and 60 mms just isn’t enough.  The short axle to crown length also results in very quick and precise steering – borderline twitchy when the grade gets steeper.  An Atom Bomb with 85mm travel would be perfect.  Incidentally, Marzocchi made their Atom line with 80mm of travel in 2000 and 2001 and disc mounts.  Hmmm…

What do you think of Ron’s build?  Did he nail it?  Any suggestions?  Send ’em this way…