Tag Archives: Syncros - Page 2

1 x 7 Beater Project – Pt 1

Posted by on 22/10/2009 No comments

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

The bare frame (Tange MTB, weighs LOTS!!)

Posh headset for a piece of old crap…

My Crown Race Setting ‘tool’…

Some old forks I had laying around

Taking shape…

EWR Project – Phase Seven – Barbara ann ba ba

Posted by on 10/10/2009 No comments

Saw Time
So, the Race Face bars were TOO wide so out came Mr Sandvik and I’ve lost 20mm of each end, sanded down the ends and reset the controls. Grips got refitted and some Helicopter Tape applied on the cabled side of the head tube and also on the Syncros Revolution cranks.

Minor tweak on saddle height too so it matches my Pace.

Freshly cut (and out of focus )

You should have seen them BEFORE they were cut!!!

So, you’ve read about using GT-85 and WD-40, Hairspray, water, glue……what about the ‘Zip Tie Trick’? Well, it works a treat. Get two long and strong Zip Ties, feed them down inside the grip, one either side, so the ‘teeth’ side faces the grip….push to get it started, make sure any logos or patterns are lined up how you want them, then ‘ski’ them up using the ties by pulling the ends (for best results ziptie the ties together so you have a ‘handle’). Once they are all the way up, pull harder and the Zip Ties will slide out.

Zip Tricks

EWR Project – Yard Trauma

Posted by on 19/08/2009 No comments

Ahhh the joys of retro builds, one minute your are Soaring Angelic and the next you are Fathoming Hell when you hit a glitch, still, these seemingly insurmountable obstacles are there to be overcome…

This particular bogey is perhaps to be expected, my frame is 1994 and therefore on the cusp of the transition to Compact Drive (or MicroDrive if you worked for Sun Tour ) from the long established Standard Drive 5-bolt 110 mm/74 mm BCD.

Me being a dumbass goat didn’t factor this in and blindly specced some nice 110 BCD Syncros Revolution cranks (see pix below), lovingly spent an hour putting together the chainset from a bag of bits, offered them up to the sufficiently long enough BB (118mm where Syncros Revolution’s should only need 117mm), tightened up the Crank O’s and….BUMMER, the rings wanted to eat the chainstay . Overlooking the obvious (well I am a goat ) I showed this to my buddy and we came to the conclusion that the chainstay ‘indent’ (what the hell is the official name for that?) is positioned for Compact Drive 5-bolt 94 mm/58 mm BCD

This was confirmed by offering up a 22/32/42 chainset which fitted nice and snug in the indent with sufficient clearance. So, the search is now on for a very rare beast indeed, Syncros Revolution Cranks in Compact Drive. I’ve only seen two sets for sale in as many years so this could prove a difficult task…..onwards with the search!!

On a plus note I’ve managed to score a wheelset more suited to this build, sure the Campag Mirox were nice but not really EWR material. The current replacement is a set of Mavic 231CD’s on Shimano DX hubs with 7sp cassette.

More build pix coming soon….

EWR Project – Phase One…

Posted by on 11/08/2009 No comments

I wasn’t going to post live updates of this build, but figured it might be good to look at retrospectively

There’s some real history with this particular frame and it comes with a fantastic story but this will be revealed elsewhere once the build is finished.

This project is a rebuild of a 1994 Eastern Woods Research ‘Original Woods Bike’. EWR is a small company based in Pennsylvania USA who produced three bikes back in the day and then vanished. In the last couple of years they have started back up and now produce ‘modern’ versions of the Original Woods Bike in 26″ flavour as well as some exciting 29er’s and SS frames (www.ewrbikes.com).

This particular frame is from the ‘2nd Batch’ of OWB’s and was made by Bill Grove of Grove Innovations, it features water jet cut rear dropouts and some of the best mitred joints and pierced tubes you will see anywhere. The frame is plain old straight gauge 4130 Cromoly, no butting and weight saving here, this is just brute strength. Anyone who knows EWR’s also knows they are no nonsense, hard riding bikes with their roots in trials and BMX so this build needs to be functional and reliable as opposed to ‘aesthetics and tinsel’, after all it’s going to be hammered round the woods here in England, just what it was designed for. Ideally the build is going to be as Period Correct as it can be but there will be the odd substitution (for example, who would fit a pair of $400 dollar NOS red Shimano DX pedals then thrash it round a muddy forest?)

The only theme with this will be small touches of red here and there to match with the red decals. I’m not revealing the full build here as things may change but if you’ve seen any EWR’s then you’ll know roughly what to expect

Syncros Revolution Cranks (175mm) with Crank ‘O’ Matics, Shimano SG rings (26, 36, 46,) Shimano DX front mech, DMR V8 pedals in ‘Code Red’


Shimano DX rear mech, NOS Shimano DX quick release, Shimano LX 7sp hubs laced to Campag Mirox rims.

Magura HS33 Tomac Hydraulic Brakes, NOS Syncros Hardcore seatpost 425mm

Dig those fat tubes…



I’m already thinking about not using the Campy rims and switching to some Mavic 231CD’s laced to Shimano DX hubs, what do you think?