Skippys bikes and ramblings..

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weighing in at a shade under 21lb
Mind fully blown.
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*1996 Judy sl weight, 1,354 g, or 3 lbs


https://weightweenies.starbike.com/listings/components.php?type=suspensionforks
 
I wouldn't have even known are cared once again completely mind blown. You better have something to start on the first
https://ratrodbikes.com/threads/orbo-swbo-rules.119269/
Is that not just a competition only for fully documented builds from scratch or could I throw something in that has been built from frame up without everything being documented ? X

I did see your comment on the Funk thread and apologies forgot to reply unail now ☹️

edit..

read rules and not sure I’m going to have anything to enter but I’ll see what I can come up with 😉


The kestrel with the Ritchey logic fork weighs in at 20.8lbs so she’s builds light but not as light as the ritchey’s 😉 , when I get time I’ll re-weigh and she where she is now and report back , bear with me as I’m terrible at this internet stuff 😉👌

Thanks , I thinks she’s a looker 👌👍

Haha the purists don't have too much sway here. We're more about artistic expression and functional riders than following catalog spec. This is the place where you find a girvin on a prewar Elgin with mag rims.
Your Kestrel is an incredible machine, as soon as I saw the title, I knew we'd be in for a show, and you haven't disappointed. Your parts selection is sublime.
Thanks very much, appreciate the kind comments ,I’m not very good with documenting builds unfortunately, but hope that you and other members enjoy pics that I’ve snapped along the way 👌😘

As regard components I do try and stay within a few years of the bike frames manufacture, but I’m more about how the bike looks and rides, btw my bikes don’t generally have pedals on when not being riden , so this day the 163gram eggs were to hand ,and I hadn’t ridden them in a while so that’s just what was on this day , great pedals , amazed at how durable they are. 😎
 
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that not just a competition only for fully documented builds from scratch or could I throw something in that has been built from frame up without everything being documented ? X
Unfortunately we the documentation it's actually more valuable from our end than the actual bike.
 
The shifting duties over the 8 cogs on the rear Shimano XTR cassette are down to SRAM super-light X Ray grip shifters ,a lot of people don’t like them as they complain of mid-shifts and the overall operation of them, personally I’ve never had any issue‘s with them, I think they look super neat and stealth , brake levers are Ritchey logic units , selected for th
Boy, folks were sure divided over these vs. Rapid Fire way back when. I was always a fan of them. I raced with them for a number of years. So simple, so light and I never mis-shifted with them. Cable replacement could be a headache until you got the procedure nailed.

I love the attention to detail you paid. Sourcing the perfect components.
That’s the most enjoyable part for me. Outside of riding, of course.
It’s truly a beautiful bike. Nice work!

I appreciate your photography skills as well.
 
Hi everyone, hope Santa was good you all 😘, just a little update,, I’m currently in the process of cleaning and doing a few little tweaks to the build so I thought in the meantime I’d add a few pictures of this beautiful machine I took this last year, hope you enjoy. 👌

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Full compliment of Funk’ness with the bouncy’non’ness of the Funk fork..

View attachment 254961

Ready to go play..

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Shimano’s top end M900 rear derailleur (RD-M900), kitted out with SRP 3dv (Purple) bolts throughout, pulley wheels had to obviously be included..

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View attachment 254965

Custom made , Fibrelyte Carbon fibre inner rear derailleur plate, weight saving I don’t even care about it was more for the look.

View attachment 254966

The handlebar stem is a ITM Titanium unit, this piece alone is to me one of the key parts to the interface for me, Titanium absorbs so much what I’d class as low frequency trail buzz.

The Mavic headset is temporary until I can source a nice Chris King , but still can’t decide if I should (once I’ve found one) go for silver or 3dv (purple) ?

View attachment 254967

Zero components seat post binder and matching wheel skewers.

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lovely colour matched (to fork) Selle Italia leather saddle, sat temporarily on a ritchey classic seatpost, this is going to be replaced with titanium for the same reasons as the stem.


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Suntour‘s XC Pro thumbshifters mixed up with Dia Comp SS5 brake levers for that ultimate lightweight option, complimented by a smattering of 3DV’ness


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A surviving Ringle radially built front wheel, matched to Ringle rear wheel, however these are being changed out for the new year.


View attachment 254971


DT Swiss spokes have always been my no.1 go to spoke.


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Shimano’s XTR top end front derailleur fitted to match rear along with SRP bolts, Sampson Chainset , with SRP bolts everywhere , spinning on a iirc a Titanium Action tec Bottom bracket.


View attachment 254973


and with a rigid fork option..


View attachment 254975
Oh man! Or as they would say back then,"that bike is trick!". I only ever sold one Funk. They were hard to come by and extremely desired. The design had its drawbacks. There was a leverage effect on the chainstays. The frames would crack or break at the seat tube. I have never seen a broken Funk but Alpinestars, yeah a few.

I sold Alpinestars. My riding buddy was a salesman at High Point Racing. They were the west coast distributors for High Point boots. The boots were rebadged Alpinestars boots.
 
Oh man! Or as they would say back then,"that bike is trick!". I only ever sold one Funk. They were hard to come by and extremely desired. The design had its drawbacks. There was a leverage effect on the chainstays. The frames would crack or break at the seat tube. I have never seen a broken Funk but Alpinestars, yeah a few.

I sold Alpinestars. My riding buddy was a salesman at High Point Racing. They were the west coast distributors for High Point boots. The boots were rebadged Alpinestars boots.

Thanks very much, it’s took me a long time to get her this far so pleased you like her, the bike is going to get ‘Tricked’ out to the max , I’m almost thinking brakes, wheels as I don’t wanna ride the Ringle’s in anger 😉 and the seatpost then she’ll be as done as she’ll ever be 🫣

In all the years of riding the uk shores I have never come across another , not quite sure how many came over bitd , used to hang out at ‘Sshokwave” which was the Uk importer for these , knew the owner quite well perhaps should try and do some digging 🧐

From memory a lot of the earlier pre 92 Funk frames were prone to failures and cracking due to fatter thinner walled tubing being used, apparently it was corrected on later models but not sure if this is true 🤔 , certainly see where your coming from on the ‘leverage’ point if view, I do check my regularly and so far seems perfect 👌, don’t really ride these older alloy bikes much in anger anymore so should be good for few years , worst case is I’d send it to FTW if he would undertake any repair it needed 👍

Never really gelled with Alpinestar bikes, the only local Bike shop that I had the opportunity to work in bitd used to stock Orange, Scott ,Proflex, Fusion, Kona and Kleins however they were a Motorbike shop that did sell Alpinestar clothing and boots so did seem strange to me why they didn’t sell them , perhaps maybe because of margins or dealer territories 🤔


anyway thanks for the comments and input

Si

Wow what a nice looking ride!
Thanks very much , stay tuned as I’ll post a little update soon on this one 👌👍
 
Boy, folks were sure divided over these vs. Rapid Fire way back when. I was always a fan of them. I raced with them for a number of years. So simple, so light and I never mis-shifted with them. Cable replacement could be a headache until you got the procedure nailed.

I love the attention to detail you paid. Sourcing the perfect components.
That’s the most enjoyable part for me. Outside of riding, of course.
It’s truly a beautiful bike. Nice work!

I appreciate your photography skills as well.

nice to know one other person likes them 🤣 , I’ve got them on a few bike and like you said they are so simple and easy to maintain and service once you know how and mis-shifts are a non issue for me too 👌

I try and pay a lot of attention to the finer details so I’m pleased you like the choices 😎😘 , as regard sourcing parts , here in the uk , now being outside the EU is an absolute headache and expense, I enjoy the contact with the sellers and the stories they tell 🥰 but most of all I like that I’ve saved another frame, part or bike from landfill, and at the same time emptied my wallet and saved me from buying one of them new fangled e-bikes 🤣

”it’s truly a beautiful bike, nice work!”

..what can I say … I’m more of a skinny tubes man normally but this one made me weak and I had to sin .. 🤣

“I appreciate your photography skills as well.”

thanks , bought couple of new lenses recently so nice to know you like pics 👌👍

Kestrel fan here. Been riding an Evoke with SRAM Rival since 2008. That’s a beaut.
Thanks very much , I had to look up the ‘evoke’ as that’s a model I’m unfamiliar with, but looks really nice , think the company has changed hands quite a bit since mine was produced but good to know the name is still going and making lovely looking bikes still, have you posted any pictures on this forum of the bike ? I’d love to see it 😎

Sram Rival is a fantastic group 👌👍
 
Prefer Shimano XT thumbs, rapidfire type on a more modern bike, but it is just opinion. There's also room for microshift, deerhead... I had SRAM shifters on one, but it is singlespeed now
 
like the single speed thing and do ride them but as I’m getting older I need them gears 🤣
My standard smart-... response has always been, ‘Single speeds aren’t important to me because I know how to fix a derailleur.’
Having said that, I do admit to owning and enjoying a few single speed bikes.
 

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