Project Zero: Zip Rebuild
Phase I of Project Zero is complete. Stock, the Zip wasn't a bike that i was going to be able to ride. First of all, I'm too tall for the 270mm Ritchey seatpost, and the stem was too short. Also, while I love the approach Bridgestone took to designing their bikes, I have to say that suspension of some kind is appreciated by my joints if not my mind. Also, this bike is hitting my Nostalgia Button, and for that, I have to take it back to the way we were riding bikes in 1991.
My family had more bikes than sense, and we ran the gamut on technologies available at the time. We had a full-suspension Cannondale “Boinger” – equipped with the short-lived Campy Euclid group – my Schwinn loaded up with Rock Shox, various Cannondales, and a couple Bridgestones. We rode the Bridgestones stock for a while until we got turned onto the Softride suspension stem. We loved the clever design; the stem doesn't change the geometry of the bike the way suspension forks did (before they were part of the design like they are now), were very light, didn't suffer from sticktion, and were self-damping. Similarly, we loved the design of the Thudbuster seatpost; they worked great – as long as you didn't mind using rear suspension that effected the height of your saddle.
The great benefit of both the the Softride stem and the Thudbuster seatpost is that neither changes the geometry of the bike. When climbing out of the saddle, the Thudbuster doesn't effect the bike at all – it's still a hardtail. But, when seated, it's three inches of travel noticeably softens bumps. The stem has a slight bouncy feeling when climbing out of the saddle like any other front suspension mechanism without a modern lockout, but with some careful adjustment of the stem's spring tension, you can find a good balance between suspension when you want it, and lack of bounciness when you're climbing.
Once I got the Zip, I went about collecting the parts I needed to get back to my mountain biking comfort zone. To my surprise, the Thudbuster is still in production and several improvements have been made to the design. It seems lighter than the old model, and the motion of the parallelogram seems to eliminate any noticeable change in saddle height. Most importantly, they provide different elastomers (remember elastomers?) that let you tailor the stiffness of the suspension. Since all I want is to take the edge off the worst of the bumps, I installed the stiffest ones. The seatpost is also surprisingly light; the Thudbuster/Arione combo is lighter than the stock Ritchey/Turbo setup.
Softride is no longer in the bike parts building business, but I snapped up a NOS stem on eBay for next to nothing and installed it. It's amazing how light the system is; including the Profile quill adapter, the Softride setup weighs about the same as the original steel stem.
With that, the Zip appeared ready to embark on it's maiden voyage. Prepping for the ride, however, we discovered the tires were hopelessly old and cracked, so I picked up some new ones. To my surprise, when taking the old tires off the rim, I realized they had steel beads (were the Specialized Crossmax stock?); the new ones are way lighter and a bit wider than the old ones. Finally, the maiden voyage proved too rough for the original headset, so it was replaced with a Chris King and the old brake pads were replaced with some fresh ones.
All said, the bike weighs about the same as it originally did. But don't worry, all the stock parts are safely stowed in a box.
[dmalbum path=”/velominati.com/content/Photo%20Galleries/frank@velominati.com/MB-Zip%20Rebuild/”/]
I thought about trying one of those Softride stems “back in the day”, but never got around to it. I am considering the short travel Thudbuster for my current Cannondale hardtail however. Will order one sooner or later.
Still seems weird seeing my old Zip posted up here – but I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I get a kick out of the updates.
@Dan O
I couldn’t decide between the ST and the LT Thudbuster, but went for the LT in the end (obviously). Given the choice of elastomer stiffness, I figured I have the choice to go in all directions. They look goofy, but I’ve been pretty happy with it.
Have you condisered the Rox Shox sus post it looks the sweetest out there and I have had several friends use them with lots of success. I have a similar build happening at the moment, a mongoose IBOC pro with full ritchey logic tubing and those super sweet minimalist ritchey dropouts. I have unfortunately converted it to single speed and given a 2 pac spray job so it will never see it’s original mongoose livery again.
@johnny klink
You mean like the ones Johnny T is racing in the third pic here? I raced a pair like this on my sand-filled Schwinn, but I’m loathe to change the nature of this off-white beast. Besides, it seems like all the forks these days are longer travel and would mess with the steep angles on this bike. Can you still find the short travel shox today?
I think this thing would look sweet with an Cannondale Lefty. Okay. I said it. But they’re all 100+mm.
Frank, I think Klink means the Rock Shox suspension seatpost, not the fork.
Nothing looks sweet with a Lefty….
yes seat post ..and the only thing leftys are good for is a boat anchor
@brett
Come on! Needle bearings!
@johnny klink
I didn’t realize that Rock Shox made one, but that is the design that I’m thinking of when I say they suffered from sticktion and that it effected the seatpost height too much. Although, I’ll give you this: that Thudbuster is not a particularly cool-looking seatpost. The Shox would certainly look cooler.
Raced my first MTB race today. So rad.
I assumed the laps were short enough to get a full warmup lap in with 25 minutes before the start. I didn’t! When I made it back to the start, everyone had left 2 minutes earlier. No worries…I rolled out in full warmup kit.
I caught a few people and finished 25 of 30. More importantly, I had a ton of fun the whole time. It was a nice swoopy flowing course. And a dry sunny day.
When I got back home it was raining.
Three races in March. My Yeti performed better than I ever knew it could.
I think I’m going to the dark side. Cyclocross in the Fall and Winter, MTB in the Spring and Summer. And some pavé.
@G’rilla
Nipple Lube! You’ll have to come down for the PIR Short Track series this summer. Good fun I’m told.
@G’rilla come to AZ and do the Wiskey off road. 50 miles in northern AZ. I just posted a video on FB.
I just picked up an old 7 speed MTB for my 14 year old brother. Apart from doing a ghetto tubeless conversion, he will be rolling rigid. I figure he can handle it. We are gonna do some brotherly bonding over rodeo weekend. The catch is he haa to clean my apartment to pay off some of the debt.
@G’rilla
Hey man, there’s no such thing as the dark side, just the other side.
Ive got a road bike, CX bike and an XC bike and I race them all. And I’m about a month away from getting a track bike (it doesnt hurt that I live a 5 minute ride away from an indoor wooden velodrome).
Who’da thought that divorce would be so much fun?
@RedRanger
Rigid: when I got my first MTB it was a aluminum Cannonwhale with a pepperoni fork. What that rig taught me, through trial and a lot of error, was; the faster you go, the safer you are. Wise words from Missy “the missile” Giove.
I’m convinced that MTB is the most exhausting thing one can do on a bike.
Today’s race was one hour long and I’m more tired than I was after 250km of hilly road riding. I think they are making each course twice as tough as the last. Although the race started and ended in the same spot, my V-meter shows that my vertical ascent was at least 3x the number of meters downward. The course must have been designed by Escher.
At least I caught someone at the line, just before I toppled over onto the ground unable to move for a full 5 minutes.
Nicely done mate. How’s the bike holding up? I had to adjust A loose hub on mine the other day.
The day after a hard road ride I feel fatigue in my quads. The day after a hard MTB ride I feel like somebody beat me with a hickory cane.
Came with inches of running into a saguaro today. That woulda been a disaster.
@PeakInTwoYears
Speaking of which, BuDu racing’s next MTB event is on Whidbey Island (two weeks from today). Team Velominati needs you there!
You know how to contact me.
@RedRanger
Ugh, dude. Infection city.
@RedRanger
It’s doing pretty well. Loose saddle after last week’s race with a DH section. The odd loose bolt here and there. I need to take off the bottom bracket and clean it, but otherwise OK.
I have two weeks to the next race so I think I’ll take it to the LBS to check all the suspension bits.
I tool Brett’s advice and ran the whole race in the middle mode on my shock (“trail”). It was much simpler and worked well. Now I have to learn to trust the bike and lean into the bermed turns for more speed. I think I try to make up for lack of skill by muscling it up the hills. Friends finished before me and looked like they barely had to give any effort!
@mcsqueak
One of my friends got into a drunken fight with a Cholla. his finger is fucked.
@G’rilla seems like I am having to adjust something every week, and Im not even racing.
@G’rilla What the chances of getting frank on a new MTB rig?
@G’rilla
Oh god. I last pinned on a race number in 1989, and my MTB skills are execrable. Is there a category for old unfit guys who suck?
The goal is to stay in the air for as much of the course as possible.
@G’rilla Why aren’t you pedaling? Is your bike broken? Wheels on the ground mean speed.
@Chris The photo makes it look like I’m not pedaling, but I made 5 revolutions of the crank between each of those frames.
@Chris
I just want to see the next frame where he bails. Oh, and John Tomac agrees with @G’rilla.
Merckx, I have to get that back back under control. Its disgraceful, the way its built right now.
@G’rilla
Unless you also managed to get your bike back on the ground between frames that would have been fairly pointless. Or are you so awesome that you pedal in mid air, old school BMX style.
@frank why? start from scratch with a modern MTB. It will be worth it.
@frank
Tomac wouldn’t have stopped pedaling for that, he’s only off the ground in your photo because he wants to twist his bar and stem out of the way in case the whole roadie set up gives way going down the slope.
@G’rilla
How do you get the bike to go up in the air like that? Is that what those seatposts with the cable attached are for?
@G’rilla well done, it looks like you are carrying some good speed down the MTN by the height of your wheels. Or you have mastered the bunny hop. All the work up makes the down well worth it. I just dusted off the GT Zaskar last weekend myself after doing a full diagnostic check. Just a leaky fork seal I forgot about last fall when she went into hibernation. I should have the seal kit by the end of the week and rebuild both this saturday.
@PeakInTwoYears
I’m actually at ground level. There’s a switch on the bars that makes the rest of the ground move downward.
A little desert XC riding today
@RedRanger
What’s up with the weird sky? What planet are you on?
@PeakInTwoYears too blue?
@RedRanger
What is this word “blue”? Are you speaking Proto-Germanic or something?
@PeakInTwoYears
“distinct terms for brown, purple, pink, orange and grey will not emerge in a language until the language has made a distinction between green and blue”
@PeakInTwoYears one of the perks of living in AZ. Right now it’s 30 C. when I was out it was closer to 20\.
@RedRanger
It wasn’t 30C there last weekend! I should have stayed in Syracuse, it was warmer here!
@Sauterelle you are correct, it was “cold” in Tucson this passed weekend. You got the raw deal on that end. The weather in southern AZ can be erratic this time of year.
@frank
I vote for a Tomac type build along with getting a New MTB.
@RedRanger
Yeah, it sucked. I was in Phoenix and we had cold, rain, wind and a dust storm. The day it warmed up was the day I left, naturally!
@the Engine
Neither linguist nor neuro-ocular labcoat guy, I am not prepared to debate this–or even to understand it. All I know are things I call “green” and “grey” and “brown.” Mostly grey and green. It’s just where I live, or maybe I’m a dog.