Hi All,
I came to this forum to look into selling my old Wicked to get a full suspension bike. After perusing many posts I've caught the bug and decided to fight the good fight and restore it. Curse you all
I've got a few key questions, the first of many, I'm sure:
1. First of all, what year is this bike? I always thought it was an '87, but everything here, http://mombat.org/Fat_Specs.htm, makes it look more like an '89. Serial number is 01199W (I put all this in the frame registry). I measure it to be a 22", but I read somewhere they only made up to 21", so maybe I measured wrong. I bought it in '93.
2. First thing is to take it down to bare metal and repaint or powdercoat. The existing powdercoat, which I had done in '93, is flaking off in sheets. Lots of rust, but all what I'd call superficial. No rust at the welds. If I'm trying to be authentic or if I'm ever going to sell it, should I go for the original color, which was black? Or can I just pick my favorite color? I'm in the marine industry, and I've got gnarly, expensive etch primer, primer, and two-part paints. Any reason NOT to use this, and to favor automotive products or powder coat? Looks like I can get new decals no prob if I want to take it out of incognito mode.
3. The cranks are Cook Brothers Racing RSRs. The non-drive side crank is cracked. I've ridden hard on it and it's never broken, but cracked is cracked. This happened before way back when, and Cook Brothers replaced it for free...and it cracked again in exactly the same spot. Someone is selling a set on ebay right now with a good drive side, but the other side is, guess what?, cracked, right in the same place. Is it worth scouring the world for a replacement, which I fear might crack again, or is there another, vintage-appropriate crank set I might be able to find? I noticed Fat used this crank set on the '88 Team Comp, so might have come from the factory with these cranks.
Wait a minute, upon looking closely at my photos, BOTH sides are cracked..WTF?
That's about it. Almost everything on the bike is original and restoration is straightforward. I put a Manitou 4 fork on it when I got it in '93. A year or two I couldn't find replacement elastomers, but now these enterprising folks have come on the scene: http://www.suspensionforkparts.net/eshop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=34
If I'd had to find a suspension fork with a 1" tube, this restoration would have been too expensive. I might have the "original" fork somewhere. It didn't look like anything I've seen in this forum, but was supposedly very light and good...for a regular fork.
Photos 'a plenty attached.
Thanks in advance for any advice, opinions, or things I never thought of..
Cheers,
Clark
I came to this forum to look into selling my old Wicked to get a full suspension bike. After perusing many posts I've caught the bug and decided to fight the good fight and restore it. Curse you all
I've got a few key questions, the first of many, I'm sure:
1. First of all, what year is this bike? I always thought it was an '87, but everything here, http://mombat.org/Fat_Specs.htm, makes it look more like an '89. Serial number is 01199W (I put all this in the frame registry). I measure it to be a 22", but I read somewhere they only made up to 21", so maybe I measured wrong. I bought it in '93.
2. First thing is to take it down to bare metal and repaint or powdercoat. The existing powdercoat, which I had done in '93, is flaking off in sheets. Lots of rust, but all what I'd call superficial. No rust at the welds. If I'm trying to be authentic or if I'm ever going to sell it, should I go for the original color, which was black? Or can I just pick my favorite color? I'm in the marine industry, and I've got gnarly, expensive etch primer, primer, and two-part paints. Any reason NOT to use this, and to favor automotive products or powder coat? Looks like I can get new decals no prob if I want to take it out of incognito mode.
3. The cranks are Cook Brothers Racing RSRs. The non-drive side crank is cracked. I've ridden hard on it and it's never broken, but cracked is cracked. This happened before way back when, and Cook Brothers replaced it for free...and it cracked again in exactly the same spot. Someone is selling a set on ebay right now with a good drive side, but the other side is, guess what?, cracked, right in the same place. Is it worth scouring the world for a replacement, which I fear might crack again, or is there another, vintage-appropriate crank set I might be able to find? I noticed Fat used this crank set on the '88 Team Comp, so might have come from the factory with these cranks.
Wait a minute, upon looking closely at my photos, BOTH sides are cracked..WTF?
That's about it. Almost everything on the bike is original and restoration is straightforward. I put a Manitou 4 fork on it when I got it in '93. A year or two I couldn't find replacement elastomers, but now these enterprising folks have come on the scene: http://www.suspensionforkparts.net/eshop/index.php?_a=viewProd&productId=34
If I'd had to find a suspension fork with a 1" tube, this restoration would have been too expensive. I might have the "original" fork somewhere. It didn't look like anything I've seen in this forum, but was supposedly very light and good...for a regular fork.
Photos 'a plenty attached.
Thanks in advance for any advice, opinions, or things I never thought of..
Cheers,
Clark
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