nineties Saracen Kili upgrade - second project added (p.2)

I love quick builds... 😊

Found an almost complete 9 speed LX in the spares box and a set of early XT V-brakes. Wheels are donor wheels from my Scott Team Racing but that one will have to share a set with another of my 8 speed bikes.

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Nice! If you feel like blinging it up, I got a set of vgc/nos xtr 8 speed brake/shift levers which, realistically, won’t get any use in the near future.

I need to get mine back in action.

Pubs opened again? 😁

Looks mint!

Those bottle cages are 👌🏾

What a rad pair of bikes!

Thanks guys.

@MrMister, one is a genuine Ringlé, the other's a replica.

Fantastic! Never seen those bottle cages before, they look perfect on this frame.

Great work on both @WimVDD Looking forward to seeing the finished result.

Man, these Kili's are soo good. Big inspiration for my Raleigh. Thanks @WimVDD

Thanks guys. Have some time tomorrow to work on it. Just need to order a 9 speed chain and cassette for it. And some wider bars. Right now there's an Answer Taperlite on it (early nineties) but it'sa bit narrow.

Never seen these bottle cages, @vp1337? They're iconic. Ringlé H2O cages. I had one on my 1993 Trek. I bought some a couple of years ago but they're replicas.

This is a close up of a "real" one.

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The one on my Trek. I had a Ringlé ti seatpost QR too. Hubs, stems and other parts were beyond my budget. 😉

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Finished this build today.

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Looks awesome! Great build.

what a beast!

Thanks guys!

really cracking - enjoy the ride!

As remarked upthread, I have one of these bikes. Would owners be so good as to let me know what axle-to-crown fork dimension works best for them?

Mine is fitted with Pace RC30 (third-gen) fork with 380mm axle-to-crown. The handling is rather nervous, with the bike tending to 'turn in' too fast into the corner. This would make even briefly riding hands-off hazardous (not that I wish to do so). Stabler straight-line riding would be an improvement, I think.

I'm wondering if the frame's geo calls for a taller fork with perhaps 420mm a-to-c? I see that one can buy a Radon carbon fork of this spec for a reasonable price and wonder if this would be worth a shot? What do you gents think?

Mine has 43 ac forks and I want to switch to original again as these gives the back too slack angles. It's too wobly for me. I'd love to have a set of RC30's on it...

Do you know what the OE fork was Wim? Mine came with a RockShox Judy, long since junked

The catalog pic (see page 1) shows a steel fork. Same as the one on the orange Kili. Believe the AC of that one was 39 cm. Can't check as I sold that one.

I'll try to remember to measure my fork this evening.

That would be helpful, thank you! Looking at the catalogue, 39cm seems probable — in which case the RC30 fork is spot-on. It is definitely at the racy end of the MTB spectrum!