Retro Raleigh Titanium MTB restoration finishing touches: Purple for the People

[@tecdesigns8183]

I had all kinds of purple bits n bobs bottle cages x2, brake boosters, bar ends and my pride purple part USE seatpost. Was reminded of this craze recently as everyone's going for this oil slick finish. Love the on a chill pills.

[@red_dread]

Yes, I love the Chill Pills too, but I’m not sure I’d have ridden them in anger back in the day - it’s a little disconcerting entrusting your life to one tiny 2mm grub screw! To be fair though, I never heard of anyone coming to grief as a result.

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

Yet, i also must say this, any time Titanium is painted and angel sheds a tear.

[@red_dread]

I remember a lot of us thought that back when these bikes first came out. I think the reason in this case is also due to the fact that these frames were built to a budget, using lower-grade cheap Russian titanium alloys - which would probably have looked quite rough if left unfinished. The high end ti frames at the time, such as the Kona Hei Hei, GT Xizang, Marin Team Titanium etc, would have used finer grade metal from the likes of Sandvik.

[@aorta538]

There are sooo many Titanium frames left from the 90's... -i'd love my 1991 Koga Miyata ScyCarbolite bike :) -still in use after 30 years ;)

[@shaneweldon]

So cool! That was one of my dream bikes back in the day!

[@red_dread]

Me too - any and all Dyna Techs, all were way out of my reach at the time!

[@darrenangel461]

Red_Dread you are one of the best restorers I've ever seen, GREATEST of RESPECT !.

[@bigmikeshooter]

Love this bike. Great job 👍...

[@red_dread]

Thanks, it’s one of my favourites too. So nice to ride and looks amazing.

[@kevegghead]

Love to see someone restore an early GT zaskar especially the team one👍

[@red_dread]

It has always been one of my dream bikes, ever since a friend had one in about 91. The earliest ones are my ideal search: fully rigid with the 3D fork dropout, Flip-Flop stem, U-brake, ball burnished bare alloy frame with black graphics and black front end, full XT. Pure stealth.

[@db748R]

“Purple for the People”. Spot on.

[@red_dread]

I do share your passion for a "blue collar superbike!" We grew up in the mud of the North, we didn't ride Kleins...

[@TheRampax]

I had a purple Raleigh M-Trax Dyna Tech road bike when I was a lad, and the first thing I did was buy that purple Zefal bottle cage! Those chainring bolts look really good.

[@red_dread]

The drivetrain does look tasty with just a few purple bolts doesn't it? I think full purple (eg a grand's worth of cranks, chainrings etc) would actually not look as good. Purple on silver looks amazing.

[@jeremynorth]

I love this, I've done something similar to my purple Raleigh DynaTech 625Ti road bike. However I see that I didn't go far enough as I wasn't aware until now that there were purple jockey wheels available. I have work to do

[@red_dread]

I"m pretty sure it's possible to do an entire bike in purple if you try hard enough. But having seen a project that came close, I can confirm it would look pretty vile.

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

I love the purple . I had a pinkish KONA AA years ago that i stripped and buffed all shiny then went purple accents on every corner. I even had the Onza chill pill cable holders then went to Peace symbol ones.

[@red_dread]

I'm not entirely sure I trust the Onza cable hangers as much as the old Shimano ones, but they look so much nicer so on they go!

[@mjjohn7715]

I have a Raleigh 1992 Hybrid. Someone gave it to me with original parts. Nice bike getting a lot of miles on it. Nice video.

[@red_dread]

I guess that's the Pioneer? A quality bike that will last for plenty more years I'm sure.

[@partisano71]

I have a 92 raleigh usa teachnium nice bike still working well

[@wilfrushboy3197]

I remember having the first gen dynatech mission brilliant bike

[@red_dread]

A couple of my mates had them too, stunning bikes.

[@xhuliomecani6461]

what a bike ! love it

[@red_dread]

It's probably still my favourite out of my entire retro MTB collection. Even though I have many others that are more valuable, higher spec, lighter, more exotic etc, this one just feels perfect.

[@mattmorton5641]

Great film. It’s very relatable and inspirational as I’m currently doing a similar rebuild on a lower range M-Trax frame. Nice addition of dry humour and puns too.

[@RedSerye]

Incredible purple , nice retro bike sir , I'm a big fan of retro also , salute 👌

[@chriswilby7679]

Nice bike that mate .I'm just doing a 1996 carrera gravity. So just in the process of buying anodized purple bits for it.such a nice colour to search for.

[@red_dread]

It was so much fun shopping for all that stuff! As I said in the vid, you can keep going and going. I still am - it now has the bottle cage and some Ringle bits, who knows what next.

[@vojtechnovotny5624]

Haha love your period correct obsession. This is one lovely bike. I bought myself Giant track and intent bringing to its foremer funcionality state. Already happy with Maxxis dth- hope its not a sacrilege on your watch.

[@red_dread]

Hope you’re going to document your restoration somewhere online? I’d love to see it!

[@seakayaker20]

This was a total nerdfest. I loved every minute!

[@red_dread]

It was a fun project, harvesting all that cheap purple stuff! Really took me back to childhood.

[@99EMERSONIC99]

Nice, brings back memories

[@calibomber209]

I just picked up a white technium in great condition and it was accented w purple . Calipers, spoke nuts, line housing, pedals plastic, handle bars, seatpost anodized. Grips etc purple. I paid 31.86$ us . Went to the thrift store and saw it.

[@red_dread]

Damn, that is some result. I'm guessing if it's white then it would be either a late 80s Chill or possibly an early 90s Heat? Either way, such a great find.

[@calibomber209]

@@red_dread the only stickers on frame are Raleigh technium. I can say the rear triangle has a large round shape. Like a wish bone vs an “A” type. It’s lugged and steel but not heavy. I’ve seen these modded w a surly fat front fork and 38c stubby tan walled tires. I’m gone head in that direction and maybe put a nice rack and salsa wood chipper bars. I love your build!!! It would a treasure to ever find a ti bike at a thrift store!!!

[@glennpettersson9002]

Beautiful 👍

[@waltermelyon4300]

Thanks for this. Finding it difficult buying replacement parts for my 97 Gary Fisher HKEK so looks like I'll be replicating your work.

[@red_dread]

It's all out there if you know where to look! I've been having so much fun watching eBay, Facebook Marketplace etc this year. Can't wait till Bike Jumble Sales are allowed to happen again.

[@furmanb]

Enjoy your Retro MTB vids... It'd be interesting if you could make a video weighing the Retro MTBs you have. I know it's not terribly important etc, but would be good to know. Cheers from Down Under🇦🇺 😁

[@red_dread]

I thought about that! I know others might be interested too - I already keep a league table, ranking 15 or so bikes from my collection from a Specialized Tarmac road bike at one end to the '88 Peugeot gas-pipe ratbike at the other. Believe it or not, this Dyna-Tech is the second lightest MTB I own, after the S-Works Prestige from '94. It weighs 11kg, and the S-Works will be around 10 now it has full XTR on it.

[@ilovejimrogers]

My mate got a second hand one of those in about 1994, thought it was a sweet bike back then

[@red_dread]

It's incredibly light and stiff, especially for the money because they were very reasonably priced back in the day - certainly when compared to anything else you could get in titanium.

[@Romin.777]

I still have my blue Onza Chill pills and Ringlé Bottle cage. And Purple Mountain Cycle Pulstar Hubs. Green RaceFace Turbine LP cranckset. :))

[@red_dread]

All pure jewellery. To be cherished.

[@Papieck37]

Oliver...where did you get all the purple accents from....ebay? Amazon?

[@red_dread]

There's always a selection on eBay, but there's no pattern really - I just grab stuff as and when I see it, and I'm always scouring Google. I do recommend bicyclist.cc

[@landyr71]

Nice 👍🏼

[@themarinman8339]

All about the purple Allen

[@johnvickers6028]

I bought an Ogre in 2019, XT spec rather than standard DX. The bike is 30 years old this year.

[@red_dread]

A stunning bike. This one's still probably my favourite out of my entire (rapidly growing) vintage MTB collection. I have all the parts here to make mine full XT but some of the original DX parts are still working so beautifully I think it would be disrespectful to replace them!

[@johnvickers6028]

My Ogre is my favourite. I looked for a few years for one as I raced the Ogre in Sports class from 1992.

[@jamesrigby2271]

1991 Cannondale Beast of the East - Deep Indigo Blue and Purple Anodized CODA brakes...

[@red_dread]

91 was very early in the Purple Era too! Those brakes will be highly sought after.

[@jamesrigby2271]

@@red_dread Thanks mate - yeah I have a fully restored BOE. Plus a few other gems... Keep up the good work, I really appreciate your enthusiasm, passion and genuine knowledge that was learnt back in the day. I find your focus on period correct and upgrading using the correct parts, far more caring and gentle, than the retro-mod approach. Not a wide handle bar/short stem, disc break or single speed conversion insight! Superb.

[@red_dread]

@@jamesrigby2271 I definitely prefer a period piece to a restomod. But I do have one or two late 90s / early 00s restomods which I might feature in future films, because they have their uses. The 99 S-Works is now a singlespeed trailer mule for towing my daughters, and the 03 Bianchi is basically a rolling parts bin which is quite fun for experimentation. Neither will ever win any awards.

[@mattdominic3028]

I had purple/pink onza bar ends with a yellow flex stem on my fire mountain 😂

[@red_dread]

I came VERY close to bidding on some purple Control Stix for this one, but then I remembered I don't like bar ends much, and super-expensive ones are hardly in keeping with the theme of this build. Onza are the classics though.

[@KyleHenselthejumpingbean]

It looks like you didn't get a lot of thread engagement once you got the new cable hanger on. Not sure if you could modify the hanger to slim down a bit, but 1 or 2 threads seems kinda sketchy to me.

[@red_dread]

I know, I had the same conversation with garys.projects! It looks good for social media but it doesn't really fit. Some behind-the-scenes work is still required.

[@jonnyswalk_7]

Road tested one of these bad boys once - it was a bit nippy! Very stiff and put the power down very directly. No idea what it would have been like off road though they used to say that titanium has some interesting shock absorbing qualities ( though nowadays 15 cm of travel front and back tends to negate the need of any of that - good thing too ‘cause my old fingers and wrists have the Arthur ‘rites from peeling my fingers off of the bars after a few too many rutted downhills). Was this the 3 main tubes bonded titanium version ? Wasn’t there some works Raleigh top ender above this though too? Somewhere in my remaining brain cell lays the memory of a bendy top tube one of the works versions which I recall seeing one of the local club boys sporting. Also lastly was there a Tim or Paul Hinton who rode one? He came to a get together down in South Wales (where I’m from ) visiting several of the meets during the early 90’s where there was a burgeoning cross country scene at that time - I wonder whatever happened to that? Mountain Bike Club of Wales 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 it was called - I was a member of it for several races until I became a bit of a drunk for several decades 😞 Funny but true 😌 Great vid - I just had the purple skewers & seat clamp 😉

[@red_dread]

This one has a mix of ti and Reynolds steel. The 3 main tubes plus the chainstays are ti I think, with a butted steel fork and seatstay. Yes, the top end one has a kink in the top tube just in front of the seat cluster, and it was blue and yellow - I have a friend that's currently restoring one. As for off-road performance, I wouldn't know but I can't imagine it's comfortable. It's super stiff and that long and low geometry feels more like a track bike than anything else! It's lovely on road rides with the kids though, and looks amazing - which is of course the main thing.

[@jonnyswalk_7]

@@red_dread Yes fantastic to still be able to be taking the kids around the block on a bike like this! Smashingly restored & fantastic looking machine - well done 👍

[@micno2076]

I'm doing a 1992 Rockhopper build. Original paint is a greenish faded paint scheme with pink/purple decals. Purple accessories like this would totaly pimp my ride. Could you link to the items you have here in your video?

[@red_dread]

I'm afraid apart from the bolts everything else was either a one-off or some NOS rarity from private sellers on eBay! So no links exist. I can recommend bicyclist.cc though, they may still have some Fred Salmon skewers and Tranz-X jockeys in stock, plus I think they sell the Onza Chill Pill brake cable pips. Otherwise things like the ODI valve covers are surprisingly hard to find, but they occasionally come up at BMX sites on Google. Finally the bolts are all from various sellers on eBay, but I recommend measuring the ones you plan to replace first. Mine are a mixture of steel and titanium M5 and M6 bolts, some of which I had to cut down. Bottle cage and front mech ones are steel; stem, seat clamp and brake pivots are ti. And finally the SRP breakaway bolt for the rear mech is an original from the 90s. Hope that helps, and hope you'll be putting your finished build somewhere on social media?

[@micno2076]

@@red_dread my wife is not going to like that website! Me on the other hand... Thanks for the advice! Like all your builds by the way but as a Specialized fanboy I'm in love with your S-Works XTR build! What an awsome bike!!!

[@red_dread]

@@micno2076 That's a perfect little online shop isn't it? I just looked and a lot of my nice purple bits are still in stock so you're in luck! I did consider those Pulstar hubs for this build, but they're slightly later 90s and I like the look of shiny DX with purple skewers. As for that S-Works, next job is to spray paint that fork a nice pink to set off the grey. Stay tuned!

[@gamerdude0]

I had the purple xlite bar ends on my peugeot until it was taxed.

[@red_dread]

That's a bad scene. X-Lite were so far out of reach for me at the time, they made beautiful kit. I believe the founders made so much money out of Muc-Off they didn't need to make metal parts any more so they stopped. I hope they're retired on a massive yacht by now.

[@adrianashby1033]

Hi there, no idea how to get in touch with you directly. I have quote a few old 1994-1996 Diamondback Axis frames and original parts. I always loved these bikes and have been through plenty of them. fancy one for a build? I have an 18 inch frame in black with original seatpost, front/rear XT mech and also XT crankset, titec stem and bar.

[@red_dread]

Hi, sounds interesting! I’m on [e-mail], would love to hear from you.

[@lukeholloway7836]

that's why old shovel tried to anodize

[@red_dread]

He takes it to the next level with his paint and finishing projects doesn't he? My restorations tend to be quick and dirty in comparison to his, usually because I only get about an hour a day to do them!

[@searchingshropshire]

Can you help me out. My rear rim is 26x1.75. Would a 26x2.00 fit???

[@red_dread]

You can certainly fit a wider tyre on a narrower rim, but with regard to frame clearance that's impossible to say because every frame is different. A lot of older mountain bikes, particularly steel ones and those from more traditional manufacturers, wouldn't take a 2.0 carcass width because there's not enough clearance inside the chainstays. For example, the fat tyres on this DynaTech wouldn't fit in my Dave Quinn frame from the same era without rubbing.

[@searchingshropshire]

@@red_dread cheers for the reply. I’ve a 95 Raleigh Cro-mo MAX that’s been with me since almost new. I’ve decided to do a summer project.

[@red_dread]

@@searchingshropshire I have nothing but love for the Raleigh brand. Even their cheaper bikes are such high quality and really built to last. Glad you're keeping one more of them alive.

[@garysprojects]

Hahah nice vid! We always have those “lying to ourselves” moments but deep down we know. Glad you took the effort to switch it out looks way better! A heads up on the threading for the headset nut - I had the same amount 2-3 threads and it didn’t end up holding after I went off a few jumps, I had to re rig it so there was more threads - hopefully you don’t run into the same problem! 🥶🥶🥶

[@red_dread]

I'd hoped nobody would notice that headset locknut, but I should have known better! Yeah, it doesn't fit. I should really switch back to the thinner steel hanger, or file the alu one down a bit. In the meantime, I won't be doing any jumps on this anyway though. It's far too small for me to ride in anger, I'll just use it for cruising on sunny days. What you also can't see on the video is that DX freehub is completely shot! Despite a strip down and flush, it's rusted out and sounds like death when freewheeling. Looks better than the previous Deore hub though, despite that one being in as-new condition. I've got some behind-the-scenes work still to do.

[@garysprojects]

@@red_dread ahhh dang that sucks about the hub, hopefully you can fix it! (Or get another one lol) Haha yeah it is probably fine if you don’t do any jumps or anything! Just wanted to give you a heads up incase u wanted to get buck wild 😝😝😝

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

Nice work. I'de give my left nut for a Titanium frame. cheers !

[@red_dread]

You'd be amazed how cheap and plentiful these Raleigh Dyna Tech and MT4 ti frames are - keep your eyes on ebay!

[@thinkpadBentnoseTheBlind]

@@red_dread I'm in Canada and they are very rare here

[@johnvickers6028]

Take those pedals off and add the SPDs that where original for this bike.

[@red_dread]

I've got the original SPDs but this bike will only be ridden for fun on sunny days, and I'd rather be able to just jump on it and go without having to change my shoes every time.

[@RobertWilliams-ox4hz]

I've said this before. You weren't cool unless you had purple anodized parts on your bike.

[@red_dread]

Believe it or not I didn't have ANY for the whole of the 90s! All my bikes were themed red. You can see the Dave Quinn and the S-Works M4 in other videos, with the red headset, Magura brakes etc.

[@RobertWilliams-ox4hz]

@@red_dreadI didn't either. Lol I must not have been cool enough. My old Trek 850 only had a red anodized bottle cage. I actually hated purple anodized parts back then. Lol. But for some reason it seemed to be popular on all the top spec parts.

[@RobertWilliams-ox4hz]

I preferred red or just black.

[@red_dread]

@@RobertWilliams-ox4hz It's definitely possible to overdo the purple - there are bikes on Instagram that are dripping with Ringle etc, which for some reason leave me cold. I much prefer something with authentic nostalgia value.