I’ve been spannering a mate’s Super-V as it needed some TLC and he can’t afford to upgrade to a newer full susser right now. He’s the second owner – the first one lavished a lot of care and attention on the bike, swapping V-brakes for Hope XC Pro discs and a lot of the drivetrain for XT and XTR parts. My mate’s looked after it but a lot was wearing out and needed replacement.
The Headshok Fatty fork was in a state internally, needing bearings, bearing strips, lots of new seals and a new boot, so the decision was made to get a newer 100mm conventional fork and a set of 1.125″ adapters. The Recon Race Solo Air is around the same spec as the Fatty SL that came out.
The bike needed a lot of parts but a mate found some 5 hole chainrings in his spares box and the stem, headset, tyres and jockey wheels came from mine. The remaining bits were ordered up from CRC in their sale, then it was just a case of stripping everything, dismantling, cleaning, degreasing, lubing and rebuilding.
I just took it for a ride and, apart from being a little heavy, it’s a damn good bike. It tracks very well, soaks up the rough stuff without drama, doesn’t bob too much under pedalling and stops reasonably quickly. It could really do with better brakes and some decent bars.
I post it here purely to make the older riders ere go a bit dewy eyed.
Unfortunately, I’m not sure he wants it back, now, as he’s had a month riding my Carbon 456.