Picked my recently acquired frame up from the metal shop today, stripped back to bar alu ready for painting, has gone from this:

szazbo by ten_sim, on Flickr

to this:

DSCF4063 by ten_sim, on Flickr

Now that she’s been stripped naked, you can really start to appreciate the level of workmanship in this frame, it’s a rather complicated yet strangely elegant piece of metalcraft (IMHO anyway 😆 ), lot’s of nice CNC work and smooth welding going on:

DSCF4073 by ten_sim, on Flickr

DSCF4071 by ten_sim, on Flickr

DSCF4067 by ten_sim, on Flickr

DSCF4068 by ten_sim, on Flickr

Now to decide on a paint scheme, or… maybe I should leave it bare (or, set to work on a full polished finish?) Decisions decisions… The build will be taking advantage of the URT design to have a SS setup, should be fun for winter 🙂

My personal view – it’s lovely engineering but a pig ugly bike, sorry.

Will make a lovely rigid Single Speed 🙂

But what brakes??

Agree with ^^

Please, please, please don’t polish it.

replace the shock with a solid bar or tube and fit rigid forks.

😉

My personal view – it’s lovely engineering but a pig ugly bike, sorry.

+1.

sorry

F-u-u-ugly, I bet it rides even fuglier. 😀

Enjoy!

whatever finish you put on it, I’ll be interested to see what it rides like…

whatever finish you put on it, I’ll be interested to see what it rides like…

What? Ride it? I only have bikes for posing and my collection I’ll have you know, I don’t actually ride these things… 😉

Seems to get a good rap on the mtbr.com reviews (33 reviews and a 4.79/5 rating), though of course, this could just be misty eyed fanbois 😆

Personally, I think it’ll work quite well as a SS, the Sweet Spot suspension setup is pretty good by all accounts, better than your average URT design anyway!

URTs… are there many designs like that round anymore?

Just out of interest, how much did it cost to strip it back to bare ali ?

URTs… are there many designs like that round anymore?

Don’t think any of the ‘top end’ guys do them, only seen in the realm of the ‘BSO’ of Argos & Halfords I think…

Just out of interest, how much did it cost to strip it back to bare ali ?

Armourtex in Hackney charged £30 for the chemical dip and glass bead blast, they’ve done a pretty good job I reckon.

BSO?

I remember when URTs were heralded as the future of rear suspension. Too much engineering for me.

BSO = Bike shaped object

Just had a look at images on the web to see what it looks like built up and can confirm that it is indeed uglier than a very ugly thing. It’s even got a bit of the cheap supermarket FS look to it.

Given it’s terrible to look and and almost certainly worse to ride – what’s the point of preserving/restoring it? Is it for some kind of MTB horror gallery perhaps?

mmm, not sure.

[edit] actually, sorry, that’s not it 😳

Interested to see this through, I have a SS full sus for DH / fun and often wondered what a xc / trail SS fs would ride like.

Hmm might start look on ebay for old urts…

oddest looking bike I’ve seen for a while

Just seen the picture above (orange one), it ain’t that fugly built, that old Whyte thing is ALOT worse….

The orange one is the “new” one, not Pyscles version

Love the Zorro (the modern Szazbo from Castellano that wwaswas has linked above), I think it looks good…

I don’t think the Szazbo looks too bad as a SS, not going to win a beauty contest I admit, but that’s part of it’s charm (to me!) :

szazbo2 by ten_sim, on Flickr

So psychle did you buy a frame or bike? and how much did it cost???

So psychle did you buy a frame or bike? and how much did it cost???

Just a frame (the built up green one linked above isn’t mine, just a random pic off the interweb). Spent £300 getting this frame, but that came with a titanium ibis stem & handlebar 🙂 plus a bunch of other retro bits (xray gripshifts, XT front mech, controltech seatpost, piranha tyres and a few other things I can’t recall right now). Rather a good deal IMHO 8)

That AMP fork still looks cool.

Always loved the looks but testing Trek Y bikes and Klein Mantra killed urt for me. Will a modern shock fit?

I’d be interested to see psychle’s entire collection. He seems to have one of EVERYTHING.

the curved tube ruins the look to me.

Mine 🙂 So that’s two fans then. Currently in bits but due a respray and a rebuild.

I’d be interested to see psychle’s entire collection. He seems to have one of EVERYTHING.

Slowly building quite an Ibis collection: Steel Mojo, Szazbo, Bow-ti and soon a Mojo HD 🙂 Would quite like a Silk-ti at some point, just to round things off 😉

Will a modern shock fit?

I think the Szazbo has a weird eye-to-eye that no modern shock has, need to look into this a wee bit as the Alps 5 it came with is apparently knackered…

Nice bike Crell, what’s it ride like? I’m looking forward to finding out myself 🙂

That AMP fork still looks cool.

Kind of tempted to track one down to give it a shot, just to add to the weirdness factor 😆

Am I missing the point but what is the point of the rear suspension as it doesn’t isolate rear wheel impacts from the bb/peddles?

Granted, it does ‘something’ (not necessarily good) when you’re in the saddle, but why not just use a suspension seat post?

A solution in search of a problem…

I LOVE the bare aluminium look after the strip down. Couldn’t you just get it matt laquered?

I think the Szazbo has a weird eye-to-eye that no modern shock has, need to look into this a wee bit as the Alps 5 it came with is apparently knackered…

Its a URT, a slightly longer shock will just steepen the head angle a bit, a slightly shorter shock will slacken it off a touch.

deandorsie- back in the day it was pretty much the only solution to the full suspension problem. It’s just how single pivots were.

psychle – i looked at one for my steel SS Kona, but the only one I could find at the time on eBay was a ti’d up model at something silly like $800.

deandorsie – if you bounce on the the pedals of a URT it activates the suspension more than you’d think. And it isolates pedal feedback which a lot of modern designs still suffer from more than ten years on.

you would have a s@#t of a job polishing that now its been shot blasted. If you ever want to polish a bike get it dipped.

I LOVE the bare aluminium look after the strip down. Couldn’t you just get it matt laquered?

I too quite like the bare alu ‘shot peened’ look, so it’s a consideration, certainly. Also thinking anodizing might be quite cool as well, would keep the same ‘textured’ and sharp edged look.