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a Fork for my old ti Merlin extralight

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a Fork for my old ti Merlin extralight

Old 09-04-15, 07:39 PM
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archimago
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a Fork for my old ti Merlin extralight

Hey fellas.
I've been rebuilding my old Merlin Extralight Titanium by Tom Kellogg 1992.
It has the (somewhat infamous) grease guard BB, and a worn out fsa headset, and a heavily work DuraAce 7400 group.
But the critical piece is getting a good 1 inch headtube fork.
I've considered the ol' Reynolds Ouzo, or a Time pro, but it seems like buying a used carbon fork from 2008 off of ebay is sketchy business.
So, other than a easton, what should I be looking for?

Any other tips for the merlin rebuild?
I'm also thinking about getting a older 9 or 10 speed campagnolo groupset, (considering I can only use square taper cranks).
Thanks!
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Old 09-04-15, 08:15 PM
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Top line cranks would be boss on a Merlin. Just a thought. I keep debating modernizing mine to 10sp campy, but I can live with the DA on there. I'm sure you know that Phil Wood would be the source for the spindle. My Merlin has a Kestrel fork at TK's recommendation...he said it matches the original rake very well.

If you REALLY hate the bb and just have to have latest/greatest...Bilenky will replace it for $500.






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Old 09-04-15, 08:20 PM
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One of my buddies has a "Wound Up" fork on his Merlin and seems to like it. Wrong size for me, so I've never tried it.
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Old 09-04-15, 09:09 PM
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archimago
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Hey there,
That's a really nice bike you've got.
I'll definitely look into kestrel ems, sure looks nice. Do you know anything about their threadless 1" models?

Also, personally, I think dura-ace 7700 is one of the nicest looking groupsets ever, and i've been considering that too. The crank is the problem, but I guess I could get a DA 7410, (although it was made for an 8 speed).
You have a tricolore 600 crank huh?.
(A full ultegra 600 tricolore with downtube shifters would be a nice option too)
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Old 09-04-15, 09:16 PM
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I don't know much beyond that's what TK told me to buy, that's what I bought. It wasn't terribly expensive.

7700 looks decent...I don't like the front shifting as much as Campy. I keep meaning to put the front derailleur on a barcon. It's a tricolor crank...no issues with compatibility. The 7410 is a great option...so is Top Line. You won't have a problem with 9sp vs. 8sp crank.
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Old 09-04-15, 09:36 PM
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I like my Ritchey Comp. Significantly lighter than the Nashbar fork it replaced, damps road vibrations well and doesn't look too bad either.

https://www.benscycle.com/p-4349-rit...readless.aspx?
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Old 09-04-15, 09:36 PM
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I kinda like the grease guard bb. Seems like an inexpensive way to get really nice bearings, and if you're willing to go the campy way, you can upgrade the bike decently.
besides, could you imagine an ultegra Di2 on it? I mean, I think the DA 7800 cranks would look weird enough, and that group is more than 10 years old.
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Old 09-04-15, 09:39 PM
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hmm, interesting! thanks for the suggestion.
I like the fact that I could buy it new.
I was looking at the origin8 fork, but it seemed overly heavy (over 600 grams).
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Old 09-04-15, 09:44 PM
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No problem. When I was looking after the aforementioned Nashbar fork arrived trashed, I happened to see that the Ritchey was available locally. Not bad as far as impatient buys go

Kind of strange that the 1" version is not listed on Ritchey's site. As long as the stock numbers are accurate at Ben's, I can vouch for the fact that it is in fact 1".
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Old 09-05-15, 07:01 AM
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I also have a Kestrel fork on my '94 Merlin Ti. It came to me that way, and I actually did buy one of those 1" CF Nashbar forks as it has a bit more clearance than the Kestrel (a 25mm tire is very tight on the Kestrel fork), but haven't installed it. Mine also has the Grease Guard BB, and since the Campy compact double crankset I have on there fits fine, I don't see a reason to change. But I also don't care at all about group sets or matching components. The rest of the drivetrain is Dura Ace w/ indexing bar-ends.

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Old 09-05-15, 03:18 PM
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Yeah, I don't care too much about having matching groupsets either. I currently have a full 7400 DA group, except for the crank, which I think is an old campy athena.
For those of you guys with the Ritchey comp fork, what is the max tire size you can mount?
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Old 02-12-16, 10:42 AM
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Originally Posted by archimago
Hey fellas.
I've been rebuilding my old Merlin Extralight Titanium by Tom Kellogg 1992.
It has the (somewhat infamous) grease guard BB, and a worn out fsa headset, and a heavily work DuraAce 7400 group.
But the critical piece is getting a good 1 inch headtube fork.
I've considered the ol' Reynolds Ouzo, or a Time pro, but it seems like buying a used carbon fork from 2008 off of ebay is sketchy business.
So, other than a easton, what should I be looking for?

Any other tips for the merlin rebuild?
I'm also thinking about getting a older 9 or 10 speed campagnolo groupset, (considering I can only use square taper cranks).
Thanks!

I'm doing the same thing. For the fork, I went with a Columbus Minimal. I'm still deciding on the crankset. Curious to see how yours turned out!
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Old 02-12-16, 11:40 AM
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New:

Wiggle | Tifosi Carbon Road Bike Forks 1 Inch | Forks

Or keep an eye on the online marketplaces. I found a full carbon Mizuno 1" fork NOS when I was patient.
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Old 02-17-16, 03:56 PM
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I went for a columbus minimal too.
I'm not suuuuper happy with it. But it's definitely a neat fork.
I'll post some photos this weekend.
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Old 02-18-16, 06:48 PM
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So, here's the bike as of now.
Pretty horrible photo.



The columbus minimal fork looks pretty good, and it's very stiff. I like how the alu headset and headtube spacers look like they are impaling the carbon stem.
I adapted cable stops into the frame cable housing guides in the top tube, so that I can run the rear brake cable naked, without housing. Looks a lot better IMO.

I'm getting a crazy amount of ghost shifting though. Not sure if it's because of the "invented" 8-speed cassette, or if there is something wrong with my setup.

The bb spindle is a tad long, so the front derailleur needs to extend to it's fullest amount in order to shift to the large chainwheel. I guess I'll buy a slightly smaller spindle at phil wood eventually, when I replace the bb bearings.

It looks a lot better in person
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Old 04-05-16, 02:00 PM
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Lookin good @archimago I really like what you did with the cable stops! I actually googled solutions like this to deal with the top tube cabling—I much prefer them integrated or below the tt.

For now, I have the cabling along the top. Here's my build thread
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Old 04-05-16, 04:26 PM
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Thanks chrurges! Your bike is looking awesome! I really dig the crankset with that big chainwheel. Also dig the protruding fork steerer tube.

I changed the wheels, and now I'm using a proper campy 8 speed cassette which totally got rid of the ghost shifting.
I'm not 100% happy with my crankset yet, they don't fit snuggly into the frame (there's like an 8mm gap between frame and crank to both sides of the bb). But I'll take care of that later. Bike rides great though. How do you like the minimal fork? I'm really diggin in now.

Here's an updated pic of my puppy.

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Old 04-06-16, 01:46 AM
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Originally Posted by KonAaron Snake
I don't know much beyond that's what TK told me to buy, that's what I bought. It wasn't terribly expensive.

Take TK's advise. He knows these bikes better than anyone, and may know as much about forks. Why try to reinvent the wheel? Or the fork in this case.
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