jamesdak 

Took some decent snaps of the bike this morning. Haven't done anything major to it since picking it up other than cleaning and doing a light service. Yanked off a rear rack, swapped pedals, and put on bottle cages. Oh, and for now I threw on a Dura Ace/Mavic Open Pro wheelset I had around. Stock wheels seem fine but I want to open and service the hubs.

Bought it to be my annual contribution to a local bike coop but now thinking of keeping it and giving it parts worthy of the beautiful frame. Digging in the stash today I've got most of either a Suntour Superbe or Cyclone setup if I want to stick to DT parts. Or I've got a Shimano 105 7 speed setup, an Ultegra 10 speed or a Dura Ace 10 speed setup. I haven't measured the rear dropouts but I'm betting it's at least 128mm since the 130mm wheels pretty much just slid right in.


Rough setup with my usual fit.

The Exage parts mostly show very little wear

Some shoe rub on the crank is the most wear on the bike.

The worse comsmetic area of the bike is that "H" on the top tube.

The paint is really good for a bike around 30 years old.

Friction and indexed shifting.

FD looks brand new too

Wish the pictures captured the deep, glossy shine on the frame

Bar tape needs a redo but I have to decide what direction I'm taking this first.

Once I find or buy a headset spacer this reflector will go, dead weight.

jamesdak 

Not happy with the operation of these calipers

Levers are pretty clean and the hoods are decent

The shape of these bars is better than other Sakae's I've had.

Pump peg, bonus!

Bonded aluminum/steel frame

Seat cluster

Rockin' the name!

Google says this shop is now closed.

Three main tubes are aluminum.

jamesdak 

How it was found, 24 lbs 14 ozs.

jamesdak 

Well.... I thought I had decided yesterday to go with a mostly Ultegra 9 speed build on this. Then this morning I realized I also have all of a DA 7700 setup minus the brakes. But I do have silver 7800 brakes. Maybe this would be the better build?

plonz 

I’d be hanging the Ultegra or 105 mentioned earlier. I might even try polishing one of them to a chrome gleam with no labels. Keep the fans guessing.

You know full well something else will come along calling for the Dura Ace!

Bianchigirll 

Wouldn’t the parts on it already be equal to quality level of the frame?

it’s been a long time since I worked on those Shipmano light action brakes, especially Exage Motion but they can be finicky. Like lots of shipmano brakes of the era the spring in the calipers is very light and the spring in the lever returns the cable to resting position, unlike traditional brakes where the caliper spring does both. Just a tiny amount of friction can take them from snappy to crappy.

It is actually one of the nicer looking Techniums I’ve seen.

I think remember that bike shop it was right next a gun shop I like in Horsham, in fact I was just there Friday doing a little pre Christmas shopping and checking out the great little aviation museum at the old NAS Willow Grove base.

you’re not likely to one of these quirky Martin Sea Darts anywhere else as sad,y it never got past prototype stage.

jamesdak 

Maybe....

This frame is just gorgeous and certainly is calling for better parts in my opinion. I obviously don't see it like putting Dura Ace on a dime store Huffy. Although, that might be fun too, LOL!

Anyway, I did build it up yesterday using Ultegra STI shifters and 53/39 crank. The FR,RD, Brakes, and hubs are Dura Ace. The rims are Mavic Open Pros. I had to stick with the Sakae 25.8 seatpost for now and then wound up sticking with the Sakae 25.4 handlebars since the only silver stem I had in the right clamp size was a Sakae. The seatpost and stem are not light by any means. The 9 speed 12-26 cassette and chain are SRAM. The pedals are some used ISIS Keo style for now with an old Fizik Arione saddle on it. And then new gray Shimano housing and cables. It's weighing in right now at 20 lbs 12 ozs with the cables still needing a trim. Add in the additional weight of the bar tape still in it's box and this old beauty should build up to no more than 21 lbs even. So a 30 year old dang near mint frame that can be built up to that weight even with some fairly heavy parts seems more than deserving of the good parts.

Plus....in all honesty I very well may move this on to someone locally after enjoying it awhile. There's not many people wanting DT shifters these days other than us nuts, LOL!

Today I have to decide on the right saddle and then the bar tape color. Right now it's a blue saddle with a grey stripe. So do I try a grey bar tape or matching blue or white or black????

I also have a white Arione with a grey trim, a blue/black Arione, or a slew of other black saddles I could use including a super light CF Fizik Aliante saddle. I just don't think the clamp on the Seatpost will accomondate the oval rails on the Aliante.

plonz was the voice of reason on the full Dura Ace setup. Decided to keep that stashed with the NOS Ultegra Triple setup and NOS Ultegra 6800 groupset.

The smart choice on this may have been just using the rider quality 7 speed Shimano 105 setup I took off the KHS last winter.

Anyway.....here's how it's sitting right now this morning. I still need to tweak the FD a bit and then trim and finish off the cables. Then will come the deciding on which saddle and then what color bar tape. This morning I'm leaning towards the white/grey saddle and white bar tape.....

plonz 

jamesdak , thanks to you we’re all taking second looks at the $150 Techniums for sale locally!

Do we know if there are any differences in the frame composition across the Technium lineup? 420, 440, 460, Scott Tinley, Supercourse, etc…

T-Mar

This appears to be the 1990 model. It uses the generic 6061 T8 aluminum main tubes. During this era those tubes were used on the "Sport Performance Technium" models and the two bottom "Racing Technium" models. The next two models up used the more exotic Easton E9 main tubes and were RX-100 and 105SC equipped. The Dura-Ace equipped model used a Reynolds 753 Technium frameset, while the 600 Ultegra model used a Reynolds 531 Technium frameset..

The Supercourse was the bottom model of the Racing Technium series in 1990, even below the Grand Prix. I never could understand why they reversed the model order. Exage Action was the predecessor to 400EX, so the mismatched brake levers seen strange. I wonder if the dissatisfaction could be due to something associated with lever replacement?

jamesdak 

^ Good info T-Mar , more than I found googling around. About all I knew was it was a lower end model. I just hope when I get it out on the road that it doesn't ride like a low end model.

Still it's so dang good looking in my book. I wish the pictures were capturing just how shiny and new it looks. We all know just the shine will make it go faster.

Just finished up dialing in the shifting and then trimming off the cables. Stole the Gunmetal Grey bottle cages off my Softride to put on this as they match so much better than the light grey ones I had put on it. I also found some blue Wolftooth alloy bottle cage bolts in my stash and added them on to kick it up a notch. Capped the wires with blue endcaps too.





Now to decide on the saddle and tape.

I took it outside to grab comparison pics of the different saddles on it. Hard to get the whites right though with the cheap P&S camera and grey snowy skies.


I'm now thinking this is best with black tape

Second choice with white tape

Third choice with black tape but the mismatched blues bug me.

Fourth choice but with what bar tape??? Mismatched blues still bugging me with this too.

jamesdak 

A few notes on this to to help others researching these. There is room in front for a nice fat 700 x 25 for sure and maybe even a 700 x 28. The back will take a 700 x 28 for sure.

The top tube pass through is one where it is not a solid tube running from front to back. The openings are pretty tight too. I left the old housing in and ran the new cable through. Then I pulled the old housing out and worked the new one through. Inside on the back opening it didnt' want to feed through ever with a clean cut. Then when I got to the front opening it probably took about 2-3 minutes of fiddling to get it to feed through that passage.

Then on this one I paid more attention as I took the 130mm rear wheel off and I really only spread the stays by maybe a mm or so, the wheel pretty much does just slip in. So I'm guessing these are set at 128mm although I did forget to get out the calipers to see.
I used a standard Hollowtech II BB and didn't have to fiddle around at all to get a decent chainline for this nine speed setup. I used the FD adaptor it came with since it seemed really light and polished up well. I got the FD adjusted with no real issues at all.

If I had a gripe it's being limited to the 25.8 seatpost. No real options for these now days other than a Kalloy it seems.

Oh, and when I had the fork off I didn't see any indication at all on it as to what tubing it might be. Nothing stamped in it at all that I could see.

jamesdak 

Alright, I finally got this finished. To Bianchigirll , you were right about the blue bar tape. In my mind's eye I was seeing black with the blue black saddle. But with your comments and the overwhelming choice of blue on Steel is Real I went with it. Now if I pass this on it will probably go with the Blue/Grey Fizik but for me to ride it I prefer to try this saddle. Once it was all said and done the bike is still 20 lbs, 12 ozs. This is a lighter saddle and I still needed to trim cables and such when I last weighed it. So fully finished it's 4 lbs, 2 ozs lighter than it was when I bought it. That should make it feel better out on the road for sure. As usual, I wrapped the bars early in the morning while hopped up on several cups of coffee and rushed things a bit. I was also trying to beat another incoming storm so I could shoot so pictures of it finished up. Needless to say, shooting a grey bike against a snow background with temps in the 20s and snow/sleet falling means so not very good pictures. But they should give some idea about how nice this looks now.


Still need to decide if black, white, or grey Keo's look best.

I do like the blue and how the change rings match up decently to the frame

R3 saddle is light and comfy. Seatpost looks pretty good shined up. The cosmetic mess by the H is peeling decal. Not sure how to fix that since it's under clearcoat.

These bars seem shallower than other versions of these Sakae's that I've removed on other bikes

Tried to match the white and black with the finishing tape detail.

Pretty sharp looking ol' girl if I do say so.

Dura Ace smoothness

STI shifters are working well.

The cable housing reflections in the headtube give some idea as to how much this bike gleams. Hard to catch the shine in the pictures.

Plenty of room to run 700 x 28's on this.

jamesdak 

A few more:


9 Speed goodness

I like the decision to use grey housing.

And.....I forget to remove the tape I had on the non-drive chainstay. My reference point for saddle setback, LOL!

I think the bar tape matches the blue decals pretty well

Added a bit more blue detail

The view I'll get to enjoy out on the road.

I do like the chainrings on this one.

georges1

verynice build

georges1

Very nice build

Murray Missile 

That is a sharp lookiing bike, the blue saddle and bar tape reallysets it off.
It looks much better without the reflectors to LOL but I saw a cool idea for repurposing one Can't remember where I saw it, possibly here, but someone made an adapter plate and turned their front reflector bracket into a mount for a bottle cage. It looked pretty decent too.

USAZorro

The paint is stunning, and the way you've set it up is aesthetically quite pleasing. I think you have made excellent choices with components... without exception. The burning question is, "How does it ride?".

Personally, even with this being my size, if the frame was aluminum, I'd pass it on to someone who would better appreciate it. In the end, all that matters is that you enjoy it.

AdventureManCO 

More fun that should be legally allowed.

sdn40

Nice work - love that color combination !!
Very subjective - but these bikes are very under rated in the curb appeal department IMO. Give me all kinds of lettering graphics. Older pic before I had it finished but still enjoy this bike. I know many here immediately disregard these because of the unicrown fork and aluminum tubes.




Not mine (internet pic) but they also make an Olympian with V-brakes. So this would be a hybrid,, deluxe, terrain, trail worth $8,000 today right ??? I still want to find one of these and build it up.

darkmoon

Just beautiful
The color combination is exceptional
It's an exhibition and catalog bike

jamesdak 

Grabbed some new pics today. This one is still unridden but I'm tempted to take it out today. It's just hard to evaluate the bikes when you are not really riding normally.

jamesdak 

jamesdak 

May switch on this grey and blue saddle

tkamd73 

Looks wise, I like the saddle that’s on it now. Beautiful build!
Tim

Beanboy

Bought it new back in 1992.

My technium frame seems fine, the drivetrain is completely worn out, and unlike the last few times it has happened Suntour cassettes are few and far between. Reading through this thread on options, and trying to decide on a new bike or just do a complete drivetrain replacement...