Author Archives: Justin Fox

New Old Stock!

Tonka tough.

Last night I went down to the storage cage in my unit and dug through plastic containers in search for bits and this is all the stuff I found. Pretty hilarious that I’ve been holding on to this stuff for 15+ years!

The fat Maxxis 2.3 High Roller front and fast rolling 2.1 Kenda Small Block 8 on the rear was how I liked to run my old dual suspension bike. Took me ages to dial in that combo. Lots of grip at the front in corners, and the tail would slide out when leaning hard at speed which really suited my riding style. The WTB Rocket V saddle must have come new on my old Giant Reign 1. The Tioga saddle and bottle cage are rad, so too the weight weenie Maxxis tubes.

I think the tyres are overkill, but I had to at least put them on to see what they looked like and to check clearances. Still nowhere near refining how this bike is going to look, and still waiting for brake levers and a shifter to come in the mail, but man I’m having a blast going down the 90’s MTB rabbit hole.

Stripping down an old bike is always fun!

After a lot of elbow grease, needs a hell of a lot more.

Low spec forks, might replace, might not.

Microshift Advent X 10-Speed 1 by groupset stolen from my Kona Jake the Snake.

Every man, woman and their dog was at Bunnings (local hardware store) yesterday. Sandpaper, scouring pads, autosol, McDonalds, bottle of cheap wine, Pearl Jam and elbow grease.

I’ve had SO much fun stripping the bike down and having so much fun starting to put it back together again. It’s been so nostalgic and so rewarding. No tirque wrenches necessary, it’s all about feel, and man I got pretty lucky with the stripdown as nothing was seized (ever tried removing a siezed seatpost on a steel frame? Not fun!). Grease everything people’s! Might save someone a lot of pain in the future!

As I was stripping down the bike it became pretty clear to me that I wasn’t going to go for a full restoration on it. The frame has a dent in the top tube and downtube, and whilst a full all out resto on my 80’s Paino road bike was rewarding, in the end I ended up turning that bike into a weight weenie neo retro thing anyways, so the restoration feather is already in my cap, been there done that.

I just really want to ride (thrash) this thing, and so I’ve decided to just clean up the frame a little and rock the patina. The wheelset (no logos but could be Velocity wheels and a small sticker says DT Spokes) still spin well and run true. They’re heavy but I don’t think I could find ready made alloy wheels that would be much lighter (would have to build some up). I’ve taken the SRAM TruVativ XX crankset from the Kona Jake the Snake (perfect as it’s a MTB crankset thus no need for spacers on the GXP BB) as well as the 10-Speed MicroSHIFT Advent X rear derailleur (re-used chain and cassette too, just need the MicroSHIFT Advent shifter which is cheap as chips).

The fork has 110mm of travel which raises the front a fair bit. I’m much more used to this laid back position coming from an “all mountain” dual suspension bike, but part of me wants to lower the front end to stay true to what mountain bikes were like when I was younger. It’s a lower end fork too, so the temptation to track down something better is strong. For now I’m going to try to re-use as much of the parts as I can, but a shorter stem and some really wide riser bars would make for a much more capable bike on the trails. We’ll see.

Specs so far:

1996 GT Avalanche

Frame: 15″ (1748g)
Fork RST Delta Comp (1850g)
Hanger: (19g)
Headset: Aheadset (110g)
Stem: KORE (173g)
Handlebar: KORE (168g)
Crankset: TruVativ XX 170mm (530g)
Chainring: Wolf Tooth 120 BCD 36T (54g)
Chain: Shimano 10-Speed (252g)
Rear Derailleur: MicroSHIFT Advent X (313g)
Wheelset: (888g/1083g)
Quick Release Skewers: Zipp (77g)
Cassette: Shimano Deore 10-Speed 11-36T (365g)
Lockring: ZTTO (6g)
Seatpost Clamp: (8g)

Parts on order:
– microSHIFT Advent X 10 Speed Trail Trigger Pro Shifter
– ODI Ruffian lock-on grips (my fave grips from back in the day!)
– DMR V12 Pedals (also my fave pedals from back in the day! Though I had the lighter magnesium ones back then)
– Schwalbe Smart Sam 26×2.1″ front
– Schwalbe Billy Bonkers 26×2.1″ rear (I always ran a faster more slippery tyre in the rear)
– Litepro V Brake levers

Livin’ the dream.

Original KORE bars and stem.

Nothing a bit of WD40 won’t fix lol.

Brake booster even!

She’ll buff right out!

Oh sheeeeiiii. I really need to stay off FB Marketplace…

I’ve finally gotten quite comfortable with being in lycra, but getting back out on the trails was always inevitable. That small taste of gravel on my newly acquired Kona Jake the Snake instantly took me back to riding a rigid 90’s hardtail. I was looking for vintage brake boosters on eBay last night then this popped up on Marketplace today for $120 AUD.

Looking at the listing photos it looked like a small (15″). I messaged the seller and asked them to measure the centre of the top tube to the BB and BAM! It was a 15 inch! I offered $100 AUD cash and if he accepted I could pick it up right now. He accepted and welp, now it’s mine.

If this was a car it would have a rats nest in the engine bay. The bike is in pretty rough shape, but these things don’t break and man I’m so excited to strip it down and start polishing the frame.

Weight if anyone is interested is 12.98kg’s. Having done a full restoration on my 80’s steel Paino road bike, then eventually turning that into a weight weenie build I think I’ll skip the full resto job on this, leave some patina and go for style points with a sprinkling of weenie. We’ll see!

Still sorting my fit out on the Kona Jake the Snake and thought I’d test it out on Centennial Park’s gravel trail late yesterday afternoon. Man… talk about under biking. There’s some gnarly tree roots on the section of trail I chose to do, stuff that I’d bomb over willy nilly on my old dual suspension MTB, but even hopping up a gutter on this thing is more challenging.

I was going slow, real slow, and I had to pick lines. There was quite a lot of soft sand and I’m surprised the thin 35C tyres tracked just fine, but then I scored a flat, and well, that was the end of that.

I’ve never had an issue with flats all those years riding MTB’s, but I was running butyl tubes back then. I doubt I would have scored this flat if I ran butyl tubes, but 150g vs. 35g TPU tubes got the better of me with the build.

Need much more testing time, but I’ll look into tougher gravel specific TPU tubes with butyl tubes as a backup plan, and if butyl doesn’t work I’ll look into going tubeless (but I’d rather not).

I was so close to picking up a 90’s MTB before pulling the trigger on this bike. I like the concept of underbiking, but after yesterday’s ride I’m not so sure anymore. IE: I would have had a lot more fun on my old dual suspension trail bike.

As is, the bike is fine for easy gravel trails (Gina wanting to hit some chill gravel trails in the mountains was the catalyst in the first place), and out of all my bikes it’s also the only one I would comfortably lock up outside the local grocery store so it makes for a good pub bike (which would stop me from going too far with bling bits!) and with eyelets all over the frame it would make for a great wet weather bike too.

But hey, this is what testing is all about, and I’m sure with more testing I’ll figure out where I want to take this bike.

888! Must mean positive health, financial wealth and being truly content with myself! :lol:

Every great story seems to begin with a snake.

Gina’s been keen to hit some light gravel trails, and as much as I’m all for N+1 I’ve been trying my best to avoid the idea of buying another gravel bike as I sadly only recently sold my Canyon Grizl. I’m actually still sad about it as I loved the blueberry milkshake colourway so much, and the bike fit me so well too.

That said, the trails are calling. Even if I have to ride them alone. I have zero doubt I’ll get back out there.

For the past month I’ve been looking at gravel bikes, but more specifically toying with the idea of a mountain bike with drop bars. I’ve looked at everything from e-bikes to dual suspension trail and XC bikes as well as hardtails (both new and vintage retro 1980’s).

I still think gravel bikes are a trend. I’m just not that into them and I find it hilarious that with fat MTB tyres and suspension they’re slowly but surely becoming mountain bikes. I was narrowing in on a simple MTB hardtail for Gina vs. a gravel bike, but for myself I was close to pulling the trigger on a Chinese carbon hardtail frame, then an 80’s Panasonic Mountain Cat with ridiculous graphics popped up for $200. I was all set to buy it buy the seller couldn’t meet me that day, then the next day this thing popped up on FB Marketplace, and welp… it’s now mine.

It’s a New Old Stock 2007 Kona Jake the Snake in size 52 that’s come straight out of the box (has never been ridden). The shop owner Mark at Vanilla Cycles had the frameset and whacked a mish mash of low-spec parts on it; Microshift Advent X, Tektro brakes, all stuff for the parts bin, but what’s interesting is that he’s got a rigid Kona disc brake front fork on it.

I tried to negotiate just the frameset as the first gen models used Easton Ultralite Race tubing (Made in USA), but in the end I got the price down a little and bought it as is.

Weight came in at a hefty 9.86kg! Of-course I’ve raided my bottomless parts bin and have the bike now sitting at a much more respectable 8.95kg’s now.

Here’s a list of parts on the bike atm, and also parts that have come off.

SPECS:

Kona Jake the Snake Size 52
Easton Ultralite Race tubing (Made in USA)
NOS – Never used

Fork: Kona Project Two AL Disc
Groupset: Microshift Advent X
Front Brake: Tektro MD-M280
Rotor: Galfer 160mm (95g)
Lockring: Chaser (g)
Rear Brake: Tektro Oryx cantilever
Handlebars: Alloy 42cm/50cm
Stem: FSA SL-K 100mm
Top Cap: Extralite + Extralite bolt (2g/1g)
Spacers: God & Famous (10g)
Seatpost: FSA SL-K
Seatpost Clamp: Ultralight
Saddle: Specialized S-Works Power 143mm (161g)
Crankset: TruVativ XX 170mm
Chainring: Wolf Tooth 120 BCD 36T
Pedals: ZTTO (182g)
Front Wheel: Hollowgram HG SL 35mm (660g)
Rear Wheel: Wheelsfar Feder 45mm Extralite/Sapim CX-Super (680g)
Tube: RideNow TPU (36g/36g)
QR Skewers: Ti/Extralite (21g/)
Cassette: Shimano 10-Speed 11-36T (365g)
Cassette Lockring: Chaser (3g)
Tyres: Schwalbe Rapid Rob 700 x 35C (550g/550g)
Bottle Cage: Elite Leggero (18g/18g)
Bottle Cage Bolts: Kogel Ti (5g)

WEIGHT: 8.95kg

Parts that have come off the bike:
Rear Wheel: Shimano RS100 24mm (1092g)
Pedals: (280g)
Top Cap: (16g)
Headset Spacers: (18g)
Bottle Cage Bolts: (16g)
Saddle: Bontrager Evoke 2 (273g)
Rotor: Shimano 160mm (139g)
Tubes: Schwalbe Butyl (160g/160g)
Cassette Lockring: Shimano (13g)
QR Skewer: Shimano (60g)

Meeting Frank Paino, the man who made my frame!

Paino on show!

Love the chrome paint on both these Williers.

Mark’s De Rosa.

Love this paint job!

My fave bike of the show.

Jewellery, pretty much.

Paul Hillbrick.

Got to meet Darrin who put on the show. Great show, great guy!

Race in progress.

I dropped in to Retro Day 2025 at Heffron Park and displayed my 80’s Neo Retro Paino bike in the Show and Shine. The Paino got more than a few odd stares, the best reactions came from people that spotted the UCI Illegal sticker and lifted the bike up! Managed to catch up with a few old bike friends, as well as meet new ones, but my day was made when I got to meet Frank Paino himself!

Was pretty hot under the sun, and I was feeling pretty rough from last night’s boozy adventure so I decided to bail out of the show early. As I was leaving this guy came up to me, pointed at my carbon forks, and wanted to know why I chose to replace the steel forks with carbon forks. I explained that I was going for the lightest steel bike I could build, and the carbon forks were a lot lighter than the original forks. I also suggested that the bike felt a lot stiffer with the carbon forks. He looked me up and down, grabbed the bike off me, put his foot on the pedal and proceeded to flex test the frame. He let me know that at my size he doubted I could even begin to flex the frame!

I expected to ruffle some feathers with my build, but I wasn’t quite prepared for in-my-face trolling!

I proceeded to explain that the bike has been with me for many years, and that I found the guy who originally painted the frame for Frank Paino (Peter at Star Enamelers) and on that note the guy who was standing next to the guy who was drilling me said “this IS Frank!”. Holy shit! I asked him for a photo, but he refused lol! But hey I’ve got the gift of the gab, right? So I went on about not riding the bike for many years, but late last year this bike got me riding again, and over this year I decided to transform the bike to re-spark my passion for building and riding bikes.

I let Frank know that people who acquire a Paino find my build online and reach out to me to find out more about him. I also let him know that all I’ve read on him being a colourful character is true (to which he said only half of what I hear is true haha!). In the end Frank warmed up to me, and said that despite not liking all the carbon bits on the bike he now understands what I was trying to achieve, and that ultimately he’s no-body to tell anyone what they can’t and can’t do with their bikes. We had a few laughs, shared a few stories and then he let me take that photo with him!

DAY MADE!

Retro Day is put on by Randwick Cycling. For more info, visit: https://www.randwickcc.com.au