I had one of these on my eBay watch list for years now and I don’t think I’ve seen more than one come up if that. This one was in my size and the price was right: only $600 for a complete bike.
The bike was very well used indeed and it shows. The frame’s paint is chipped and flaked off in many places. The bike included a nice Chris King classic wheelset (but hurting for a cleaning/rebuild!), a much-too-long 120mm Marzocchi Bomber ETA Pro fork, Chris King headset, and XT/XTR 8spd drivetrain. Do the math and this BuyItNow was a no brainer.
Before:
Anyway, I sold off the parts I didn’t want or need and actually made a small profit, ending up with the frame and a few other parts for free. Heh. I then swapped parts over from my (now sold) Bonty and here’s what we have now:
Being a 2000 yr frame, the geometry is capable of taking a 100mm fork. The fork is from the Xizang build and I took the spacer out to bring it back out to 100mm travel. I’m considering sending it back to Dekerf for a repaint and to also have disc tabs/routing added to the frame. The barrier is the cost: with cross-border fees and duties on top of the labor, it may be upwards of $600 or more! Is it worth it? Dekerf’s Team SST frameset goes for $2100, and that’s basically the same frame in every way. So for $600 or so I could have essentially a brand-spankin’ new Dekerf frame with new paint and decals and the modern luxuries of disc brakes.
Hmm, I think I’ve already made my decision… 😉
I’ve got the Team ST in the same red color. Debating a repaint and getting a disk mount added to the rear triangle. Did you get yours repainted? How’d it go..would you do it again?
Hi Doug, sorry for the late reply! No, I never got it repainted. The cost of sending it to Canada and back was a bit more than I was willing to go for. I ended up letting the DeKerf go. Good luck with yours!
Dude, that is beautiful, what a bike, I ride a litespeed taccoa for winter and a trek 9.9 SSL for summer, but still want a stunning dekerf, one day I hope
Yours
Pete