# McMahon Titanium Project



## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

About 6 years ago I thought it would be neat to adapt disk brakes to a McMahon titanium frame I had. A lot has changed in the brake world since then, so I'm left with this slightly odd build. That's what I get for taking too long to complete a project. The goal was also to put as many MRC Ti parts (or bits, as some like to say) on the frame as possible. In the early 90's I frequented the Pasadena Cyclery, which carried McMahon bikes made in nearby Carpenteria, CA. I never bought one back then, so it's nice to have one in the fleet now.

McMahon Ti frame
McMahon Ti fork with carbon inserts
McMahon Ti stem
McMahon Ti bar
McMahon Ti seatpost
McMahon Steely Danz cranks
McMahon Ti BB with 80mm shell
American Classic TriLock headset
White Industries high flange disk hubs
Mavic 317 rims
Flite saddle from Myles Rockwell
Shimano M735 derailleurs and thumbshifters
Avid 3DV levers faded to pink (matches decals)
Onza Ti barends


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## bushpig (Nov 26, 2005)

I like I like. The detail work is fantastic!


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## hollister (Sep 16, 2005)

bushpig said:


> I like I like. The detail work is fantastic!


agreed.

i got one of the road forks, but i really want one of those mountain forks!

very nice.


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## dick (Dec 13, 2006)

Did D8 help with this one?


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## YETIFIED (May 4, 2005)

Beautiful. I like the use of thumbies. How much does it weigh?


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## gm1230126 (Nov 4, 2005)

schweet! Very well done and tasteful. wait til Rumpfy gets his eyes on it. God,.....I mean Rumpfy gets the final word.


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## laffeaux (Jan 4, 2004)

Very very nice. Maybe more Ti than I've ever seen on one bike.


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## DeeEight (Jan 13, 2004)

Nope, I do not part with my rockshox discs horde...


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## MendonCycleSmith (Feb 10, 2005)

Speaking as someone currently working on a Merlin, similar concept, as much ti as I can throw at it, the thing is Ti-licious, nice work!:thumbsup:


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## Rumpfy (Dec 21, 2003)

The attention to detail on this is f'ing amazing.

All the right MRC Ti parts....er...bits, the right use of gold and purple accents, not to mention the custom guides and mounts.


Stellar.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

*seperate category?*



Rumpfy said:


> The attention to detail on this is f'ing amazing.
> 
> All the right MRC Ti parts....er...bits, the right use of gold and purple accents, not to mention the custom guides and mounts.
> 
> Stellar.


This one, I think, falls into the "hot rod" category (ie mod'ed for discs, etc) of "vintage" mtbs. It is a neat little unit, but the nostalgic type rigs do it for me. Old and modded/modernized does not float my boat. Is it just me?


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

It has vintage discs. 

Some day I will find an MRC Powerlink brake and it will be full vintage. I'm just not going to pay $640 for one. 

Yeah, "hot rod" is an appropriate term.

Not sure on the weight; I'll have to check that out.


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## Fillet-brazed (Jan 13, 2004)

DoubleCentury said:


> It has vintage discs.


yeah, this one's only a mild offender. 

(I climbed up in the ol' attic today to look around. Email comin your way.)


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## J Ro (Jan 13, 2004)

DoubleCentury said:


> About 6 years ago I thought it would be neat to adapt disk brakes to a McMahon titanium frame I had. A lot has changed in the brake world since then, so I'm left with this slightly odd build. That's what I get for taking too long to complete a project. The goal was also to put as many MRC Ti parts (or bits, as some like to say) on the frame as possible. In the early 90's I frequented the Pasadena Cyclery, which carried McMahon bikes made in nearby Carpenteria, CA. I never bought one back then, so it's nice to have one in the fleet now.
> 
> McMahon Ti frame
> McMahon Ti fork with carbon inserts
> ...


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

*McMahon Rebuild*

This McMahon was one of my earliest vintage projects, and the result was a bike that looked cool but with brakes that were just awful. When I finally came across an MRC Powerlink brake I decided to do the conversion to a more proper build. It also gave me an excuse to feature an unusual wheelset.

So, MRC PowerLink on the rear and MRC De-Cell on the front and black Avid levers. I made a cable noodle for the stem. The wheels use pineapple hubs. I don't think I've ever seen another rear pineapple cassette hub because only a very small number were made. I got this one as a complete wheel from the small machine shop in Denver that was designing and making these. The front hubs were marketed through Clark-Kent.


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

*A Few More*

Old saddle from Myles Rockwell,









80 mm wide BB shell,


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## newsboymerlin (Jan 7, 2005)

cool setup, cool fork... is that really a mcmahon seatpost?


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

Yes, early version. The decal perished in the clamp of a bike stand.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

Great pictures, nice build, HATE the spokes. There....I said it.


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## newsboymerlin (Jan 7, 2005)

cool... 
g, why? because they can better twist than you?


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

newsboymerlin said:


> cool...
> g, why? because they can better twist than you?


childhood memory of these?


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## newsboymerlin (Jan 7, 2005)

where is the whisper button?


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## scant (Jan 5, 2004)

nice bike. I really like the fork too, what diameter are the fork legs please?


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

Fork legs are 28.6mm Ti with about a 1mm wall thickness. There are also 1" carbon tubes inside the legs with 1/8" wall thickness, but the forks still flex a lot.


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## GMF (Jan 10, 2004)

Is there some sort of rationale behind the hubs? I'm not sure i get what the designer was going for there...


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

They look cool?

At best it is like the old tying and soldering spokes.


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## djmuff (Sep 8, 2004)

I didn't realize I wanted a McMahon until this thread.

Wow. Well done, both the earlier bike posted and this one.


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## mechagouki (Nov 30, 2007)

What is that hub? Three spoke lengths in one wheel.


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## uphiller (Jan 13, 2004)

Very sharp build with a totally clean look.
I remember the MacMahon D-Cell brakes- really cool looking and light. I got them as a surprise gift one year at Christmas. Thing is, my pair was made of soft metal, and almost everything on them failed- the ti return springs bowed out, the spring adjusters were made of butter, and arms themselves were made of such soft material that the force of braking made them bulge at the point where the brake pad connected to them, this in spite of the fact that it attached at two points. I was in high school at that point, and weighed 100lbs. 
How do the Rock Shox discs perform compared to modern units?


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## Vlad (Feb 7, 2004)

I hate to be a party pooper, but those cranks are garbage. Some dude on a SS ran into me a few years ago, and when the dust settled, his crank arm was twisted and folded about 90 degrees from where it was supposed to be.


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

mechagouki said:


> What is that hub? Three spoke lengths in one wheel.


Good question. Three spoke lengths and 8 spokes are straight pull...and no reasonable way to calculate the lengths. The rear hub shell has the emblem RBW for Royal Bicycle Works, for what it is worth. When I was at the machine shop, most of the hubs they still had were designed for freewheels and BMX use. One of the reasons I was there was to look for replacement parts for a broken rear hub I have, but it turns out that the cassette body and bearing mechanism are different on these two hubs. The blue one looks to use a Shimano cassette body whereas this black one has cartridge bearings like the Ringle design. And it turns out that the hub shells are slightly different. This black one also came from the Denver area, so it makes me wonder how widely they were distributed,











uphiller said:


> How do the Rock Shox discs perform compared to modern units?


Oh, not that well. Lots of rotor drag and poor feedback at the lever. I'd take an Avid BB7 any day over one of these. Probably what I like most are the big White Industries high-flange hubs that Rock Shox had made. Unfortunately, they only have a three bolt pattern, but you can run a standard 6 bolt rotor on them and just leave off three bolts if you are OK with that.


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## 1 cog frog (Dec 21, 2004)

*WI Rock Shox hubs*

I had a student whose dad worked for White Industries at some point give me a front hub like that. I tried to mount a modern 6 bolt rotor, but the bolt circle diameter was different. So I decided to machine an adapter to run a 6 bolt rotor. Took a few prototypes in butterboard before I got it just right, but in the end it worked. Now I just need to build a wheel out of it!

I will take some pics and post them up if anyone is interested.

frog


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## lowmassmetals (Dec 27, 2010)

doublecentury, you aways impress. beautiful bike. hard to say which version is better, cause those early disc white hubs and custom mounts are so sweet as you'd see 'hotrodded' at the beginning of the disc era. maybe not purist, but i sure like it a lot! on the other hand pineapple hubs and snowflake lacing(are those also ti spokes?) are crazy cool too. your mcmahon makes me remember how much i wanted one of them back at the 93' interbike, but there weren't many things not to like that day. the only MRC piece i did ever got was one of his "long" travel forks. it's been display mounted but never riden and is still in my collection. i was contemplating selling or trading it, since i'm not likely to start an mrc build any time soon. i've heard of too many MRC parts failing and all the suspension fork accidents(with the short travel forks only apparently- the tire and crown could contact upon full compression, causing auto ejection of the rider...Mcm dropped that ball) but still those sweet ti tubes and meant for business "bits" look so sweet. and for some reason i think the mcmahon purple triangle is one of the best looking vintage mtb logos ever.


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

Many thanks, and that's cool that people remember MRC from back in the day. In the very early 90's, Pasadena Cyclery carried Trek, Klein, and McMahon. That meant one Ti road bike and a couple of mountain bikes, and that inventory moved slowly. I remember in 1992 when Trek came out with the carbon 5200 and all of a sudden the MRC Ti road bike felt really heavy, so I bought the Trek instead. The MRC accessories did get used to make some of the Treks even lighter.


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## 92gli (Sep 28, 2006)

Heavy hitter there... wow.


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

Liking the ride now.


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## Stefanxy1 (Jul 9, 2011)

Hi,

just by chance I've seen this post. For a couple of months I'm dealing quite intensely with the Clark Kent topic. I'm in the lucky position to have another rear hub as well as a cut model. I've described them in a german MTB Forum, you can see my post mtb-news.de/forum/showthread.php?t=560410" if you are interested.
Can you maybe send me more pictures of the Wheelset? At the most I'm interested in the lacing pattern and the spoke lenghts... afaik there are just 2 lenghts used, the difference in length is balaced by the flange diametre and position.

Pobably you can tell me other?


Thanks a lot!

Best regards
Stefan


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## Root Beer (Mar 10, 2011)

Wow, old thread. I loved McMahon Powerlink brakes. I still have mine from 1990.


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## DoubleCentury (Nov 12, 2005)

I'm afraid I don't have that wheelset anymore. It is possible that I could put you in contact with the current owner. When I built the front wheel I used a string and an existing wheel to estimate the spoke lengths. I do have a couple of photos of the lacing on the rear hub. The drive side is conventional 3 cross, of course. The left uses straight-pull spokes for the inside and J-bend spokes for the outside.

Were I to do this lacing again, I would probably start with extra long spokes and use a spoke threading machine to add lots of extra threads. Building up the wheel the first time would allow me to estimate how much extra length the spokes had and build it correctly the second time.

Good luck!


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## Stefanxy1 (Jul 9, 2011)

Thanks for the pictures and the information provided.
I think when I'm ready to start I will take J bend spokes, not the straight ones. All that I#ve heard abot theses hubs tells me that there are obviously several options to build up, starting from the spoke bending up to the twisting pattern one can use for the front hub.
It would be nice if you could put me in contact with the current owner 

Cheers 
St.


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