# Early 90's Mark Zeh



## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

Mark Zeh was a custom frame builder out of the Minneapolis area in the late 80's through the late 90's. He was known for creating well some made steel frames, he did a few aluminum and even a couple ti frames as well, but was best known for his work with steel. I'm pretty sure he was more known for his road and track bikes, but he did quite a few mtn, cross, tandem and even recombents as well. I also think it's safe to say he was always up for doing things a little "different". I've seen one of his road bikes with a double down tube, a cross bike painted in glow-in-the-dark paint, a billet BB on a track bike - and I'm sure there's much, much more.

So anyhow, I was attending a bike swap a couple years ago and I came upon a guy with an old beat up blue frame sitting on his table. For whatever reason I took a closer look at it and discovered it was an old Zeh frame. I quickly noticed it was fillet brazed and had some classic details (like a press-in BB, ovalized tubes at the welds, drilled out cable stops and a Campy mtn headset). I asked the guy how much he wanted for it, he said "make me an offer", so I offered up $40 (all the cash I had on me). Low and behold to me he accepted it.

here's what it looked like when I bought it.









I wasn't thrilled with the blue, so decided that a metallic red powder coating would be more appropriate for the bike that was to be know as "the Phoenix". Here's an after.









A detail of the front end.









It's hard tell here, but that's a press-in bottom bracket.









here's the seat tube/top tube junction.


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## mhickey79 (Feb 22, 2007)

Very nice - I love the fillet brazed stuff. 
But lose the chain tensioner, eh? You should be able to get good chain tension with those drop-outs pretty easily without a tensioner.


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## colker1 (Jan 6, 2004)

BEAUTIFULL construction.
i am speechless.. 
you already repainted.. well.. at least get a nice set of cantis. Restore this bike to it's former glory, gears and all.


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## Boy named SSue (Jan 7, 2004)

I really like the seat tube junction. It's a shame not to run cantis on a frame with cool routing.


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## Guitar Ted (Jan 14, 2004)

Boy named SSue said:


> I really like the seat tube junction. It's a shame not to run cantis on a frame with cool routing.


Plus 1.

Nice looking work by the builder.


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## stan lee (Mar 5, 2006)

Wow- very cool and a great deal @ 40 bucks! I dig the original photo with the classic paragon sticker- It would be neat to see a picture of the originally build and know the history. Thanks for sharing!


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

mhickey79 said:


> Very nice - I love the fillet brazed stuff.
> But lose the chain tensioner, eh? You should be able to get good chain tension with those drop-outs pretty easily without a tensioner.


Thanks everyone, it really is a rolling work of art, and as you might expect it rides even smoother than it looks. 
I actually tried to get it to work without the tensioner, but it was right between chain lengths. However, now that the chain has probably stretched out a bit, it might work without it. As for changing over to cantis, I had the Ti Avids laying around so I went with those. As for adding gears, I already have another Zeh hardtail with gears. Now I have the best of both worlds. However, I can see my other geared one finding a new home, and if that happens The Phoenix may find it self with shifters and derailleurs.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

....and hopefully cantis some day.


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## IF52 (Jan 10, 2004)

It would be fine with Vees if it weren't for the zip ties. They kill it.


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

IF52 said:


> It would be fine with Vees if it weren't for the zip ties. They kill it.


The zips are a temporary fix until I get a Problem Solver cable stop fabricated to fit the ovalized top tube. If I can't get that to work I may have to switch over to a pair of cantis. Either way - the zip ties gotta go.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

CANTIS, CANTIS, CANTIS! :cornut:


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

So I'm guessing you guys wouldn't approve of my idea about switching it over to disc brakes ....


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

obviously you can do whatever you want. We're just trying to gently guide you to get your beautiful bike back to its former glory, that's all. You're in a vintage forum, of course we prefer you preserve the integrity of the frame.

You posted it here, we're just human and expressing our own opinions. Take what you want from that or none of it and go ahead and add disc tabs and cut off the cable guides. Make it like every other bike on the road right now and not a bike from a boutique builder with some history. The bestest and the newest isn't always a step forward...imho.


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## da'HOOV (Jan 3, 2009)

girlonbike said:


> obviously you can do whatever you want. We're just trying to gently guide you to get your beautiful bike back to its former glory, that's all. You're in a vintage forum, of course we prefer you preserve the integrity of the frame.
> 
> You posted it here, we're just human and expressing our own opinions. Take what you want from that or none of it and go ahead and add disc tabs and cut off the cable guides. Make it like every other bike on the road right now and not a bike from a boutique builder with some history. The bestest and the newest isn't always a step forward...imho.


But how do you really feel?


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## chefmiguel (Dec 22, 2007)

Add another to the cantilever camp, Mark Zeh did some impressive looking stuff with the cable routing it would be a shame to waste his effort by bypassing it.


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## IF52 (Jan 10, 2004)

Yeah, the cable routing looks interesting indeed. Can we get a better picture of what's going on with it at the seat cluster?


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## colker1 (Jan 6, 2004)

never saw true temper tubes w/ these shapes...


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## yo-Nate-y (Mar 5, 2009)

Neat frame details. I really like the toptube/seat junction.


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

IF52 said:


> Yeah, the cable routing looks interesting indeed. Can we get a better picture of what's going on with it at the seat cluster?


I'll try and get a better close up of that and post it up. I can tell you that there are three cable routing "tubes" right above the seat binder, the top most is for the rear brake, the middle is the rear der, and the bottom is for the front der. If you look at the the detail photo of the BB you can see there's a braze on about three inches up for the front derailleur pulley.

Another interesting thing I discovered after buying the frame was the fork crown that was included (in original photo) was a threaded Ti steerer tube. I had thought it was a Tange switchblade crown, but they never made a ti model, so I still don't know what that was. I ended up trading it to a local collector for some work on a different project.


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

IF52 said:


> Yeah, the cable routing looks interesting indeed. Can we get a better picture of what's going on with it at the seat cluster?


Here's a couple more shots of the cable guides.


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## Boy named SSue (Jan 7, 2004)

BikerTex said:


> Here's a couple more shots of the cable guides.
> [/IMG]


Way rad, you gotta run the cables how they were meant to be run.


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

BikerTex said:


> I'll try and get a better close up of that and post it up. I can tell you that there are three cable routing "tubes" right above the seat binder, the top most is for the rear brake, the middle is the rear der, and the bottom is for the front der. If you look at the the detail photo of the BB you can see there's a braze on about three inches up for the front derailleur pulley.


Good thing I'm going to the eye doctor tomorrow. I only see two cable routing channels. 

That is totally neat. What a great bike.


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## hollister (Sep 16, 2005)

girlonbike said:


> Good thing I'm going to the eye doctor tomorrow. I only see two cable routing channels.
> 
> That is totally neat. What a great bike.


look at the last pic in the OP

and yeah, definitely go with the og routing and cantis


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

hollister said:


> look at the last pic in the OP
> 
> and yeah, definitely go with the og routing and cantis


Wow, thanks H, I see it now. That is fantastic! Who else has done it that way?


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## hollister (Sep 16, 2005)

girlonbike said:


> Wow, thanks H, I see it now. That is fantastic! Who else has done it that way?


I did the same thing. "wait, there's only 2..."

looks like the bottom one is open on the side?

pretty cool detail


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## BikerTex (Nov 11, 2004)

hollister said:


> looks like the bottom one is open on the side?l


I think you can see the bottom one a little better in the first picture of the seat tube/top tube junction. It's not open on the side, it's just a short tube to get the cable over the arc of the seat binder and down to the rear der.


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## colker1 (Jan 6, 2004)

BikerTex said:


> I think you can see the bottom one a little better in the first picture of the seat tube/top tube junction. It's not open on the side, it's just a short tube to get the cable over the arc of the seat binder and down to the rear der.


rebuild this thing w/ vintage drivetrain and brakes!


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## MZC (May 7, 2012)

*The story...*

What a nice restoration job and logo refresh!

I built that mountain frameset for a Twin Cities area enthusiast (and friend and riding companion) in either 1990 or '91 (I recently found my order archive, but haven't gone through it to sort it out yet, so I'll post the build date later).

The tubeset was True Temper OX2 and I modified the downtube and top tube profiles, to make the tubes visually flow together (It has a standard, 1-1/4" head tube and used a 1" steerer-- the downtube is 1-3/8" and the top tube & seat tubes are 1-1/4"). I ovalized the top tube horizontally at the seat cluster, so that I could pierce it with the seattube and create the necessary volume for the custom seat binder/fastback seatstay joint. The Design idea was for all of the oversized tubes and components to simply flow together visually and tactiley, without obvious breaks in the lines or volumes. The OX2 seatstays were 0.75" at the top, which presented a design problem, with respect to cleanly, and proportionally joining them to the seat cluster.

I had built a bunch of bikes for the Laguna Rads starting at the end of the 1980's, so had learned (the hard way) that one of the major areas of failure, with the then-new, longer seatposts and the increased descending speeds afforded by the then-new suspension forks, was the seat cluster. This was now seeing very-high forces. Surrounding the seat tube created a much-stronger join. I later went even-further with the design of this join, putting the slot on the front and adding a separate seat-clamping collar.

As a side note, the original fork for that bicycle was an early Manitou. I don't know where the bottom of it went-- you should ask the original owner! A good friend of mine, who is a master machinist and aerospace mechanic, made the custom titanium steerer column for the fork.

Also missing is the Manitou anti-chain suck plate, which we had gotten from Doug Bradbury. I suppose it's completely destroyed by now and design to solve this problem has moved on from the need for this part. I'm happy to see that the original custom IRD post is still there. This is from the original IRD team, with Rod doing the machining (a twin to this bike had the IRD cam brakes on it).

The BB shell is Fisher Evolution and is a whopping 80 (or is it 88?) mm wide. Originally, the bike had a McMahon Ti spindle and Cook Bros Cranks. Bearings were always an issue, since these were not available in a high-quality spec and the BB design depended on the bearing shielding, without a secondary barrier to water. I think the McMahon spindle finally was replaced by a steel spindle, since it creaked so much with the Cook Cranks.

The bike also originally had a fillet-brazed one-piece Mark Zeh Tange Prestige bar/stem, with an ovalized extension tube. This was painted a Lemon Ice yellow, to pick out the yellow color in the decals. You should also ask the original owner where this went off to...

Rear dropouts were forged Shimano UF, which are simply fantastic parts. The stay ends were left unfilled, to save weight and also because one of my mentors, Cecil Behringer, had advised me that this only adds weight with no strength. I would have drilled drainage holes in the stays anyway, so this made sense. If you hang the bike up by the front wheel after a wet ride, the frame will drain out. (spray some Boeshield into the frame, though)

The reinforcement plate under the downtube/headtube joint is a cinelli fork reinforcement tange. The head tube rings are from Bocama (this company can't possibly be in business anymore).

I designed the cable guides, at the seat cluster, by installing the components, then laying the wires out on the frame. These are the natural lines that the wires take to the brakes and cable stops.

I always used diamond reinforcement plates for the bottle bosses. The boss above the BB shell, on the back of the seat tube, is for top routing the shift wire for a bottom pull front derailleur. At the time, top pull front derailleurs weren't yet common, nor good. This is similar to what you see on 'cross bikes now. QBP used to sell a sealed bearing pulley wheel for this application, which we had used.

Bridge reinforcement plates are from Cinelli and Tange-- These don't really add anything structurally, but they show craftsmanship and give the chance to add cool contrasting color detailing.

I'd drilled the single cable stops, as an inside joke shared by me and the customer. It's a cool detail-- and custom bikes are all about the details!

The bike was fillet brazed from a very-particular nickel-silver rod, that I'd picked for its strength and surface tension, when molten. I did a lot of research into this, after I built my first fillet brazed bike, since bronze caused me so many problems. The material used allowed me to build very-small fillets, if I wished.

This was just before I'd started building TIG-welded bikes, so my quest to control the size of the fillets was a result of my wish to limit the amount of extra material I was adding to the frameset. (bronze and nickel-silver are both denser than steel, so I wanted to limit the amount of these materials).

The bike originally had the top-spec Dia-Compe 986 cantis and a Flite saddle. All of the parts were picked for light weight/performance.

I'll find an original foto of this bike somewhere and post it soon.

Just to clarify some of the other discussions on this thread: I'd built about 750 framesets in my career. 15 were titanium, 15 were stainless steel (Columbus Metax), and around 80 were aluminium (Columbus Altec Road 7005, Altec 5000 series, Altec Aero, Easton Scandium, Easton 7005 and Easton Aero).

I built 2 track tandems (one was lent to Joe DiVita in Walnut Creek, CA in 1989, or so, and I'd still love to have it back-- it was pink, with a frosty silver/green lace paint job-- please email, if you know its whereabouts) and the other is still in the Twin cities area. Both of these were fillet-brazed.

I also built about 20 road/mountain tandem framesets, from a variety of materials.

The rest of the framesets were road, track, mountain, or cross racing.

Best Regards,
Z


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## girlonbike (Apr 24, 2008)

Great post with amazing info straight from the source, Mark Z!


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## jeff (Jan 13, 2004)

Thanks for stopping by Mark. Excellent post and awesome info. Stick around and bring the pics...


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## colker1 (Jan 6, 2004)

that's teh kind of deal i always looked for in a steel frame. what some people call art.. i call soul.


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## First Flight (Jan 25, 2004)

Hey Mark
We can always use more Zeh information since it is pretty thin on the MOMBAT page: MOMBAT: Zeh Cycles History

Let me know if you would like to help flesh out the page.


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## chefmiguel (Dec 22, 2007)

Beautiful work MZ, hope more pics will be on the way.


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## MZC (May 7, 2012)

*Early pix of this bike and its companion*



jeff said:


> Thanks for stopping by Mark. Excellent post and awesome info. Stick around and bring the pics...


Here is a foto of this bike, shortly after it was built. This was probably in early 1990, since it didn't have the original Manitou fork, yet. Originally, it was built for a Koski constant taper unicrown, sourced from Eric Koski. This was painted PPG Lemon Ice, to match the one-piece Mark Zeh bar/stem.

Also note the custom-made Bullseye hubs, with lemon-ice powder coated center sections and anodized blue flanges.

Rims were Mavic (were these M231's-- I don't remember how they named their response was to the then-cool rolled-down Bontrager Mavic M40 rims anymore).

Also note the original Onza Ti Bar ends, Suntour XC thumb shifters, Dia-Compe 986 levers, 986 cantilever brakes and campagnolo chorus headset.

The twin companion bike was also built for a twin cities mountain bike enthusiast. It also featured fillet-brazed True Temper OX2 tubing, but in this instance, featured the 1-1/4" fisher headset. Also prominent were the two-piece bullseye crankset (painted with the frameset), one piece Mark Zeh bar/stem, self-energizing front cantilevers (were these from pederson?), IRD rear brake, IRD seat post, Dia-Compe 986 levers, Suntour XC top-pull front derailleur, etc.

Both bikes featured the then-cool Suntour Superbe Track pedals.

The e-stay bike featured a lace paint job, over 'Kellog's Kensai Purple".

Note the boss on the top tube of the e-stay bike, for the Mountain Design QR seatpost return spring (never installed, to the best of my memory).

More later,
Z


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## MZC (May 7, 2012)

Hi First Flight,

I've found quite a few fotos of things from the Mark Zeh Cycles history. Is your interest just confined to mountain bikes? 

How would I post to your page? 

Here's a foto from the the March 1992 Bicycle Guide. Please consider this to be under "Fair Use," since it is for historical and education purposes only. I have not been commercially involved in Mark Zeh Cycles, since the end of 1999

If you want some images, send me a note about how to post them. I have lots of mountain bikes in the archives.

Best Regards,


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## First Flight (Jan 25, 2004)

Mark
Just send stuff to jeff at firstflightbikes dot com and I will get them posted. Mainly chronicling the mountain bike stuff but we have posted a couple of road bike articles for several makers.


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