After finishing what is probably the cleanest bike I have ever built, and in time for MK09, I thought Id post up some pics of it. Its probably not gunna look this good for long.
Here it is when I got it. A mk2, loop seat stay Holmes. They made them for less than a year, and most of them cracked on the loop stay. It was an idea that the weld shop had to make the junction easier to weld, but it didn’t make it stronger. I got hold of the frame on Ebay UK. It was sold as frame and cranks only, but the “pre pitch” forks were sold on a separate sale (how annoying is that!). I won the frame but not the forks. Luckily I managed to get the forks out of the person who did win them (Cheers Craig) so was able to keep them as a set.
The frame was good. Some wheel nut marks in the “2 stuck together” dropouts, but not too bad. There was a hole drilled in the top of the seat tube (to route a cable through for a pit bull) but nothing that couldn’t be covered up with a double seat clamp.
I had seen a photo of an early S&M that I really liked. The pic was of Will Smyth (editor of Dig Magazine). He was riding a mk1 dirtbike and I loved the way it was set up. Kinda like a race bike, but it had 48s so more of a trails bike. Whats more, he was doing a wallride. It was everything that early S&Ms were about. Racing, trails and street. One bike does it all. I wanted to base the build of this bike on how Will had his bike set up.
The first thing was to get the frame powder coated. I had seen the normal (GT) yellow that SBD does but I thought this was a bit to orange. I chose a lighter yellow: RAL - 1018, Zink Yellow. At first I was worried it was a bit to light, but it turned out to be fine.
I already had most of the parts I wanted to use on it. Early “Itson” slam bars, Prince Albert Cranks. I used some of the parts that Will had on his bike; Flight ring, Pit Bill, Comp 3s on super pros. Even DX style pedals but I had some nice Yellow S&M ones. I used a Gold redneck. The frame is a bit earlier than the stem and cranks, and esp the pedals, but they seem perfect on there to me. The cranks are the set of mk2 PAs that I was given in about 94. I went down to Backyard shop to pick them up (along with a red shafted redneck) and I used the cranks for years.
The decals are probably the reason this build has taken so long (I got the frame over 2 years ago!). I knew exactly what decal set I wanted to use but I was having real trouble finding them. The mk2 Holmes came with 2 decal sets. The later ones had the “molerterno” decals, which were also used on the mk3s (and came on my mk3) so I didn’t want to use them. I wanted to use the early mk2 decals, the “tape measure” set. I had not seen a set since they were used, not even a photo of them! I did have a few original headtube stickers but I was having no luck with the rest. I asked Moeller if S&M if he had any of the old decals or artwork. He said they didn’t have anything, but a few weeks later he said they had found one set of the old Holmes artwork. Whats more, it was the Tape measure decals! They were talking about getting some sets made but it cost too much for a short run. I was sure I could get some done here so Moeller lent me the art work. He sent me the 4 original transparencies that made up the 4 colour screens that printed the decals. So so cool. I used the headtube badge I had for the colour match and got del to work his magic.
3 new ones and one original …. But you’ll have to take my word for that.
Then it was just a matter of throwing the thing together. Im really happy how it came out. It feels just like a Holmes did in the early 90s. Totally rideable but still so “of its time”.
My "Yellolmes".
-Mk2 "looped seat stay" S&M Holmes
-S&M Pre-pitch forks (Thanks Woody Alan bars)
-Early "Itson" S&M Slam bars
-Peregrine Super Pro wheels (thanks General Lee)
-Gold S&M redneck (Thanks Harris)
-S&M Prince Albert cranks, mk2
-Flight ring
-S&M DX pedals
-Odyssey seat (thanks stodgy)
-22.2 Primo Rod post (thanks General Lee)
-Yellow roughneck grips (thanks General Lee)
-Pitbull brake (thanks General Lee)
-Tech 77 lever (Thanks Firebird)
-Chen Chin Comp 3s (thanks General Lee)
-GT Double seat clamp
-Yellow chain from my local bike shop
-S&M padset
-Decal set made by Del
-Powder Coated by SBD
Thanks for everyones help in getting the parts that helped make this the MK09 Mid school, Best in show.
