Kinesis from the flames

mattbarnes

I'm a Mountain Biker at heart but quite fancied a road bike to vary my riding a little. So, with a very limited budget and a promise to myself that I would casually build up a bike in time for the summer of 2014, it began.
First thing on the list were the frame and forks where I managed to source a rather tired looking Kinesis Racelight number.


It had clearly seen a bit of action and the paintwork was looking a little worse for wear so the long and laborious task of stripping the old girl began. Cue the nitormors, wire wool and elbow grease.


I soon got tried of scraping, sanding and swearing at it so it then went to my local metal specialists of choice, 'BettaBlast' near Newcastle where she was then treated to an acid dip. Once back home the second laborious task of polishing began whilst quietly amassing parts for the build.
Each part was sourced from eBay and online forums (my LBS is neither local - its 40 miles away - nor competitive in price) in order to stick with my budget ethos and the closer I got to getting everything I needed I found myself wanting to get her finished so bought more gear and within days of 2014 starting, she's finished. Yeah, I finished it 6 months earlier than intended but the way I see it, that's six months I now have to upgrade the wheels, forks, bars, etc,etc,etc.
I appreciate its no top-end Cervelo or Pinarello, but it set me back 1/10th the cost of carbon superbike to build and for what I'm going to use it for, I'm more than happy with it. For the moment.

Markjaspi

I like it, I recently did it the other way round and have refurbished a friend's mountain bike he gave me, all for under the price of my road bikes seat post.

Nice build my friend.

canny_lad

Looks superb, fair play to you.

Paul 8v

That looks really good, how did you polish it?

beetle1

Well done mate you have done a cracking job

mattbarnes

Thanks for the comments.
As for the frame finish, it involved an acid dip to strip the paint off it and then a bit of manual labour with some Alu Belgom and rags. It's surprisingly easy once the paint is off and the acid dip only cost about a tenner.

Brant

Sweet, reminds me a bit of a Van Nich. Must be a pain for fingerprints, enjoy!

mattbarnes

Brant wrote:

Sweet, reminds me a bit of a Van Nich. Must be a pain for fingerprints, enjoy!

Ha ha! It's strictly handled by the stem and seat post only for that very reason!

kingstonian

Mate, you have done a great job on that. Looks really nice.

turnerjohn

man that loks ace top work !

one thing tho keep an eye on the polish finish as it will dull in time and need a buff up ...and kept an eye out for oxidiation of the alloy if not kept buffed up

xcMuttley

This looks awesome! Love the polished look. Now go enjoy it!

diamonddog

Lovely job.

explosifpete

As I scrolled down on your post i thought "oh no ist gonna look rubbish" when you said about the paint stripping, but it looks so good everything looks good.

Nitromors has become so weak compared to what it used to be, blinking health and safety

mattbarnes

explosifpete wrote:

Nitromors has become so weak compared to what it used to be, blinking health and safety

Yes, I know exactly what you mean. There came a point where it no longer became useful, hence the acid bath. To be honest, I think my own stomach acid would have been more useful than the Nitromors...

Thanks for all the positive feedback, everyone.