QuangVuong

This is my Superbike. Apparently never ridden before, only has been built up as display before. The previous owner acquired the frame through the CEO of Technique Sports, who had 3 of those frames lying around.It was originally a white frame, which was hydroblasted and powdercoated black, which is a shame.


From the little information I could find, this is an aluminium frame sold by Technique Sports in Melbourne, Australia dubbed the SuperbikeMarkOne, which is largely based off the 2nd generation carbon Superbike that RMIT designed. They came in a range of sizes(51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56), my one measuring in at 59cm centre of BB to top of the seat post clamp, and ~54 cm horizontal length from the centre of the HT to the centre of the ST. The frame I believe is made up of two main halves which were welded together, and then the head tube, bottom bracket shell, rear brake bridge/mount, and dropouts were welded in. These sections were pressed and welded by Bocar in Queensland, before they went out of business, and apparently the tooling went for scrap. On my particular frame, there is full internal guided routing through the frame, for the rear brake, and both derailleurs. I also believe that there was never a fork made specifically for these frames. All the examples I have seen all had different forks, but I have noticed that a fair few had Columbus headsets.The fork attached to the frame now is a bladed aluminium fork with a steel steerer, but I also did recieve a 3T Funda carbon fork too, neither of which are original to the frame.

HT welds looks to be filed down a bit, but it still is obvious up close.


BB weld was not filed down. You can see the space for the FD with the cable exit hole, and the missing FD tab. Also note the bubbles or something in the powdercoat finishing.


Seatpost clamp for 27.2 posts.The top of the seattube is a flat piece which is welded on. The weld is filed down, but a small bulge can still be seen running along the edge.


Rear brake bridge is also welded in. Welds on the outside are nicely hidden.


And the otherside. This in in the rear wheel well, and all the welding was left as is.


And one long weld joining the two halves.


Underside of the BB area. There's a weld there, but I'm not sure what it's holding together. There also is either a drain hole, or a vent hole to help dissipate the heat from welding.


Rear dropout with untouched weld.

QuangVuong

There is a serial on the bottom of the NDS dropout. Reads 58 B00381. Don't know if it signifies anything since no one else has mentioned theirs.


The other serial number is located under the seatpost clamp. Also the matching serial.


Internal routing. Hole on the left of the picture is the RD, middle for FD, and on the right side is the rear brake.


And exit hole for the RD. there is a cable stop about 1cm in. So it runs housing from the shifter all the way to the cable stop near the end. Then another piece of housing from the stop to the RD.


The original Superbike project began in 1992 and were used up until around 1997 before the UCI rules changed, and the frame design became illegal. Those were produced by Bike Technologies in Melbourne and a production frame/fork-handlebar combination sold for between A$2,300-3,500 bare. I'm not 100% sure on when the Technique Sports frames were produced, but I believe that they were actually made right up until about 2008, which wasn't too long ago. The review linked below states that they were sold with either Ultegra or Dura Ace parts. If this came out in the early 2000s, then it would be running 9s(6500 or 7700) stuff, but the review was written in 2006, when 7800 and 6600 groups had just come out. EDIT: Found this ad in the Australian Cyclist Magazine(Oct 07) which is selling an 18 month old Superbike which has a 10s DA group. Means 7970 Di2 aint too far off.

This was the latest screenshot of the SuperBikeMark1.com site, back from January 2008. I believe this was the main site for the Superbike, but there was also the https://www.techniquesports.com.au site which was one of the decals on the frame. There is also a link which leads to a Cycling News review of the bike in 2006.


One of the features is lightweight. My bare frame weighs in at ~2300g, which is not that light at all, but then again, this frame is a chunk of aluminium, not a couple thin tubes. But the aerodynamic feature seems about right. The frame does look chunky from the side, but front on, it is quite skinny.

QuangVuong

Some decals arrived in the mail. Thanks to Tedsbikes, I believe these are original decals. I'll be sure to get them scanned and drawn up for the future.


First bit if modification done. Drilled out the stop in the chain stay. This means if I want to go back to mechanical, then I would simply run housing all the way from the shifter to RD. I enlarged the FD cable hole to about 5.5mm so that I could get the cable plug through. The frame is about 2mm thick, but there's another chuck of aluminium(might just be the internal routing guide tube) behind which goes in for about 2cm. Same case here with regards to going back to mechanical. The housing would just exit the hole, and they'll be no issues.


One more hole will be drilled in between the two FD tab screws. This hole will allow the wire from the battery(somewhere around the seatpost area) to exit the frame, and it'll be connected to the FD cable which will follow the internal routing guide up to the junction which I'll be running under the bars. Then I'll get the FD tab made up to allow clearance for that battery cable.


Once the last hole is drilled, I'll get onto painting. Since the powdercoat is solid enough, I'll be roughing it up, and then filler priming to get a nice and smooth surface. Then onto the gloss black, decals, and finally a matte clear over the top.

QuangVuong

Finished modifying the frame for Di2. Also modified a 6400 post for Di2 as well.


Paints I used. SCA filler primer, and Molotow Premium graffiti paint. My airbrush is in no way big enough to spray the frame efficiently, so I decided to go with spray cans. Someone suggested some graffiti specific cans, which sounded decent, but I do not like using them. Paint is very thick(high pigment), and so I wasn't used to using it. I got a decent job out of them, but I certainly won't be using them again.


Here's the frame lightly sanded down with some 240 paper. I decided to paint over the powdercoat because it was still in good condition. Makes a good base coat.


Primed and bogged up. I initially did use filler on the HT as well, but I didn't mix it well enough, and it remained tacky. So that took a bit of work getting it all off, and I ended up hitting the aluminium. So out comes the flap sanding bit and I ground down the HT welds.


Ended up very nice and smooth. I did finish up hand sanding to control the finishing shape.


Filler on the ST top.


And some filler on the top and bottom side of the frame. Just to smooth everything out.


Got some black paint on after etch priming the bare aluminium and filler primer over the top.


And decals placed. Looks straight enough I think.


And finally a 'matte' clearcoat over the top. I was hoping for a satin finish, but it ended up with something semi gloss. It's a bit more glossy than the forks and bars, but close enough.

QuangVuong

That's the paint all done.


Took about 4 months from when I got the frame til today when everything is together and working. Di2 is very new to me, and I reckon it took me more time to get it up and running compared to a cable pulled group. It wasnt a smooth process getting this old frame fitted up with the group. Due to the routing of the frame, the wiring had to run from one end to the other, so all the wiring popped out near the HT. I needed to somehow get the battery that is mounted under my saddle to connect to the junction under my stem and keep the wiring hidden.


So first step was to drill a hole into the seatpost, which wasnt too bad. Then I had to find a way to get the cable to leave the frame and reach the HT. I decided that the best place to do so is to drill a hole behind where the FD tab is mounted, which means the cable exits the frame nice and clean. This was spliced with the FD cable, which was fed through the original guide to the junction. Upon test wiring, the system was not working. I couldnt figure out what the case was initially, but after a little bit, the battery got warm and I figured the wiring must be shorting the system. It is a simple modification, which I managed to stuff up. Strip the wires, and solder on the extension cable, then solder another plug to the extension.


So that held me up for a while. Good thing a friend has a diagnostics box, and found that the battery mount was not working. Replacement one ordered, and wiring resoldered, and upon testing, the group works again. But, I ran into more issues. The wiring that I soldered up ended up being too short, so I ended up adding an extension to most of the cables.

The bare frame weighs in at ~2300g, and with the fake 3T Funda forks at 350g cut. All up, its way heavier than a decent steel frame. I ended up with a build that is 10.45kg, which isnt too bad.


The rest of the images I took at an earlier stage when I had Ultegra 6700 cranks on, but due to chainline issues and all, they weren't suitable. So back to good old square taper carbon Record cranks. I also recently changed the wheels from Chinese carbon to nice old Corima clinchers.


Fake Enves and fake 3T forks. Here's hoping they hold up.




FD tab crafted by Gefsco.


Scratched RD. It actually was inside someone's wheel before. So I swapped out the cage from a 9s XTR RD, and sort of works. The top jockey wheel rubs the 28t cog when Im in small ring.


25c tyres are pretty tight in there.


Some interesting info which I heard from Anatomic Bikes(Aussie company). Apparently they made the prototype aluminium Superbike for the company which was attached to Bocar. I assume that company would be would be Technique Sports. The two pressed halves were seam welded by Mal McPherson, who did work under Anatomic Bikes. That was only the prototype. Production ones were made by Bocar.

The serial number can be found on the top of the ST, and underside of the right side dropout. From the two known serial numbers, am led to believe that they go like this:
xx Bxxxxx

My serial is 58 B00381. The other serial is 56 B00111.

The first two digits in the serial is probably the frame size, in my case 58cm. I'm not sure where they measure a 58cm on my frame.

The letter, B in both serials I am not sure what it means. I was thinking it was the colour code. My frame was originally white, but the other frame was bare aluminium, so that letter could be something else. A few more numbers would be good.

The last five numbers is probably the frame number.

These frames were marketed to overseas customers, America being one of them. I was wondering how many made it over there? I'd love to know if anyone has one, and also the serial, size, and colour of the frame, and see if I can work out the serial number system they used.

nlerner

Very cool project! Thanks for the great pictorial.

lasauge 

That's one wild looking frame, how does it ride?

OldsCOOL

I would be terribly disappointed if people didnt stop and stare at that thing. Congrats on one very unusual and uncommon bike.

Lascauxcaveman 

That is really ... something!

You mentioned the frame isn't especially light, how much does the whole package weigh in at?

jyl

10.45 kg, he says.

Really cool and unique bike. I love it. I'm glad you smoothed the welds, it looks great.

Henry III

The pin hole in the weld bead on the headtube isn't from the powder coating but actually porosity so the aluminum or three filler rod were not clean or something happened with the shielding gas for a second(wind draft). Once it happens it's hard to just fill it in with more filler as it'll continually form a bubble. Might be the reason why the frame was never sold? Either way cool frame and I always love a good story and history on obscure bikes.

What would year for components would of been period correct for this bike?

dddd

Thanks for the build strategy, photos, history and great story. Very well documented!

I've never seen one of these here in California, and a lot of exquisite designs get marketed here. Good to know that now, if I should come across one, I'll know more about it than the owner!

Great job with the craftsmanship on such a challenging build.

QuangVuong

The rear wheel feels like it flexes about. I think it's mainly due to the chainstays being designed to take a huge bending(up and down) load, but it's not rigid enough laterally. Other than that the bike rides about the same as any other. It's definitely loud though, being a large hollow chunk of aluminium. And it catches a lot of cross wind.

i haven't weighed it with the new wheels but it should be just a little over 10kg now.

The original frames made from carbon were produced in the mid 90s for the Australian track team. A few years later a small number of road frames were produced, and we're selling at ~$12000 AUD with a C-Record groupset and Campag disc too.

These se newer frames were produced sometime in the early-mid 2000s, and production ended around 2008. So I guess whatever was out at the time.