psykoocycle

To my fellow folderitis victims, please help me find information on this bike. I’ve tried searching all over the net, but no information so far.

It’s a Norco Marina Del Ray. 20” wheels, 5 speed shimano SIS, 4130 chromo (yeah baby!). It weighs around 27-28lbs stock.

I’ve only ridden less than 2km on it, but here’s some interesting things I’ve noted about the bike:

1) SUICIDE STEM: The stem is attached by quick release to the steerer tube of fork (top of tube is thinner in diameter and slightly grooved).

2) FOLDS ALONG SEAT TUBE: I’ve actually seen another one of these last year. It was parked in a mall (old rust bucket). At that time, I didn’t think it was a folder, since I couldn’t find the seams. But like other folders, you take the seatpost completely off, to unlock it. It folds along the axis of the seat tube, just to the front of the bottom bracket.

3) 152mm, CRANK ARMS, 36T ring: At first I thought they were made out of rubber, but its steel with rubber covering.

4) CANTILEVERS: I don’t know many folders that uses cantilever brakes.

5) RUBBER RAILED SEAT: I was going to swap in my saddle, but it doesn’t have the normal round rails. The selle royal seats have hard rubber, rectangular rails (around half inch in width).

6)QUICK RELEASE: For something that seems to be so old, it has quick release wheels.

I really liked the bike as soon as I saw it. It’s a bike you would end up with, if you melded a small MTB, BMX and an R20 together. An interesting Franken-folder-bike!?

I only went there to buy one of them, but liked them enough to buy both.

Here’s a list of future mods:

XT brakes, Big Apples, crank and ring from DT FS, maybe the DT FS wheels and hubs (though it seems the hub size is 130mm??), maybe a triple chain ring and front derraileur, 7 speed freewheel with matching derraileur.

If anyone has information on this bike, please let me know. For starters, I’d like to know which year it was made. From the components, it seems to be early to mid 80’s.

CaptainG

I think the bike frame was made by Redlof (Folder backwards - get it?) and was sold under various names including Caribike:

https://www.jimforeman.com/Stories/foldbike.htm

griftereck

how cool is that bike.

I think the saddle with the square rails can be removed. Just use a different clamp on the seat pin. Or fit a micro adjustable alloy pin. There likely to be a size stamped onto the bottom of the seat pin. Ive got some of those square rail saddles. I call them Foam Monstrosity. As they ussually have a foam layer covered with thick plastic. These seats are a bit to rigid for my taste. Proper steel railed saddles flex more. So give a more comfy ride.

There might be date stamps on the seat pin, handle bar stem quill or the steerer tube of the forks

psykoocycle

CAP: Thanks, that is the same bike! Say is that an old 90s XT on the rear, and what type wheels are those?

GRIF: I'll look for date stamps, modifications will start this weekend. I'll have to look for rail holders, the one on this bike is specific to that rubber rail seat (the seats are actually pretty comfy, though I have a feeling they must weigh a ton).

I was actually going to mod an R20 instead of this for a daily driver, but I think this ones going to turn out a whole lot better.

rkdjones

I'm reviving this thread because I just came across a Norco 5-speed that matches and want to know something about the quality and features. It looks like it has a lot of standard bike parts, but I really can't tell. I would likely replace wheels so am interested in the dropout widths, and the crank so wonder about the bottom bracket. Anything else that anyone can tell me would be helpful. Robert

dhprc2

I picked up one of these branded as a Norco Marina del Ray a little more than 18 months ago. The metal is stamped adjacent to the bottom bracket with “Redlof”. I spent the first year gathering parts for it and deciding what to do. When it came to me, it was set up to look like a mini-mountain bike, with knobby tires on steel rims and flat handlebars. It would have been only suitable for children or otherwise small people. The main attraction to me was the use of a standard sized seat tube (1-1/8” diameter) with plenty of free space above the crankset. My hope was to add a front derailleur and upgrade it from the original 5 speeds. Original weight was 28 lbs. As shown in the picture, it now weighs 22 lbs., without the water bottle. The only original parts left are the frame, fork and headset.

Here's what I have now. Schwalbe Durano 115 psi tires (20” x 1.10”) mounted on Velocity v-section rims. Novatec sealed bearing hubs with a 9 speed 11T - 24T cassette on the rear. Front derailleur is Shimano Ultegra road. Rear derailleur and trigger shifters are Microshift Centos. Crankset is Shimano 105 with 39/53T rings and 170mm arms. SPD pedals. Kalloy 26.4 x 400mm seatpost. Titanium rail racing saddle. Titanium straight handlebars. Alloy handlebar stem with 135mm extension at 35 degrees, fitted to 1-1/8” stem post. CNC’d vee brakes and levers. Wireless computer.

The wheelbase is very short at 37.5”. Overall length is 56”. Bottom bracket height from the ground to the center of the axle with the Durano tires is 10.25”.

The front derailleur was the biggest challenge. I wanted to use an up-pull derailleur to simplify cable management since the brake and rear derailleur cable already run along the top of the frame. As far as I know, there are no up-pull front derailleurs for double cranksets. I came across a German company which makes bolt-on levers for various common front derailleurs to convert them from down-pull to up-pull. You can see pictures of them here: https://www.speen.de/speen____SportsE.../Umlenker.html

It looked pretty simple so I made my own version out of aluminum. It worked perfectly. Next I needed a cable housing stop. I solved this by making another piece out of aluminum which also serves as the nut for the seat post clamp.

The effective top tube length is quite short on this frame so I initially thought I would have to do something more complicated for the handlebar stem to get the forward riding position I prefer. As shown, the handlebars are about 2” lower than the saddle and this seems to get me where I want to be. You can see about 2” of the stem post protruding above the stem. This will be cut down to size when I finalize the position of the bars.

The rear derailleur hanger was one of those stamped steel affairs which bolts onto the dropout through the rear portion of the axle slot. These are usually found on cheap bicycles. I used this for quite a while, but I had to grind a bit of the freewheel side of the nut to get clearance for the chain on the 11T sprocket. Clearance was still tight so if I had a slight misalignment of the wheel, the chain would rub or could bind on the small cog. Last week I made a new derailleur hanger out of aluminum and made it so it would bolt into the 2 eyelet holes on the top of the dropout. The dropouts are quite thin so even with the new derailleur hanger it is no problem to adjust the derailleur for the full range of the gears. It works well and I no longer worry about using the 11T cog.

The wireless computer uses the headset cablestop for the original front brake as the mounting point.

So how does it ride? It’s a lot of fun! The wheels are small and light making the acceleration very quick on this bicycle. It is a stiff ride with the high pressure tires and the short wheelbase but my forward riding position allows me to use my body to absorb road shock better than in an upright position. The steering is fast like a sports car. The gearing range is good and the 53 x 11 top end is adequate to give me some decent speed on descents. So far I have about 300km on the bicycle with the longest rides being about 20km. Overall I’m really pleased with the result.

This was not a “cost-no-object” project. I ended up with the components I have by choosing carefully and getting parts at good prices when available. That’s why it took a year to get everything together.

For those who are interested in upgrades and interchangeability, pretty much everything on the bike will accept commonly available parts. My rear dropout spacing measures 132mm. My hub is 130mm but I think it could easily be adjusted to accept 135mm. Front hub is 100mm. The bottom bracket is standard English threading and 68mm wide. I did have to shim the drive side bottom bracket cup out 1mm so the crankarm wouldn’t knock the chainstay. Tire and rim size are standard BMX (406) so there are lots of options available. The vee brakes bolted directly onto the cantilever studs with no modification
.
Many other possibilities exist. Triple front crank and derailleur. Dual-drive rear hub. Shimano Capreo rear hub which will accept a 9T cog...

Hope this posting is not too long. Always willing to answer questions or provide more photos for anyone who might be interested.

dhprc2

It looks like the photo didn't show up so I'll try it again...

Dynocoaster 

Very nice, I saw one recently for sale but it was over a two hour drive away and didnt go for it.

social suicide

It only needs a https://www.thudbuster.com/products.html I think the 450mm would fit nicely.