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Vintage Radness at the 30th Annual Keyesville Classic
Photos and words by Erik Hillard
This past weekend was the 30th annual Keyesville Classic, the longest running mountain bike race in the United States. Because of its Vintage Class races, Keyesville is also a gathering of mountain bike restoration artists from across the country. Each year, a group of enthusiasts meets for the weekend with a beautiful selection of historic mountain bikes.
This bike has a rich history and for vintage MTB collectors like Martin of Second Spin Cycles, it was a must-have for his extensive catalog. You see, Martin is a curator of sorts. Up until recently, he was commissioned by other collectors and hobbyists to build their dream bike. Whether it was a Yeti or a Yo Eddy, Martin had a knack for finding even the rarest components or accessories to top off a vintage build. Now Martin’s life is too busy to spend time for other people and has began focusing on his own bikes, which he actually rides quite frequently, whereas most collectors just display.
Now, back to this special Yeti ARC. A little while ago this frame popped up on eBay. It had a Johnny O’Mara decal on the toptube, signature hand-machined cable ferrels, FTW welds and a serial tag of number 90. All the signs pointed to this being an actual Johnny O’Mara bike, but there was one thing that threw Martin off: the bike was in Germany. The vintage MTB world is a strange one. Collectors scour the internet all over and if someone really wants a bike, they’ll pay top dollar for it. That said, Martin wasn’t too surprised to see the frame overseas. Who knows, maybe the owner was a Johnny fan?
After acquiring it, he began looking at some of O’Mara’s signature build details. With this particular pedigree of Yeti, Johnny was known to mis-match the hubs and cantilever brakes. So Martin did just that. One black Shimano XT hub on the front, one silver Shimano XT hub on the rear. He also had a penchant for purple, so on went the ever-so-classy Cook Brothers cranks, ODI grips and Ringlé skewers. Onza tires and a Manitou fork finished off the build, resulting in one pristine Yeti ARC. So pristine that the heads at Yeti want this bike for their home office, which is where it’s heading next week…
Martin was kind enough to bring this bike to the Cub House in South Pasadena yesterday for me to photograph and if vintage MTBs are you thing, I’d suggest giving him a follow at @SecondSpin.
