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Jackson's 1996 S-Works Team Steel

If you've been around the shop for a while, you have probably had your bike worked on by Jackson. If not, you've probably seen him riding around local CT trails and roads on his many different vintage bicycles. Marking 9 years at MCC in 2024, Jackson started working here as a 16 year old who wasn't really into cycling and was just washing bikes to make some extra cash. Now he sits as our head service lead and vintage bicycle enthusiast. He is also MCC's tie dye artist who creates all of our team's tie dye shirts. He is a huge wealth of knowledge around the shop with both vintage and current bicycle tech. Below he talks about one of the many vintage bikes he owns, all the upgrades he has done, and some of the cool features.



"From my personal collection, a 1996 S-Works Team Steel. When I was lucky enough to acquire this bike it was set up as a single speed and looked like it had been “WELL loved”, and now it’s a canvas for whatever cool and wacky 90s era parts I can get. Of course, it wouldn’t really be a bike if I didn’t ride it, and it is for sure a blast when I do.


Through these little write ups you’ll learn my three favorite parts of a bike are the hubs, the brakes, and the suspension. That is no exception with this bike; equipped with the later version of the Specialized Future shock suspension fork. A modified version of a Rock Shox Judy with its carbon fiber lower legs. And yes those are purely carbon fiber tubes, not just wraps. Although sometimes terrifying to ride it as aggressively as I occasionally do, the fork is smooth and makes the ride much nicer on my wrists. All my years of riding modern suspension forks, one thing I’ve never questioned is its ability to point the wheel in the direction I’m steering. However, if you spend any time truly riding a vintage suspension fork, especially one with carbon lower, and especially in rocky New England terrain, you’ll find that the wheel never really feels like it’s going the way you want it to. Whether going through the rough stuff or just applying the brakes, you’ll notice how this fork behaves closer to a wet noodle than a bike fork. But it does look very cool.

As for the brakes I managed to get a set of Machine Tech V-brake calipers. Terrific amounts of power, and just lovely to look at. I am missing the original levers, and some of the other hardware which proved to make them a pain to set up. These calipers provide three slots of adjustable leverage, which baffles me since they provide so much in the first setting I am bending my seat-stays as fork bosses.


Other honorable mentions would be The White Industries front hub, titanium bottom bracket with S-Work titanium crank bolts, and the aluminum S-Works cranks. When I first put this bike together I was really frustrated because the nice cranks and bottom bracket would not stop producing this awful creaking. I thought I was going to have to ditch it. After a few hours of removing and reinstalling the cranks I was able to eliminate the creak. I have refused to remove the cranks since.
For tires, I’m running the Panaracer Fire XC Pro with red sidewalls

 
I love these tires, not only do they match the paint perfectly and fit the time period, but they grip and inspire so much confidence. One of the most fun rides I did on this bike was in the winter, a day or two after the snow had time to settle and the fat bikes packed it down. I was riding and my normal speeds and the tires provided an unbelievable amount of traction in these conditions." 

- Jackson