1998 Homegrown Factory Team Hardtail BB Red/Gold

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This is a scanned image of my 1998 Homegrown Factory Team 17″ hardtail.  I purchased this at “EP” price when I worked as a bike mechanic.  I got a great deal at only $2400.  Yes, that was the EP price.  It came with Titec titanium seat-post, stem and handlebar (140 gram).  I do not remember if it had the “Homegrown” Sella San Marco saddle or the Fizik’ Nisse’n seat.  I just do not remember because I swapped out to the SDG comp ti kevlar.  As you can see I was a Syncros fan at the time and replaced the post and stem.  Post was titanium and stem was pol

This is a scanned image of my 1998 Homegrown Factory Team 17″ hardtail.  I purchased this at “EP” price when I worked as a bike mechanic.  I got a great deal at only $2400.  Yes, that was the EP price.  It came with Titec titanium seat-post, stem and handlebar (140 gram).  I do not remember if it had the “Homegrown” Sella San Marco saddle or the Fizik’ Nisse’n seat.  I just do not remember because I swapped out to the SDG comp ti kevlar.  As you can see I was a Syncros fan at the time and replaced the post and stem.  Post was titanium and stem was polished.  I also replaced the Cane Creek headset for a green Chris King.  I did not choose green because of the tires, but instead I was dreaming of replacing the SID (first generation) with the green Marzocchi Z2 Atom Bomb, but never did.  I also never installed the XTR remote shifter for the bar-ends. You may also notice the spoke nipples alternate red and gold.

When the bike arrived at the shop I was kinda pissed.  It did not have the “Toyota” or “Michelin” stickers.  The downtube stickers were also a different color than the brochure showed.  I contacted the Schwinn rep and harassed him every time he came in the shop after that.  No stickers, though promised, were ever sent.  As the bike was shipped it weighed about 21.5 lbs.  I was also a weight weenie and got it down to 19 lbs at one time.  It was not a good rider at such a light weight, and the parts were not very reliable.  Avid Tri-Align III V-brakes were light, but the springs tended to just pop off on one side and force you to pull over and reset them.  I used an Action Tech (not sure of this brand name) 8 speed aluminum cassette that wore out within months.  I used and AMP fork which was total junk in my opinion, but was lighter than the SID.  I replaced the XTR hubs for Chris King (None Better) and used DT Revolution spokes on the supplied Mavic X517 rims.  That was the best upgrade I did to the whole bike.

This bike stayed with me for about 5 years.  The stickers came off except for the checkered flags.  I noticed also that the whole bike was BB gold.  The red color was nothing more than a translucent red clear coat over the gold.  I always wanted to take it to the car wash and spray off the red because it was just flaking off all the time and leaving the gold “bass boat” which was underneath it.  If anyone sees a solid BB gold hardtail factory frame you now know where it came from.

Ride impression: Much more compliant than the standard Homegrown.  The Factory frames were “butted” in the seatstays in a way which is visibly different than the standard Homegrown.  This caused some extra flex which did have an effect on the braking power.  The Factory frame was a half pound lighter than the standard Homegrown frame of the same size.  The “Factory”1998 Homegrown Factory Team 17″ had a resileincy that the Homegrown did not, but I would not recommend it for “Clydsdales”. Those Factory frames were the best racing frames made at that time, and could still win podiums today.

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