Pace

Pace

Founded	1987
Headquarters	Dalby Forrest, Yorkshire, UK
Founders	Duncan Macdonald, Adrian Carter
Current website	http://www.pacecycles.com

Pace

Pace are a long running English manufacturer of mountain bikes. Originally based in Oxenhope West Yorkshire, Pace was founded by Adrian Carter and Duncan Macdonald. From the start the two founding partners sought to innovate in the design and manufacture of their mountain bikes. With a background in trials motorbikes the design of the companies mountain bikes were approached from a slightly different angle.

Pace relocated to larger manufacturing premises in Great Edstone in 1990 and relocated to the current address in Dalby Forrest in 2010.

Frames

Pace frames are famed for the use of custom extruded and externally milled square section tubing, making them instantly recognisable. The reason for the square tubing has been explained as offering more stiffness to weight over traditional tubes. The externally milled butting allowed accurate placement of butting on the face of the tubes where it was best suited to reduce weight and not stiffness or strength.

Quantities of frames manufactured. (numbers are approximate)

RC100	150
RC200	1875
RC250T	Unknown
RC300	710
RC500	Unknown (rumored to be 20-25)

RC100

The first production frame released by Pace. Truely innovative on its 1989 launch featuring Pace's trademark square tubing the frame was proud to boast via its decals that the design had been produced using CAD, a technique that would of been a rareity in the industry at the time. The frames were built for use with bulls eye crank and featured a 93mm bottom bracket shell that housed a modified set of press fit sealed bearings. The stem/steerer combination was the first step towards the now standard ahead headset assembly. The bike also featured 4 bolt fixings for mounting Magura hydrostop brakes, one of the first production bikes to have this feature. Being in Yorkshire and therefore familiar with wet muddy conditions was possibly all the inspiration that was needed to incorporate grease nipples to allow easy maintenance of headset and bottom bracket bearings. The Frame construction featured a 1" head tube, a main triangle with externally machined square tubing and stays produced from custom drawn aluminium.

RC200

An evolutionary step from the RC100. The RC200 was produced between 1992 and 2002 and ran through version iterations F1 through to F8. The first of the RC200's were visually similar to the RC100, retaining the square seat tube that was phased out in the following revisions. Gone were the grease nipples that aided maintenance of the headset and bottom bracket bearings. The other notable changes on the RC200 compared to its predecessor were the removal of the extra wide bottom bracket shell and bulls eye cranks in favour of a square taper unit and a wider choice of crank sets. The RC200 also featured replaceable drive and non drive side drop outs and a mono stay/wishbone seat stay arrangement as apposed to the standard cluster on the RC100.

The F2 refined the platform introduced on the original RC200. The F3 saw the notable change from the square seat tube to a standard circular section tube, the rest of the frame remained reassuringly square. Also introduced on this version was the double external butting on the square tubing, notable by the double step down in the butted areas of the tube. The F4 and F5 were tweaked versions of the F3 platform. The next big change was a move to a 1 1/8"th head tube on the F6 model, replacing the previous 1" set up that had been common all the way back to the first RC100.

The final two revisions of the frame saw the addition of disc tabs, firstly on the F7 which mounted a disc between the seat and chain stay. The F8 followed the more conventional thinking and mounted the isis disc tab on the seat stay only, with one mount point on the stay itself and the other on the removable drop out.

Due to the removable drop outs on each side, it is not uncommon to see older frames using disc brakes mounted to custom made drop out plates.

The F8 faded from production in 2002.

RC250T

Harking back to the trials world the RC250T was produced between 1998 and 2002 . The frame featured a short wheel base, short seat tube and in later revisions a large rectangular section reinforcing tube angled between the top and down tube. The original frame was designed for disc brakes with the later models being available with 4 bolt magura mounts as an option, returning full circle to the design feature of the RC100.

RC300

The RC300 is really the ultimate iteration of the RC200, following on a by now long and proud lineage of square tubed XC race frames. The RC300 was released in 2002 and produced up to 200x The RC300's standout feature was the carbon fiber seat tube.

RC500

First produced in 1998 and running through to 200X This was Pace's first production downhill specific bike and the evolution of the early 90's prototype, the DCD.

Special frames

Over the years Pace have produced a number of prototype and special frames. Many of which ended up being destroyed (to protect IP?). A number of one off frames have survived, among them the famous DPD and the aptly named funky pace.

Forks

Pace

Rigid Forks

RC30 (Generation 1) Rigid fork. First produced in 1989 and supplied as standard for the RC100 bikes. Reynolds 531 legs were available with either 4 point Magura braze ons or for canti studs. All break mounts are on the rear of the legs. A bolt up aluminium crown connects the legs and steerer. The crowns and steerers later became available in 1 1/8" 1 1/4" as well as the 1" size used on the RC100.

RC30 (Generation 2), an evolution of the Gen 1 with chromed Columbus CroMo legs, rear facing cantilever mounts and bonded aluminium drop outs replacing the welded steel version of the previous issue. Produced between 1992 & 1994/5)

RC30 (Generation 3), Featuring a redesigned crown and legs available to offer 3 axle to crown measurements from 390 to 420mm

RC31

Suspension Forks

RC35. First generation launched in 1992 Same crown as RC30. Carbon wrapped legs, steel brace. 45mm travel. Available in a choice of 1",1 1/8" & 1 1/4" crowns. Available for Magura or canti mounts.

RC35 K. Late 1992 Second generation RC35. 'Kevlar'. 45mm travel. Available in a choice of 1",1 1/8" & 1 1/4" crowns. Tubular fork brace. Available for Magura or canti mounts.

RC35 AB. 1993 RC35 Atmosphere Balanced. Lighter brace. Same crown as RC30 45mm travel. Three types of crown - 1", 1 1/8" and 1 1/4" This fork can be distinguished by the CNC brace and was available for Canti's only.

RC35 XCS, 1994. Similar to the AB fork but featuring a simpler brace.

RC35 MXC & MXCD 1995. The Launch of a new mono box CNC'd crown. The MXC featured 45mm of travel and an aluminium steerer tube. The MXCD had 60mm travel and a single butted steel steerer.