The Mantis X or non-elevated Valkyrie as it's known to many is one of my all time favorite vintage mountain bikes. I was lucky to get in one in trade for a Ritchey Annapurna back in 2014 or so, but it was always a touch too small for me. With fewer than 15 of these likely to have ever left Richard's shop finding the correct size felt close to impossible. Luckily fate seems to smile on the patient and another trade opportunity came up in 2017 to swap my 20" for a 21" with someone that had the opposite problem.
The bike was in good shape, bit earlier than mine and with a bunch of unique touches, design elements that made it special to a Mantis geek like me. While it was the right size it didn't have roller cam mounts on the fork and the fork was slightly bent preventing it from being modified. Luckily I had a spare fork on hand which could be retrofitted for RC mounts and so then it was just down to choosing to repaint or not. The bike was in good enough shape, but the neither the color nor the condition were really in line with what I wanted and I had a design in my mind I wanted to see realized, so I opted to repaint. Here is the final product:
A majority of the build came straight from my old X, with the exception of an original Mantis stem and a pair of Mantis handlebars replacing the Gecko stem and CBR Ti bars.
All in all I don't think I could be happier with the result and the ride. I expect the bike will become a long term part of my small collection, and yeah it gets ridden!
The bike was in good shape, bit earlier than mine and with a bunch of unique touches, design elements that made it special to a Mantis geek like me. While it was the right size it didn't have roller cam mounts on the fork and the fork was slightly bent preventing it from being modified. Luckily I had a spare fork on hand which could be retrofitted for RC mounts and so then it was just down to choosing to repaint or not. The bike was in good enough shape, but the neither the color nor the condition were really in line with what I wanted and I had a design in my mind I wanted to see realized, so I opted to repaint. Here is the final product:
A majority of the build came straight from my old X, with the exception of an original Mantis stem and a pair of Mantis handlebars replacing the Gecko stem and CBR Ti bars.
All in all I don't think I could be happier with the result and the ride. I expect the bike will become a long term part of my small collection, and yeah it gets ridden!
