Been sitting on this one for a while and figured it might be fun to post it up. Picked up the frame from Doug B's shed in CO back in 2015/2016 and finally built it up last year. This is the very first Manitou FS built in 1991 and featured in numerous mags and for promotion. Frame was cracked when I got it, I had FTW replace the HT and kept the rest pretty much in tact. The parts on the final build are all original and were recovered among other stuff I got from Doug. The only things I had to truly hunt for were a pair of prototype M900 front brakes which took a little while. All of the XTR on the bike was stickered as PROTOTYPE, RD was originally XT so I stuck with that.
I've had the bike out on several rides and other than the top of the rear suspension hitting the calves (fixed in later designs) it rides great. Bit flexy, rear wheels walks some under load, but nothing too bad. Will run some wider tires soon which I think will help settle it down some.
As found pics
Pre restoration pics
I've had the bike out on several rides and other than the top of the rear suspension hitting the calves (fixed in later designs) it rides great. Bit flexy, rear wheels walks some under load, but nothing too bad. Will run some wider tires soon which I think will help settle it down some.
As found pics
Pre restoration pics