andypasher
Dirt Disciple
So I’ve been after a Goat for some time – actually since I sold my last one in 1997 and finally, I think I’ve bagged a corker
Here’s the background…..
In the early Nineties I had the privilege to ride for a small shop team in Nottingham called Sshokwave. I would say I raced for them but TBH I was more into the beer than the training and back then the NEMBA races and Malvern’s were quite boozy events – so I’ll just leave it a “ride”. At the time, alongside the stock Orange’s, Marin’s and Kona’s they were also importing some wonderfully exotic stuff which gave us, the public, the opportunity to ride some truly amazing bikes.
The stuff we were riding included Funk’s (I was lucky enough to own a couple of these (one metallic red, one metallic purple) but they kept breaking around the top of the seat tube!!!), first generation Manitou’s (the shop mechanic Sumo had both a hard tail and then a full sus complete with what was then all trick stuff (Chris King, Syncros, Paul’s Components, Ti Ringle, Cooks Bros etc.)), beautiful Merlin’s and all the usual trick, anodised or weight weeny stuff you could possibly think of. In short it was an Aladdin’s cave of high-end MTB exotica which regularly resulted in my bank account being cleaned out to buy the latest titanium thing or lightweight latex must-have. Add to that, it was that next door to an off-licence that sold tetra carry-outs and many a Saturday was spent drinking beer and tweaking with bikes – Ah Heaven!
However, when it came to sex on wheels the Mountain Goat Whiskey Town Racer was, for me at least, by far the most desirable. I first saw one of these in 1992 when the shop owner, Andy, had a fully rigid version. I took his bike for a spin and was immediately taken aback on the ride quality and feel of the bike – it helped that it looked the muts as well with it’s Tange Prestige tubes. I bought one straight away and got the shop to fit Marzocchi forks (think they were XC51’s but not sure – either way it was a BIG mistake as they kept blowing their seals). Six months later, early 1993ish, Andy parades out a new Goat frame which is now adjusted for suspension forks. So I traded in the old Goat and bought this new one which came with colour co-ordinated RockShox and matching stem. Both bikes were finished with the usual high end race stuff (XTR, Syncros, Mavics etc) and were painted in the Goat “team” colours of orange and green splatter. Needless to say the new bike was utterly stunning to ride and over the next few years I spent many a good time riding it.
By 1997 work commitments meant I wasn’t getting out much and I sort of stopped enjoying my biking so I decided to sell my Goat (fool I hear you say). In the end I traded it in for a Bonty (which I still have today) but it’s fair to say my mountain biking took a back seat for a while – about 13 years in total
Roll the clock forward to 2010 and the purchase of a full carbon Ibis Mojo SL re-ignites my passion for mountain biking. I love my Ibis but a part of me will always be stuck in the ‘90’s. So I get the old Bonty down and give it a modern facelift (here’s a link to that build thread: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... =bontrager) and then in early 2011 I have a go at my first retro build - a 1991 Orange Aluminium O with full Suntour XC Pro groupset (sorry, no build thread for that one as I didn’t feel it was up to scratch however, this is a great bike and gets used regularly). So, with the retro bug well and truly alive I started to think about what bike I would like to be able to ride again and quickly decided that I wanted my Goat back.
Nearly five years later and still no Goat!!! Then one day last August, an add appears on here for a 19”, 1993 WTR finished in “Bamboo”. All I can say is thank goodness for modern smart phones as we were on holiday in Dorset and had it not been for my iPhone I would have missed out on this Goat. As it was, I managed to DM the seller and successfully bagged myself this very goat Goat. Here’s a link to the original advert - http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... oat+bamboo.
So I was now the proud owner of a 22 year old goat with only 1 owner from new. When the frame, forks, headset and bottom bracket arrived a couple of weeks later I was amazed at the great condition it was in - there were the obvious stone chips and a bit of chain suck, the decals were a bit tired and the topcoat was a bit dull but on the whole, the paintwork was in tip top condition. In addition to the frame and forks, the previous owner had also sent the original 1994 Mountain Goat Brochure, price list, receipt from the shop he bought the bike from and a business card for Russ Pickett (who sprayed the frame) - so now I had my dream frame and it’s provenance -cool stuff! (photo's on my Flickr account)
After several weeks of trying I finally found somebody who could do airbrush work and was willing to have a look at the frame. So, I took a drive up the M1 to Sheffield to visit John at Cromaworks. Cromaworks and Field Cycles do some amazing paint effects and having seen their website and spoken to John I knew he was the right man for the job. When I met John he looked at the frame, whistled and said it "would be a good challenge" to restore this frame. So the frame, forks and stem, along with a full set of decals, were left with John so he could restore the frame - that was early September last year. For more information on what Cromaworks can do visit their website at http://cromaworks.com/
Whilst the frame was away being restored I set about sourcing the rest of the parts. Here’s the spec sheet I’ve ended up with – it’s not perfect and I’m still searching for a few parts but on the whole most of the stuff was NOS or VVGC:
Frame: Mountain Goat Whiskey Town Racer (serial #1993w073)
Fork: Manitou 2
Headset: Deore XT
Stem: Salsa (resprayed to match frame)
Handlebar: Unbranded Titanium (if anybody’s got a Hyperlite they’d like to sell please drop me a PM)
Brakes: Deore XT with Deore XT pads
Shifters: Deore XT
Front Derailleur: Deore XT
Rear Derailleur: Deore XT
Cassette: Deore XT
Cranks: Deore XT
Crank Bolts: Titanium Self-extracting
Chainrings: Deore XT
Bottom Bracket: Syncros Titanium
Pedals: Deore XT
Hub Skewers: Deore XT
Hubs: Deore XT
Tyres: Continental Wildgrippers
Saddle: Flite Titanium
Seatpost: Deore DX (if anybody has a silver NOS 27.0 Deore XT seatpost they’d like to sell please PM me)
Seatpost Binder: Hope (if anybody has a NOS 31.8 seatpost binder they’d like to sell please PM me)
I finally got the frame back a few weekends ago and once built, got a good friend of mine to do the photo shoot (Tony is happy to be involved in more of this type of work so please email him for more info: avaughan@intergen.com)
OK – that’s my story, now’s here’s some photo’s of the the start of the show
For more pictures in glorious HD please click here to access my flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/141656209 ... 724687802/
Here’s the background…..
In the early Nineties I had the privilege to ride for a small shop team in Nottingham called Sshokwave. I would say I raced for them but TBH I was more into the beer than the training and back then the NEMBA races and Malvern’s were quite boozy events – so I’ll just leave it a “ride”. At the time, alongside the stock Orange’s, Marin’s and Kona’s they were also importing some wonderfully exotic stuff which gave us, the public, the opportunity to ride some truly amazing bikes.
The stuff we were riding included Funk’s (I was lucky enough to own a couple of these (one metallic red, one metallic purple) but they kept breaking around the top of the seat tube!!!), first generation Manitou’s (the shop mechanic Sumo had both a hard tail and then a full sus complete with what was then all trick stuff (Chris King, Syncros, Paul’s Components, Ti Ringle, Cooks Bros etc.)), beautiful Merlin’s and all the usual trick, anodised or weight weeny stuff you could possibly think of. In short it was an Aladdin’s cave of high-end MTB exotica which regularly resulted in my bank account being cleaned out to buy the latest titanium thing or lightweight latex must-have. Add to that, it was that next door to an off-licence that sold tetra carry-outs and many a Saturday was spent drinking beer and tweaking with bikes – Ah Heaven!
However, when it came to sex on wheels the Mountain Goat Whiskey Town Racer was, for me at least, by far the most desirable. I first saw one of these in 1992 when the shop owner, Andy, had a fully rigid version. I took his bike for a spin and was immediately taken aback on the ride quality and feel of the bike – it helped that it looked the muts as well with it’s Tange Prestige tubes. I bought one straight away and got the shop to fit Marzocchi forks (think they were XC51’s but not sure – either way it was a BIG mistake as they kept blowing their seals). Six months later, early 1993ish, Andy parades out a new Goat frame which is now adjusted for suspension forks. So I traded in the old Goat and bought this new one which came with colour co-ordinated RockShox and matching stem. Both bikes were finished with the usual high end race stuff (XTR, Syncros, Mavics etc) and were painted in the Goat “team” colours of orange and green splatter. Needless to say the new bike was utterly stunning to ride and over the next few years I spent many a good time riding it.
By 1997 work commitments meant I wasn’t getting out much and I sort of stopped enjoying my biking so I decided to sell my Goat (fool I hear you say). In the end I traded it in for a Bonty (which I still have today) but it’s fair to say my mountain biking took a back seat for a while – about 13 years in total
Roll the clock forward to 2010 and the purchase of a full carbon Ibis Mojo SL re-ignites my passion for mountain biking. I love my Ibis but a part of me will always be stuck in the ‘90’s. So I get the old Bonty down and give it a modern facelift (here’s a link to that build thread: http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... =bontrager) and then in early 2011 I have a go at my first retro build - a 1991 Orange Aluminium O with full Suntour XC Pro groupset (sorry, no build thread for that one as I didn’t feel it was up to scratch however, this is a great bike and gets used regularly). So, with the retro bug well and truly alive I started to think about what bike I would like to be able to ride again and quickly decided that I wanted my Goat back.
Nearly five years later and still no Goat!!! Then one day last August, an add appears on here for a 19”, 1993 WTR finished in “Bamboo”. All I can say is thank goodness for modern smart phones as we were on holiday in Dorset and had it not been for my iPhone I would have missed out on this Goat. As it was, I managed to DM the seller and successfully bagged myself this very goat Goat. Here’s a link to the original advert - http://www.retrobike.co.uk/forum/viewto ... oat+bamboo.
So I was now the proud owner of a 22 year old goat with only 1 owner from new. When the frame, forks, headset and bottom bracket arrived a couple of weeks later I was amazed at the great condition it was in - there were the obvious stone chips and a bit of chain suck, the decals were a bit tired and the topcoat was a bit dull but on the whole, the paintwork was in tip top condition. In addition to the frame and forks, the previous owner had also sent the original 1994 Mountain Goat Brochure, price list, receipt from the shop he bought the bike from and a business card for Russ Pickett (who sprayed the frame) - so now I had my dream frame and it’s provenance -cool stuff! (photo's on my Flickr account)
After several weeks of trying I finally found somebody who could do airbrush work and was willing to have a look at the frame. So, I took a drive up the M1 to Sheffield to visit John at Cromaworks. Cromaworks and Field Cycles do some amazing paint effects and having seen their website and spoken to John I knew he was the right man for the job. When I met John he looked at the frame, whistled and said it "would be a good challenge" to restore this frame. So the frame, forks and stem, along with a full set of decals, were left with John so he could restore the frame - that was early September last year. For more information on what Cromaworks can do visit their website at http://cromaworks.com/
Whilst the frame was away being restored I set about sourcing the rest of the parts. Here’s the spec sheet I’ve ended up with – it’s not perfect and I’m still searching for a few parts but on the whole most of the stuff was NOS or VVGC:
Frame: Mountain Goat Whiskey Town Racer (serial #1993w073)
Fork: Manitou 2
Headset: Deore XT
Stem: Salsa (resprayed to match frame)
Handlebar: Unbranded Titanium (if anybody’s got a Hyperlite they’d like to sell please drop me a PM)
Brakes: Deore XT with Deore XT pads
Shifters: Deore XT
Front Derailleur: Deore XT
Rear Derailleur: Deore XT
Cassette: Deore XT
Cranks: Deore XT
Crank Bolts: Titanium Self-extracting
Chainrings: Deore XT
Bottom Bracket: Syncros Titanium
Pedals: Deore XT
Hub Skewers: Deore XT
Hubs: Deore XT
Tyres: Continental Wildgrippers
Saddle: Flite Titanium
Seatpost: Deore DX (if anybody has a silver NOS 27.0 Deore XT seatpost they’d like to sell please PM me)
Seatpost Binder: Hope (if anybody has a NOS 31.8 seatpost binder they’d like to sell please PM me)
I finally got the frame back a few weekends ago and once built, got a good friend of mine to do the photo shoot (Tony is happy to be involved in more of this type of work so please email him for more info: avaughan@intergen.com)
OK – that’s my story, now’s here’s some photo’s of the the start of the show
For more pictures in glorious HD please click here to access my flickr account https://www.flickr.com/photos/141656209 ... 724687802/
