1996 GT Zaskar, where to start?

[scoopz]

Hi all, new member here

I bought my GT Zaskar in 1996 and used it for a few years (mainly to cycle to school and back) but then university and cars took over my life and it got forgotten about and neglected.

I've just recovered it from my parent's loft and thought I'd take a fresh look at putting it back together. I've seen several on this forum now that have been restored to their former glory and they look amazing and bring back lots of memories of how my bike used to look 16 years ago.

I've never built or tinkered with a bike before, normally got the shop to do any repairs but I'm keen to fix this up on my own. I've started by photographing every bit that I currently have for reference and my first step is going to be cleaning it all up and seeing it anything looks knackered or seized.

I think the Rock Shox Judy XC have seen better days and can only find a few of the elastomers.

I'd appreciate any help, pointers, etc especially from anybody who has undertaken a similar project and come across any pitfalls.

[hmm can't post image links in my 1st post so I'll submit this now and try a 2nd post with images]

 

[scoopz]

Full gallery of images HERE

 

[old skool babe]

fancy selling those gripshift

 

[scoopz]

fancy selling those gripshift

ha ha not just yet, are they hard to find now?

I never got on with grip shift back in the day, mis-shifting all the time and was tempted to look for some more standard XT shifters but may try them out first and see how I get on with them now.

 

[old skool babe]

can find them..most like thumbies.
but is a good find. wish i could find one of my old bikes in my attic :?

 

[old skool babe]

could do a nice swap for some nice silver thumbies..

have a think.

 

[Tc]

That is gonna look sweet you've got an excellent menu there to start with!
Now get polishing & contact Gil for decals!

Tc

 

[scoopz]

Now get polishing & contact Gil for decals!

After an initial cleaning to get rid of the heavy polishing metalwork was next on my list, just trawling the forum now to find best combination. Just Autosol or combination Autosol/wire wool/brasso wadding?

Decals from Gil...<quick search> found him, thanks Gil_M I've bookmarked to contact shortly for decals.

 

[Tc]

Autosol & elbow grease does it, it's ball burnished so I wouldn't wire wool unless its really bad!

Tc

 

[petitpal]

Got a pile of similar pics of my '96 Zaskar when I dug it out of the garage. So happy that it's looking good again though.

Personally I'd agree with Tc, go for Autosol (Brasso is also good - although the new stuff stinks the house out... not that I polish it in the house of course ) and some nice rags. If you never abused it you won't need the whole spend six months sanding business. I did find that a fine grade of wire wool + brasso was quite effective, but start with rags.

I'd also suggest starting with the polishing - gave me the jump start I needed to get it done. Until that point I'd forgotton just what a lovely bike it is.

One thing to watch out for if you decide to switch forks is axle to crown height. I've seen Zaskars with Rebas and Recons and things on but those in the know say that anything too high can play havoc with the way the bike handles and potentially damaged the head tube. I wouldn't have felt comfortable with anything much heigher than the RC36 on mine.

Anyway - polish, stare and dribble at a bit (like you did when you first bought it) and build it up in a way that does it for you. That's my advice. Good luck!