An explosion of color. Giant ATX 800 from '99

[Obi-Juan]

Well yes, the decade and the millennium were ending. Gone were the madness of the 90s where everything was sold and brands gave crazy ideas to distinguish themselves from the competition.
The brands that moved forward had become large companies and the competition was fierce.
The competition began to be the best showcase to sell and of course, you needed your bicycle to be easily recognizable among a bunch of cyclists crowded at the start of a race.
The corporate colors have arrived, goodbye to gray tones and polished aluminum.
Of course one of the most recognizable colors was Giant's yellow combined with red and that dark blue (or maybe dark purple...I don't know)
Apart from the color, Giant decides to enhance its CU 92 aluminum, basically an Alcoa 6061 with double thermal treatment. Well, it also acquired a package of shares in Alcoa to guarantee the supply of aluminum pipe...these Taiwanese are very intelligent.
A competition replica and a fabulous loose frame are on sale

 

[Obi-Juan]

The frame incorporates a very oversized head tube (with reducers to be able to fit a 1 1/8 head set), disc support (its implementation was already imminent) and a mushroom tube that is also oversized and with a reducer for the classic 27,2 and the brand's monostay feature
The frame, as I said, is superb. Its lightness was spectacular (just a few grams more than the brand's MCM) and it also had great rigidity, being at the same time very comfortable and filtering the vibrations of the terrain very well.
On the negative side, I would say that this rigidity disappeared with the disc brakes, the support was very light and high and the chainstays were not very prepared for the effort of powerful braking with discs. If you used disc brakes you could see how the frame twisted to the left
Well, that was corrected with the ATX Team that appeared shortly after, but that's another story (I also have it and that bike does have disc brakes)
The weight barely exceeded 1.4 kg in size 19.5" (yes, they used 1/2 size)
Here I have the frame with the head set on (an FSA orbit xtrem, great but not very light) and the reducing bushing for the setapost

 

[fennec]

These have 44mm steerer tubes right? So these can take a ZS44/30 top and EC44/40 lower for a tapered fork.
Dont know if thats what youre trying to do, that kind of restomod, but thats what i think of first with frames like these and old cannondales.

 

[Obi-Juan]

But it is not all this data that started my love affair with this frame.
I was the classic road racer. MTB was something I practiced occasionally for fun and the truth is, I was very bad at it. He had a group of friends with whom he met occasionally to go on a route and in winter he went to a race that he couldn't go to during the road season.
I always fell and I was always getting back up to fall again and etc etc. The technical areas were an ordeal and the descents were a danger to my physical integrity.

Until one day I received a frame...surprise!!
My God, so much color, as serious as I am...but I love it, it has potential. In 2 days I was able to pick up the bike ready, it was Saturday and on Sunday I met with my "group" to go for a walk and show off my bike.
or so I thought
We went to Escorial, about 70 km from Madrid, with part of the route where the Grunding Cup was run. After a few km we reached a very technical descent and as always I let everyone pass and stayed last so as not to get in their way. But I don't know what happened! Suddenly I started to overtake everyone: some had fallen, others had put their feet on the ground, others were walking down and I was riding my Giant at full speed.
I had to wait at the bottom of the hill for everyone who always beat me up. On that slope and on all the downhills. Going up was no problem for me, it never was. But how was it possible that now I was able to descend so quickly and with so much technique?
And it wasn't that day, that's how the rest of my MTB life was, the Giant changed me, it's a joy to ride, it makes the most useless person become "professional"

 

[Obi-Juan]

After a year or a little more, the ATX team arrived, but I didn't want to get rid of this ATX 800 and I saved the frame.
Later I made it to ride with smooth wheels respecting the MTB geometry, I put an 11-23 + a 48/36, Time road pedals and little by little I removed parts and its previous splendor: The beautiful Middleburn cranks made way to some horrible LX, the Avid brake levers disappeared to put some XT, the Easton CT2 seatpost and handlebar for some ITM Millenium carbon etc.

 

[Obi-Juan]

But one day I decided to return the pride that I took from him. He didn't deserve that disaster.
Fortunately the rear derailleur and front deraileur XTR 952 were always in place.
I recovered the "V" XTR and found the entire Easton CT2 in a drawer (what magnificent pieces)
The Flite Pantani never moved from its place, one less job.
The Plasma gears were also there.
Well, all that was missing was the crankset, the original Atac pedals, proper development, the brake levers, the beautiful Mars
Slowly but recovering pieces

 

[Obi-Juan]

It had some scratches from several races run with fury and glory, so I looked for something to retouch it with Pantone.
The original stem was a red Kore (which I still have), but I changed it for a Newton shortly after to adapt more to my natural position on the bike.
I liked the development of 2 chauns and thought about setting up a Ritchey 2x9. In fact I have the Ritchey 33 titanium...but why, Shimano already had a fabulous 9-speed 11-34.
Some chain rings in 42/29 to complete the 2 x 9, Onza tires and latex chambers. It's almost as it was originally.

 

[Obi-Juan]

I was recently able to purchase some Xtralite levers, a Connex 911 chain and an XTR 952 cassette to replace the XT, so this weekend I was able to finish it.

The wheels are a separate topic:
They gave them to me to run, some Selle Italia MHT 21
On the road they were seen a lot more, especially because Pantani wore them, but on MTB they were not too successful. In fact, I think that in Spain they were the only ones there were. Nowadays with Ebay and etc. I imagine there are some more, although no one thinks of them as an option...badly, they were great.
Their hubs are superb, both technically and in appearance. The front hub with aluminum axle, the rear hub with titanium axle
Front 36 1.2 mm ACI spokes!!!
Yes, 1.2 mm.
Rear 32 spokes of 1.7 on the right side and 1.2 on the left.
I keep a box with 1.2 spokes in case one breaks, they are not easy to find. Maybe impossible

 

[Obi-Juan]

And well, my dear and faithful ATX 800 recovered. The bike that showed me that not only the legs matter, a good well-designed frame helps a lot

 

[Obi-Juan]