xtaffa
Gary Fisher Fan
Running on similar lines to FTO and Greencat, but with an echo of warnings in previous posts re. old aluminum...
My 1x8 96 M2 Stumpjumper was all the bike you need around here in Hampshire, particularly for the balls-to-the-wall lungbuster 1-2hr nightrides that are all I have time for. It got more capable for that kind of riding when I fitted modern rubber, a dropper and halved the stem length - the latter getting rid of recurrent no-warning wash-out incidents where my weight was directly over the steep/shopping-trolley-castor front end. I've only ever ridden three times at trail centres in my life - twice on this, round the red Twrch trail at Cwmcarn and a fair bit of Nant-y-arian. It went from a lot of fun on the flowier, singletracky bits and climbs to seriously unpleasant when I was tired/bricking it on the rocky, jumbled stuff, repeated dropoffs etc.
Around the same time I ran a 1x8 - built up from parts bin - 1992 Eldridge Grade around the SW valleys, doing some mind-focussing ups and downs on natural trails/bridleways across the valley tops etc. I have to say, there is not much (within reason) I wouldn't take on with that bike, especially steeps- I'd take it over the M2 around a trail centre/purpose built modern trails. It has seriously sound, confidence inspiring handling, with modern rubber of course.
The spesh was a stunning, do pretty much everything I want it to, ride - until that wafer thin M2 alloy was loaded one too many times and cracked by the BB earlier this year. Nothing spectacular - just started riding like a clown bike on/after hard climbs. I hop a lot, and hammer along, but nothing wild/jumpy, it simply flexed all the times it was capable of and then no more.
I grabbed a 98 P7 off ebay as a quality contemporaneous steel equivalent and swapped the fork, parts over. That's a pretty tasty woodland whip too - more than capable of handing more modern bikes their ass on a plate around here - but too short in the top tube for me and my stem preference, especially going downwards. So now I'm sampling some c2000 Gary Fisher Genesis geometry for next build - I'm basically evolving my rides in real time, but with a 20yr delay! If the Fisher fits, it'll go until that aluminum also fatigues/I start creaking too much.
I've got a ballooning fixation on longer effective top tube (hence the fisher), as the key to a retro ride's confidence/capability off road - don't have to have the modern geo/slack head angles or suspension for my kind of riding, but putting that weight more behind the front wheel has to makes sense - especially riding hard, and especially on more technical trails (It was GF's rationale for Genesis after he had one too many random OTB incidents, apparently). Added to that is my preference for fast steering, and thus shorter stems.
Of note, I checked the 92' EG's ETT last time I saw it - it's longer than either the M2 or this cramped up Orange (all same nominal/seat tube frame size)...which - obviously - I feel backs up that thinking! Might also be a useful dimension for a newbie/the OP to prioritise when looking to source a retro to hammer on.
Pics of the M2 R.I.P, Marin and P7...total cost of all three is about 10% of 2manyoranges' BfeMax!
My 1x8 96 M2 Stumpjumper was all the bike you need around here in Hampshire, particularly for the balls-to-the-wall lungbuster 1-2hr nightrides that are all I have time for. It got more capable for that kind of riding when I fitted modern rubber, a dropper and halved the stem length - the latter getting rid of recurrent no-warning wash-out incidents where my weight was directly over the steep/shopping-trolley-castor front end. I've only ever ridden three times at trail centres in my life - twice on this, round the red Twrch trail at Cwmcarn and a fair bit of Nant-y-arian. It went from a lot of fun on the flowier, singletracky bits and climbs to seriously unpleasant when I was tired/bricking it on the rocky, jumbled stuff, repeated dropoffs etc.
Around the same time I ran a 1x8 - built up from parts bin - 1992 Eldridge Grade around the SW valleys, doing some mind-focussing ups and downs on natural trails/bridleways across the valley tops etc. I have to say, there is not much (within reason) I wouldn't take on with that bike, especially steeps- I'd take it over the M2 around a trail centre/purpose built modern trails. It has seriously sound, confidence inspiring handling, with modern rubber of course.
The spesh was a stunning, do pretty much everything I want it to, ride - until that wafer thin M2 alloy was loaded one too many times and cracked by the BB earlier this year. Nothing spectacular - just started riding like a clown bike on/after hard climbs. I hop a lot, and hammer along, but nothing wild/jumpy, it simply flexed all the times it was capable of and then no more.
I grabbed a 98 P7 off ebay as a quality contemporaneous steel equivalent and swapped the fork, parts over. That's a pretty tasty woodland whip too - more than capable of handing more modern bikes their ass on a plate around here - but too short in the top tube for me and my stem preference, especially going downwards. So now I'm sampling some c2000 Gary Fisher Genesis geometry for next build - I'm basically evolving my rides in real time, but with a 20yr delay! If the Fisher fits, it'll go until that aluminum also fatigues/I start creaking too much.
I've got a ballooning fixation on longer effective top tube (hence the fisher), as the key to a retro ride's confidence/capability off road - don't have to have the modern geo/slack head angles or suspension for my kind of riding, but putting that weight more behind the front wheel has to makes sense - especially riding hard, and especially on more technical trails (It was GF's rationale for Genesis after he had one too many random OTB incidents, apparently). Added to that is my preference for fast steering, and thus shorter stems.
Of note, I checked the 92' EG's ETT last time I saw it - it's longer than either the M2 or this cramped up Orange (all same nominal/seat tube frame size)...which - obviously - I feel backs up that thinking! Might also be a useful dimension for a newbie/the OP to prioritise when looking to source a retro to hammer on.
Pics of the M2 R.I.P, Marin and P7...total cost of all three is about 10% of 2manyoranges' BfeMax!
