Perhaps like a lot of new members I decided to dig my old mountain bike out of storage and do a bit of a search on the internet to find out how things have progressed. I'm glad to find a site where the passion for these retro machines still lives on!
I know Zaskar's are not the rarest of machines but I thought some of you might like to see my one. I think it's a 1998 model although the frame number indicates it was manufactured in 1997.
This is actually the third Zaskar frame I have owned. I managed to bend a 1996 model which was replaced with a 1997. That one only lasted a year as well so GT kindly replaced it again with the frame shown in the picture. Working part time in a bike shop probably helped. I seemed to bend the seat tube back slightly around where the seat stays cross over - despite the Zaskar's reputation for being bombproof and me having arms and legs like twigs back then!! :shock:
When I originally built it up in about 1996 it started off with rigid forks and a mostly XT groupset. Over the course of time I upgraded to some XTR parts and the Marzocchi Z2's.
One frustrating thing is that all these years later the bike is still too big for me!
I blame it on GT with their crazy sizings and the fact the each time I received a replacement frame it seemed slightly bigger than the last. I probably should have measured it up properly before rebuilding the bike.
I've been keeping an eye on eBay over the past couple of weeks for an 18" Zaskar frame from about 97-98 so maybe I'll finally get the bike to fit properly and maybe I'll continue my quest from about 12 years ago to complete the XTR M950 groupset!
I know Zaskar's are not the rarest of machines but I thought some of you might like to see my one. I think it's a 1998 model although the frame number indicates it was manufactured in 1997.
This is actually the third Zaskar frame I have owned. I managed to bend a 1996 model which was replaced with a 1997. That one only lasted a year as well so GT kindly replaced it again with the frame shown in the picture. Working part time in a bike shop probably helped. I seemed to bend the seat tube back slightly around where the seat stays cross over - despite the Zaskar's reputation for being bombproof and me having arms and legs like twigs back then!! :shock:
When I originally built it up in about 1996 it started off with rigid forks and a mostly XT groupset. Over the course of time I upgraded to some XTR parts and the Marzocchi Z2's.
One frustrating thing is that all these years later the bike is still too big for me!
I blame it on GT with their crazy sizings and the fact the each time I received a replacement frame it seemed slightly bigger than the last. I probably should have measured it up properly before rebuilding the bike.I've been keeping an eye on eBay over the past couple of weeks for an 18" Zaskar frame from about 97-98 so maybe I'll finally get the bike to fit properly and maybe I'll continue my quest from about 12 years ago to complete the XTR M950 groupset!
