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I never thought i’d be doing a build thread on this as, frankly, I never thought i’d ever lay my hands on a Manitou.
I remember a super bike comparison around 1993 in MBUK with a Mountain Goat, ti Alpinestars and the Manitou FS. I forget the 4th bike, might have been a Fat Chance.
The Manitou looked out of this world, as was the price, and in recent years when curiously searching ebay the only models that seem to come up have had unsightly dents.
Anyway, I recently came across this frame here in the ads, and despite not looking for another frame, I got a bit carried away…and bought it. Part of the blame can be attributed to my 12 year old son who was egging me on to do a build together.
Thr frame came with the front mech, forks and stem and seatpost which was a relief as I didn’t want the hassle of having to source the unique seatpost and stem in particular.
Unfortunately, the forks were not quite the right size; the steerer too short and then the headache started of trying to source a longer 11/4” steerer tube.
Having mucked around more recently with Pace forks, I hadn’t appreciated that you can’t just replace the steerer tube on Manitou forks, but need to replace the crown as its a one piece unit.
I also didnt appreciate how obsolete the 11/4” size was, and ended up buying 2 crowns in different sizes hoping they might just be long enough and also a second set of forks with a 11/8” steerer with the right length.
The other steerers were not suitable but thr second set of forks had the right steerer length ao I swapped the crowns around as the original forks were serviced and in better condition.
Then, I eventually found a headtube reducer and was able to fit a 11/8” headset which worked with the fork.
On the other end, I managed to get a stem reducer shim too.
At this point i’d say, I was getting quite pi**ed off with the use of the workarounds and but the reality is this bike is unlikely to be ridden much.
Thankfully, the rest of the build was more straightforward, the choice of components was quite simple; M900 XTR to match the front mech and the idea was some flashes of blue but otherwise a relatively (for a Manitou) discreet colour scheme with black featuring.
I had a set of wheels with black Araya RM rims on black Bullseye hubs, and a set of black Cook Bros cranks matched this, whilst silver Ringle skewers keep a relatively understated look.
The front end was interesting as I had a set of Silver Hyperlite bars which were lying around and managed to source some Hyper bar ends giving a complete Answer front end which I thought was pretty neat.
Anyway, pics below
I remember a super bike comparison around 1993 in MBUK with a Mountain Goat, ti Alpinestars and the Manitou FS. I forget the 4th bike, might have been a Fat Chance.
The Manitou looked out of this world, as was the price, and in recent years when curiously searching ebay the only models that seem to come up have had unsightly dents.
Anyway, I recently came across this frame here in the ads, and despite not looking for another frame, I got a bit carried away…and bought it. Part of the blame can be attributed to my 12 year old son who was egging me on to do a build together.
Thr frame came with the front mech, forks and stem and seatpost which was a relief as I didn’t want the hassle of having to source the unique seatpost and stem in particular.
Unfortunately, the forks were not quite the right size; the steerer too short and then the headache started of trying to source a longer 11/4” steerer tube.
Having mucked around more recently with Pace forks, I hadn’t appreciated that you can’t just replace the steerer tube on Manitou forks, but need to replace the crown as its a one piece unit.
I also didnt appreciate how obsolete the 11/4” size was, and ended up buying 2 crowns in different sizes hoping they might just be long enough and also a second set of forks with a 11/8” steerer with the right length.
The other steerers were not suitable but thr second set of forks had the right steerer length ao I swapped the crowns around as the original forks were serviced and in better condition.
Then, I eventually found a headtube reducer and was able to fit a 11/8” headset which worked with the fork.
On the other end, I managed to get a stem reducer shim too.
At this point i’d say, I was getting quite pi**ed off with the use of the workarounds and but the reality is this bike is unlikely to be ridden much.
Thankfully, the rest of the build was more straightforward, the choice of components was quite simple; M900 XTR to match the front mech and the idea was some flashes of blue but otherwise a relatively (for a Manitou) discreet colour scheme with black featuring.
I had a set of wheels with black Araya RM rims on black Bullseye hubs, and a set of black Cook Bros cranks matched this, whilst silver Ringle skewers keep a relatively understated look.
The front end was interesting as I had a set of Silver Hyperlite bars which were lying around and managed to source some Hyper bar ends giving a complete Answer front end which I thought was pretty neat.
Anyway, pics below
