This bike has undergone a series of changes in the past year. My mechanical skills have improved considerably and I look back at some of my previous work and shake my head a bit. But... we all start somewhere. I rode it as it stood above for a few rides but it never quite sat the way I wanted. I then replaced the RM-17 rims with some Rhyno Lite rims I had picked up as the RM-17 rims had a bump in the brake track. I also replaced the thumb shifters for some modern acera 3x7 speed shifters (boo, hiss) and found a rear mech in better condition. I rode it like that once then stored it for a few months as the weather wasn't conducive to riding much.
Initially I brought it inside to repack some bearings and to go over what I had done previously. It was supposed to be an afternoon of light upkeep and to tune what I had. The rear hub was opened and I ran my finger in the hub race. Corroded, pitted, uneven surface. I can't believe I missed it at the onset. So my minor repack turned into a wheel rebuild with another xt hub set I had scavenged from a 1989 diamondback axis xt. The front was ok but the new hub was even better, so both wheels were rebuilt. Then the new black cromo rigid fork came along and the crown race from the old fork was damaged upon removal. So a new cane creek forty headset is on order since...why not?
So, here I am waiting to put on some new xt cantilever brakes, a better xt crankset, a new bottom bracket, new SRAM cassette, etc etc...
Tl;dr minor discovery of a pitted rear hub race turns into stripping the bike to the frame and redoing it the way I had envisioned since acquiring the bike.