It took me 18 months to gather money, parts and take the frame in to have it stripped & powdercoated. Finally took her out for a spin today. I had been worried that too much money had been spent on the drivetrain but I've quickly realized it was the right thing to do as it was completely flawless and crisp.
Hope it's not considered sacrilege to "update" such an old bike, but when I set out to build a retro MTB I built it with two requirements: it had to be ridden, and it had to be a GT.
She weighed in at 26.8 lbs. The beefy tires soak up the bumps pretty well though it's quite a hog on pavement. Went XTR where I could and XT where I found that was the only/best available. I topped it off with some Ritchey parts where I felt particular.
The brakes are the only thing left to upgrade, considering XTR's or Ritchey. At this point I feel that will strictly be cosmetic as I've found the existing Shimano's adequate for moderate demands. Unfortunately, I never did find a carbon, threaded fork...
Hope it's not considered sacrilege to "update" such an old bike, but when I set out to build a retro MTB I built it with two requirements: it had to be ridden, and it had to be a GT.
She weighed in at 26.8 lbs. The beefy tires soak up the bumps pretty well though it's quite a hog on pavement. Went XTR where I could and XT where I found that was the only/best available. I topped it off with some Ritchey parts where I felt particular.
The brakes are the only thing left to upgrade, considering XTR's or Ritchey. At this point I feel that will strictly be cosmetic as I've found the existing Shimano's adequate for moderate demands. Unfortunately, I never did find a carbon, threaded fork...
