For once, I'm not going to start a long, drawn out thread about this bike. Just a short story.
I bought this bike from eBay, at the beginning of 2013. Having previously sold my Kona to fund a - gulp - road bike,
I found that I was missing riding off-road.
So, 12 years on, I ended up with this Gary Fisher Mamba, from 1997.
GarF as I called it, was rebuilt, why didn't I take some before photos? :roll: :facepalm:
Oh yes, I remember now. I hadn't discovered RetroBIKE!
Shortly after finishing it, I discovered the forum. Since which time, I have bought several more bikes, wheels, frames, etc.
Anyway, when I finished it/him? This is what it looked like.
Rummaging through my box of bits, I discovered a set of halogen Cateye lights ( it was dark), so I put them on the bike, and took it on it's maiden voyage around the block. It had been snowing, and I remember seeing someone drive straight across a roundabout! :shock: Avoided that stopped car, going up the kerb. Thought I was the bees bolx, I did!
Then I took to the trails at the weekend, re-discovering my old bridleways that I'd ridden on for so many hours of fun. It was snowing then too! Didn't care, I was enjoying myself.
Then I started riding with the local bike shop once a month. That's when the annoying and often to be repeated question came. 'That's nice, is it titanium?' Which after a while kind of got to me.
I had to hold back from replying 'no, you've just got sh-t legs!'
So I decided to do something to stop the questions. Having seen someone on here do the same, I though a ratbike was the way to go, so I had it blasted to bare metal.
After some 'encouragement' with a few saline washes, it started to brown up nicely,
Decals courtesy of Gil.
After a while, it came along pretty ratty, and I started embellishing it with other ratty parts, like this Rolls for instance, which held water nicely !
It became my wet weather commuter, only seeing the light of day when it was grim outside! Then, having built and ridden a few bikes, I realized how nice this one was, pretty light, and importantly these days, a good riding position, not too low. Having felt guilty about stripping it , I took it to a local-ish powder coater to see if they would/could save it. The rust was only surface rust, not gone deep into the tubes, so they agreed to do it!
I'd already had an idea of the colourscheme I wanted, having looked through the '97 brochure in the archives section on here.
So a looooooong time later it came back, after which I took it to a friend to have another colour added, having fcuked up trying to do it myself!
Then having got it back again :roll: I had to decide which groupset to go for. Had a couple of options, but decided on the first one once I'd got the headset in. It was meant to be. And with another set of decals from Gil :facepalm: and lacquered in tonight, the bike was complete.
Really pleased with how GarF turned out, and saved from gradual death !
Cooooool ! !
Mike
I bought this bike from eBay, at the beginning of 2013. Having previously sold my Kona to fund a - gulp - road bike,
I found that I was missing riding off-road.So, 12 years on, I ended up with this Gary Fisher Mamba, from 1997.
GarF as I called it, was rebuilt, why didn't I take some before photos? :roll: :facepalm:
Oh yes, I remember now. I hadn't discovered RetroBIKE!
Shortly after finishing it, I discovered the forum. Since which time, I have bought several more bikes, wheels, frames, etc.
Anyway, when I finished it/him? This is what it looked like.
Rummaging through my box of bits, I discovered a set of halogen Cateye lights ( it was dark), so I put them on the bike, and took it on it's maiden voyage around the block. It had been snowing, and I remember seeing someone drive straight across a roundabout! :shock: Avoided that stopped car, going up the kerb. Thought I was the bees bolx, I did!
Then I took to the trails at the weekend, re-discovering my old bridleways that I'd ridden on for so many hours of fun. It was snowing then too! Didn't care, I was enjoying myself.
Then I started riding with the local bike shop once a month. That's when the annoying and often to be repeated question came. 'That's nice, is it titanium?' Which after a while kind of got to me.
I had to hold back from replying 'no, you've just got sh-t legs!'
So I decided to do something to stop the questions. Having seen someone on here do the same, I though a ratbike was the way to go, so I had it blasted to bare metal.
After some 'encouragement' with a few saline washes, it started to brown up nicely,
Decals courtesy of Gil.
After a while, it came along pretty ratty, and I started embellishing it with other ratty parts, like this Rolls for instance, which held water nicely !
It became my wet weather commuter, only seeing the light of day when it was grim outside! Then, having built and ridden a few bikes, I realized how nice this one was, pretty light, and importantly these days, a good riding position, not too low. Having felt guilty about stripping it , I took it to a local-ish powder coater to see if they would/could save it. The rust was only surface rust, not gone deep into the tubes, so they agreed to do it!
I'd already had an idea of the colourscheme I wanted, having looked through the '97 brochure in the archives section on here.
So a looooooong time later it came back, after which I took it to a friend to have another colour added, having fcuked up trying to do it myself!
Then having got it back again :roll: I had to decide which groupset to go for. Had a couple of options, but decided on the first one once I'd got the headset in. It was meant to be. And with another set of decals from Gil :facepalm: and lacquered in tonight, the bike was complete.
Really pleased with how GarF turned out, and saved from gradual death !
Cooooool ! !
Mike
