Hi All,
A little back story before the pictures, The year was 1995 (i think?) probably one of the last endless summers of my youth spent thrashing around every day from dawn til dusk on my beloved brand new ridged Zaskar Le (stolen 3 years ago :-((( from outside my front door). Given the limited income of a 16 year old (aka bank of mum & dad) i had to prioritize on the build of my ride and the front suspension was just too much to ask for back then.
until.....one sunny afternoon heading out for a ride on the local trails with friends, an old man shouted to me and my friends calling us over to his house to take a look at our bikes (my Zaskar Le, a Cannondale Killer V 500, a Diamondback something?? and a custom painted Slingshot). Now I know what everyone is thinking, because we where all thinking the same thing!!?!?!??!? Fortunately for my future retrobike collection we didn't ride off in the opposite direction and instead accepted his offer to take a look in his garage (yes this does sound very dodge)
Now what my friends and I where about to see inside the old mans garage I can only describe as the mountain bike equivalent of that chain e-mail about the vintage cars in the barn!!!!!! which if you haven't seen basically all you have to do is image any top end bike or component and it was in there ANYTHING!!!! Klein's, Slingshot's, GT's, Cannondale's, an amazing single speed titanium Kona Hot I think?
After hours of green eyed dizziness looking through the greatest collection of bikes I have ever seen the old guy decides that my Zaskar needs a set of suspension forks to finish it off, so he starts hunting round his vast collection and pulls out some Manitou's which to be honest i didn't recognize at the time and then starts pulling my bike apart to fit them for FREE.
I vaguely remember at the time he said that the forks came direct from the U.S. and had custom titanium hardware, inner legs and steerer tube. Given at the time I used to rebuild my bikes constantly it wasn't long before i'd switched the forks for some Rock Shox's with more travel because if i'm honest i didn't really like the Manitou's.
So for the past 15 years they have been collecting dust in my parents house until last year when I stumbled across this forum and have spent hours trying to build my collection of childhood dream bikes. Given my rediscovered love I have started to dust off the old parts and thought it was about time to post them on here to see if anyone can tell me more!!!!!!
All the photographs below where taken today, i'm not sure what to do with the forks now they have been rebuilt, maybe sell them on or buy a suitable frame to marry them to any suggestions as to what frame would be best would be much appreciated.!!!!
A little back story before the pictures, The year was 1995 (i think?) probably one of the last endless summers of my youth spent thrashing around every day from dawn til dusk on my beloved brand new ridged Zaskar Le (stolen 3 years ago :-((( from outside my front door). Given the limited income of a 16 year old (aka bank of mum & dad) i had to prioritize on the build of my ride and the front suspension was just too much to ask for back then.
until.....one sunny afternoon heading out for a ride on the local trails with friends, an old man shouted to me and my friends calling us over to his house to take a look at our bikes (my Zaskar Le, a Cannondale Killer V 500, a Diamondback something?? and a custom painted Slingshot). Now I know what everyone is thinking, because we where all thinking the same thing!!?!?!??!? Fortunately for my future retrobike collection we didn't ride off in the opposite direction and instead accepted his offer to take a look in his garage (yes this does sound very dodge)
Now what my friends and I where about to see inside the old mans garage I can only describe as the mountain bike equivalent of that chain e-mail about the vintage cars in the barn!!!!!! which if you haven't seen basically all you have to do is image any top end bike or component and it was in there ANYTHING!!!! Klein's, Slingshot's, GT's, Cannondale's, an amazing single speed titanium Kona Hot I think?
After hours of green eyed dizziness looking through the greatest collection of bikes I have ever seen the old guy decides that my Zaskar needs a set of suspension forks to finish it off, so he starts hunting round his vast collection and pulls out some Manitou's which to be honest i didn't recognize at the time and then starts pulling my bike apart to fit them for FREE.
I vaguely remember at the time he said that the forks came direct from the U.S. and had custom titanium hardware, inner legs and steerer tube. Given at the time I used to rebuild my bikes constantly it wasn't long before i'd switched the forks for some Rock Shox's with more travel because if i'm honest i didn't really like the Manitou's.
So for the past 15 years they have been collecting dust in my parents house until last year when I stumbled across this forum and have spent hours trying to build my collection of childhood dream bikes. Given my rediscovered love I have started to dust off the old parts and thought it was about time to post them on here to see if anyone can tell me more!!!!!!
All the photographs below where taken today, i'm not sure what to do with the forks now they have been rebuilt, maybe sell them on or buy a suitable frame to marry them to any suggestions as to what frame would be best would be much appreciated.!!!!
