Here's a blast from the past. After purchasing this bike from a West Maui bike shop back in the late '90s out of that same wheeler catalog, I Rode this bike on the island of Maui to work everyday for 11 years. This bike spent most of its life roaming the pineapple and sugar cane fields above Lahaina and the West Maui mountains back in the late '90s through the 2000s when mountain biking was just on the rise. I was 20 years old and and I had just blew my knee out surfing giant Honolua. Recovering from that injury was difficult. I eventually went to a doctor who suggested surgery or riding a bike. I decided against surgery. I went off the deep end and became obsessed with mountain biking.
Out in West Maui, the mountains are some the most extreme mountain biking conditions you can imagine, steep, rugged, even the paved roads will eat road bikes for lunch. I remember at the time, the frame was $2,100 and the XTR grupo, campignolo tapered spoke rims, Richie logic cranks, first gen RockShock mag 20s, the titanium everything, the bike set me back like $5,000.
After about four chains, a couple of cassettes and front sprockets, multiple sets of cables, seats and all the stickers falling off, amazingly everything still works. It still shifts better than most bikes, it's quicker, faster and lighter than today's bikes although maybe a little too light and flighty for nowadays standards.
I've always had big goals of saving the frame an updating the hardware to today's standards but not quite sure if it's worth going down that rabbit hole. Unfortunately I think I may be forced to buy a new bike and this one gets hung on the wall in the man cave in a glass trophy case...