Retro mountain bikes

Those little canti mounted racks that SJS sell are vry nice for supporting baskets, will feel much more stable than the current setup and they only cost like...twelve pounds or something. Worthwhile upgrade.

Otherwise ur probs ready to take on the world!

Mudguard flaps! Cool bike

oh noice cheers! yeah the wald is a bit wobbly with those stays it came with. shame the sjs rack doesn't come in silver but can't argue with the price

thanks! and yeah good shout. just keeping my eyes out for some suitable material for a DIY bodge. weirdly though I found a discarded front mudguard flap on my way to work this morning so might see if it'll fit for now

Suppose this is vintage now since it's 26"

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If you've got a sharp knife and some arts 'n' craft skills, this is the way forward.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/OIL-RESISTANT-NITRILE-RUBBER-SHEET-Various-sizes-thicknesses/182296610369

what thickness would you recommend for flaps? 2 or 3?

ooh cheers for the tip! I just found this weird vinyl/plastic looking stuff that I might try first

nice rockhopper btw! I had my eye on something similar before I found the muddy fox. also planning a South Downs Way trip this summer - have you done it before? any tips?

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Looks good dude!

I’m looking for a similar fork for my dads bike- where’d you find yours?

I have an aluminium one of those for disc brakes. 25 € + postage

Ah sounds good, I’ll send you a pm

what thickness would you recommend for flaps? 2 or 3?

I went with 2mm, yet to but it to brutal use. 3mm should be fine too, so long as your bolts are long enough.

nice rockhopper btw! I had my eye on something similar before I found the muddy fox. also planning a South Downs Way trip this summer - have you done it before? any tips?

Not done it before, tried a portion on a Kepler but was too bumpy/soggy/rutty. I wanted something to chuck around the hills so I built this.

I’m looking for a similar fork for my dads bike- where’d you find yours?

If Wim's fork doesn't suit you I got mine from here. https://www.carboncycles.cc/?s=0&t=0&rb=14&

Glorious!

I've used 3mm which works well, I suspect either would be absolutely fine.

I bought a 22.2mm quill stem adapter and it just too big to fit down the Raleigh Ascender's steerer. I didn't anticipate that it (the bike) would be non-standard. Even Sheldon Brown's site says that of all the incompatibility woes with old Raleighs, stem diameter should not be one of them.

I just measured the old quill stem and it comes up more like 20.9mm or 21mm. The inside of the steerer is about 21.3mm. A search on eBay suggests to me that some old BMXes such as the Raleigh Burner Mk 2 have 21.1mm quills. Apparently my unassuming bike does, too.

So looks like I can't use a quill stem adapter, after all. Will either give up, or try to bodge my newly-arrived Ergotec handlebars onto the old stem.

Update: decided to go the bodge route and after much strenuous effort, managed to bend the single-bolt quill stem open and closed again around the (closed loop) clamping area of the Humpert Ergotec handlebar. I'm not proud of myself, it wasn't big and it wasn't clever, but it seems to have worked.

@AntSel
The 21.15 mm stem diameter or steerer inner diameter was a BMX standard that was also on early mtb and bikes with one piece cranks:
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/cribsheet-headsets.html

I have the same issue: I got a cheap old fork that was advertised as 1", not knowing there was a different kind. I just dremelled / filed the stem down to fit which means I will probably die a fiery death.

The bodge in question:

And the result:

Survived my commute in this morning. Much more comfortable, and the front end feels about a tonne lighter (steel handlebars are heavy, it seems).

Steel stem should be fine - you wouldn't want to be bending aluminium by that amount

@ all the mtb retro fettlers
I have some old Suntour thumbies on my off road touring monster (they look exactly like the XT 3x7 era thumbies, think they were copied from Suntour). They have 7 or 8 sp or friction settings you can switch on the right shifter. I’m using a friction setting on the rear, as i’m running 3x9, and they were just great for about a year.

During some quite cold weather both shifters started slipping, left one worse, and the tension screws you can set with a D ring are bottomed out. Can I take these apart and try to roughen the friction interface somehow, or redome a flattened dome washer? Would love to give these longer life. Any clues please tag me!
ta

@Skülly

I’ve sorted these type of friction shifters before by inserting a plastic washer into the assembly, which allows you to tighten up the d ring again.

Not done it on these in particular but worth having a look if you haven’t already...

Thanks for the encouragement. I think I might be home for a while so I’ll see how they come apart.

Any thoughts on the cheapest/easiest way to improve the gear ratio on my '93 Hardrock? Currently using it as a commuter but would like to make it mountainous bikepacking friendly.

It's mostly original (as far as I can tell) and pretty low end – 6 speed, altus c20 groupset (28/38/48 up front, 14-28 at back) with grip shift replacements. The chainrings aren't removable so i'd have to replace the whole crankset if i wanted to change them.

Current lowest ratio is 1.

I think the easiest and cheapest way to do it is by swapping the rear freewheel out for a 14/34 Shimano Tourney 6 speed mega range thing but not sure about compatibility with the rear derailleur. This would give me 0.82.

Could potentially swap out the crankset for a 22/32/42 or something else that's lower if I can find one.

Or alternatively I could upgrade to a 7/8/9/10 speed if i can find the parts, but that'd require new rear wheel, cassette, crankset, shifters etc. so not that keen.

Wondering if there are any other options?

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In case anyone was dying to hear how my DIY mudguard flap went - worked a treat on lea river towpath ride this weekend. cheers for the tip! making the second one for the rear will be a fun self-isolation task this week I think

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^ Nice!
Agreed, I’d go with the freewheel swap for cheap + quick + relatively painless. To my eye, the rear derailleur cage looks long enough to handle it : )

Does having your lock there not hit your leg? I've been trying to figure out some way of mounting my lock while keeping by bottle. I've seen people mount them on the fork too but I don't know how much I'd trust that.