Retro mountain bikes

I've had it set up like that for quite a while just using it around town, it feels a bit odd, the slack headtube angle and short stem but it's not too twitchy and it's easy to hop curbs and manual etc

Figure this is the best place to ask. Was there an era when mountain bikes had 1 1/8 inch headtubes but still used rim brakes? And rigid forks. I think there is but not sure what the era it was?

90s really, i guess its hard to check with eBay and the like, but quite a few mtbs with threaded headsets and quill stems are sometimes 1 1/8 too, so you can just put a new aheadset in there and your gtg.

my 97 gt is all of the above, but my brother's (who got a new bike the same time as me in 1997) Raleigh was a quill stem... we didn't know (or care) about the difference then.

both our bikes cost the same, and had similar componentry, but the GT was available with a 60mm rockshox indy c as well, maybe that was the difference?

@Brameses Oh I wasn't aware some of the quill/threaded were 1 1/8, that's good to know.

@rob_g_clarkson Thanks, I thought late 90s would have been the sort of time.

Just having some ideas for a project and thinking of a decent cheapish frame to base it around.

Sure, that era was the first half of the nineties. I bought my first mtb in 1991 and back than 1 1/8 with rigid forks and canti's was the standard (allthough some builders as Ritchey, Breezer, Serotta,... went on building bikes with 1" headtubes untill late nineties). Suspension forks were aftermarket and only available through LBS. I believe it was from 1994-1995 on that bikes with suspension forks appeared in the catalogs.

edit: ahead stems were from 1993 on but quill didn't disappear immediately.

I like this a lot, from one of the Atlas mountain race riders

Ahh this is making me go down another bike obsessive rabbit hole, such a nice frame

Is that a repurposed Lidl bag lol

Yes it is, maybe the rat/ Frankenbike thread would have been a better place for this

Work in progress

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Oh man, this Ritchey is dreamy!
^ Look looks amazing too, there was one of these available for sale here a few years back, I wish I'd bought it...

Proper city bruiser, awesome!

Nice... how you finding that short stem? I've gone with a 110mm one as per oem spec, but 740mm bars... I think a shorter one is required tbh

Ooof 😍

Nice! Those 90s saddles look a bit grim tho now tho

Do you keep all these retro MTBs? You must have an aircraft hangar full of them if so...we need a picture of the entire fleet!

Thanks guys. The pic makes it look better than it really is. The frame is rather ratty (some scuffs, bit rusty,... but all within reason).

Haha, no, I don't have an aircraft hangar full of bikes, @si_mon628 . :-) I believe I have about 15 of them that are finished (or very close to completion) and a handfull of frames waiting in a cartboard box. I promised myself of finishing all the "90% completed" ones before starting a new project so yes, I will take a "family photo" but give me a month or so.

Needed a bike suitable for a child seat and general pottering about with the mrs so have taken it upon myself to try and resurrect my old Carrera Gradient MTB from circa 1996. Not anything amazing, but a bit of sentimental value as it was the first new bike I ever had.

Current plan is to build up on a 1x drivetrain, some wider tyres and a general tidy up. Inspiration is something like this posted in #502

My father has made a number of changes over the years since I moved away and it existed as a flat bar hybrid, a drop bar audax/gravel mix and now in its current state as shown.

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Right the resto mod is complete, a potted history there of;

This is how it started, though with a rigid fork

I then did a cargo bike conversion on it, put a disc fork on it, new saddle and tyres and that's when it was powder coated.... it was never 'right' though, too much axle to crown height and it felt wobbly and a bit wrong

Then I put it back to OEM-ish spec with the original fork in green for some reason, and it stayed like that for the last 3 years, though I put new rim brakes on

Then the lockdown began and planet x had thier cheap bars, I got a new headset, and here we go....

1x10 xtr shifter and derailleur, slx 34t crank, 11-36 cassette, xt m8000 hubs and dt swiss 535 rims, parts bin stem and grips, new post too... had a ride with the boy tonight, I love it, its 2.5kgs lighter than it was too!

The fact the shifter and brakes are both ispec B is pure luck!

& I wish I'd done the fork black

I like that - great looking GT

Nice!

Green fork looks really great

Just finished building this thing up. Ive had it sitting stock for a few years and caved in due to this quarantine. 1x9, probably could have went 10 but whatever.

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What's the cargo bike conversation thingie? Looks interesting