Retro mountain bikes

Wait.......what?

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That’s ridiculous! I might offend some folk here but I really don’t get the klein attraction, some of the ugliest bikes out there imo. And they don’t even ride well either apparently!

Would argue with the ugly part, albeit this colour scheme is indeed a bit over the top for me. The green-blue fadez versions are sick though.

IIRC correctly Klein were at the forefront of alloy frames in the early days, then they got bought out by Trek. I don't know if the quality dropped at that point or whether they just upped their production hugely (or both), but I think the early ones are prized partly for rarity value (in addition to the sick fadz).

Much more into the 1985 version… assuming this is the same brand

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If anybody is up for a bit more intense restoration job. I got this ‘95 Marin Pine Mountain frameset you can have for free.
I picked this up from the skip. It has a cracked seat tube and seized seat post (which is irrelevant if you replace the seat tube). This used to be a very top of the line frame and other than the seat tube it seems fine. If I wouldn’t have too many bikes already I would get Winston Vaz to replace the seat tube, add dropper post routing, restore it to the same satin champagne finish and then smash it through the woods. Comes with a Deore XT headset. I haven’t tried removing the bb.
Here is an old (german) catalogue. The Pine Mountain is on page 12.
Here is some info on a restoration project which also discusses finding a close to original paint.

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Bought this GT Pantera frame from eBay the other day and I’m struggling with a couple decisions about how I’ll build it.

I want to do a JMC’s Stumpy from MBUK Dirt style build but obviously not like a tribute bike or anything.

So I’m torn between,

Canti or v brake. JMC’s bike was canti, there’s lots of photos of Hans Rey riding canti. Cantis would mean I could get some nice anodised levers for a decent price to add some bling. V brake will obv be more powerful though plus opens up more options for forks which leads on to my second dilemma,

Forks. I had thought I’d go for a sus fork as JMC’s Stumpy had them and there’s plenty of photos of Hans riding sus forks. It’d also make the bike a bit different to anything I’ve currently got in the stable.

Decent forks at a decent price are hard to find though.

A rigid would be lighter, cheaper and stronger.

There’s a couple of forks like Rock Shox Indy or Quadra or the cheaper Bombers that are still in alright nick and not ludicrously expensive but these were the forks you definitely didn’t want to be seen riding bitd. It had to be z1s or pucker Judys or something.

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I almost bought that frame! Went for a Timberline instead. It came with V-brakes, and they are so much better than the cantis on my drop bar bike.

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Haha, I've been watching a few, there was a complete Pantera but had some 27.5" forks bodged on that I almost went for.

Timberline looks beast. I know Vs will work so much better but if I went canti I could use these levers that are super cheap!

Thanks! Trying (and failing) to teach myself how to wheelie on it. If nothing else, I'm glad to have the Vs on so I can stop myself ending up flat on the floor over and over again. But fill your boots! The levers look good.

Are these levers branded ‘ARSE’?

Haha, Apse is the brand though I’ve always thought it looked remarkably like Arse!

My 90s GT build...

Nice! What bars are those?

cheers, VO klunker bars

Cool, ta.

selling mine here: https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/374628/#comment16470751

Looking forward to seeing what you do with this. I've always anted to build a JMC-dirt era style dual bike as they looked so cool and were really just small framed versions of XC bikes bitd. Agree that Quadra's wouldn't be the right fit. I have a set and they are too vintage for this kind of build. What about cheating slightly and getting a later fork and badging/painting it to look like a classic Judy?

What about cheating slightly and getting a later fork and badging/painting it to look like a classic Judy?

Yeah, could defo be an option. Rock Shox forks seem to take a bit of a nose dive quality wise for a while after the og Judy era though. By the time they look like they are getting better they are disc only.

Most of the correct era Judys are needing too much work, elastomers, seals, repaint...

I'd really like an orange z1 and Marzocchis should be a bit more reliable I think being coil sprung. Again though, if they have disc tabs then they are generally missing the rim brake posts.

I've bought a DMR Sidekick fork which I'll need to mod slightly to mount a canti hanger on as I've decided to go for them over Vs. I have an LX canti and a nice Dia Compe 988 in the spares box. It might also have too short a steerer but I can probably sort that out.

Going to keep looking for a decent, suitable sus fork but the DMR one will let me get it rolling.

Pantera frame arrived today, tubes are soooo fat compared to the steel I’m used to!

I also just bought a tidy af Judy XC from retrobike. Brake posts and rubber boots present, elastomers in good condition, decent steerer length. 🤌

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Really looking forward to see this built up.

picked up a 'new' bike for my daughter today.
a 14.5" frame 1995 Saracen hardtrax.
it's in really nice condition and looks all original except for the tyres and saddle.
quick re-cable job completed this morning.
I'll take a couple of pics when I've given it a clean.

need a saddle and I might deflate and rotate the tyres if I can be arsed.
nice og bike shop sticker on the down tube.

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that dt-ht weld does looks as if the welder just stopped because of bad access.

well it's been fine for the last 27yrs so I'm not too worried about it!